Curiosity may have killed the cat so Buzzfeed put it in a Hat

Want to scare a room full of learners? Just say “pop quiz!” Oh, you’d rather transform them into zombies? Your weapon of choice should be a PowerPoint with impenetrable walls of text. Spend the next hour reading each slide. Word for word. Et voila! The collective life force of the room will vanish in minutes.

But if you really wanna slay (and not in a good way)…two words: compliance training.

The sad part is that we actually love to learn. Learning expert Clark Quinn, PhD discusses why in his book 𝙈𝘼𝙆𝙀 𝙄𝙏 𝙈𝙀𝘼𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙁𝙐𝙇: 𝙏𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘿𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙄𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙤 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 (LDA Press, 2022). “The ability to make better decisions is why we learn. We want our predictions to mirror the world as accurately as possible. A mismatch between our expectations and what actually occurs can have dire consequences. Learning, then, is evolutionarily adaptive; we learn so as to be better equipped to act in the world.”

We make predictions about the world. But the bigger the gap between what you predict and what actually happens, the greater your chance of earning a Darwin Award.

The thing is, the curiosity that drives the primary learning goal – survival – spills over into the rest of life. “It turns out there are things we want to learn that there’s no obvious need to do so," continues Quinn. "We may be interested in fishing, or golf, or theatre...𝙬𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙮 𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨.”

Buzzfeed has a PhD in provoking curiosity. As do storytellers…What happens next? Will the cat survive? Will it wear the hat? Even compliance training. Ready to stamp passports at the border and ensure all those who appear at your immigration counter have the proper paperwork? Over 5 million people thought so.

Because 𝙋𝙖𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨, 𝙋𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 is a really fun game.

Having taught adults for years, I can attest to the power curiosity holds over even the fanciest of adult learners, including the most buttoned up, Zegna-Bespoke-wearing or Himalaya-croc-Birkin (palladium hardware, thankyouverymuch) toting C-suite power-wielder. For beneath the corporate or chic armor, lies a curious cat. Who wants to know how to improve their golf swing. Live longer. Or all the sordid details about the drunk dude who tried to bring his fave feline along to enjoy the sights at a strip club (in Florida, of course) but was denied entry – and called 911.

What I’ve always been curious about is what’s in the water there?