Laoch Fhiosrach (pronounced Loch Eesroch). Irish for Interesting Warrior. It’s tattooed onto my left forearm.

My preparation for this tatt was to send an email to a mate in Hawaii and a mate in Ireland to ask for a translation. I said that I’d use the translation of whomever got back to me first. Ireland and Hawaii? Because I’d spent some time there, and it seemed as good a way as any to pick a language for my tattoo.

I’d actually wanted Curious Disruptor, but you can’t say that in Irish Gaelic. The closest you can get is Interesting Warrior (and yes I knew all this going in). Curious Disruptor? Because for the longest time I’ve believed that being curious is an incredible fuel that keeps life interesting and my mind fresh. And Disruptor, because the world needs disruption. Much more of it.

I recently came across an article titled ‘If you do these things everyday, you’ll become smarter‘. Number one on Thomas Oppong’s list is:

Start getting curious about almost everything

Almost everything? I was curious. Why not absolutely everything? I’ve asked.

He closes his post with a great curiosity exercise:

Write down 50 questions if you can. You can try hitting 30 if 50 is way too much. They can be anything from “How can I become rich?” to “Does the Universe have an edge and if so what is beyond it?” Just write down all the questions that come to mind, all the things that you would love to know the answers to.

Don’t stop until you’ve got the 50 or whatever number you settled on. Look through the questions and notice if any dominant themes emerge. Are there any areas of life that you seem most concerned with? Such as money, work, relationships, love, or health?

Pick your top 10 questions. The ones that seem the most important to you. You don’t have to answer them right now. It’s enough that you have organised them and know that they are important to you. Use the “Top 10 questions” technique on any area of your life where you are looking for improvements.

I’ve been working on and off my list for 2 weeks now. I’ve only managed just under 30. I did have more, but I realised I was lazy because Google was sure to have answers, so those came off of the list. This then is my list of almost 30-something things that I’m curious about and that I don’t think have easy Google answers….

  1. How does electricity work?
  2. Why can’t we fix human bodies when we can accurately send satellites millions and millions of km’s away?
  3. Can you roll back your need for security, once you’ve beefed it up?
  4. Why can some people let their minds explore new things, and other people can’t?
  5. Why does the need to have power over others seem so much greater than the need to love others?
  6. Why are there large patches of different green coloured grass separated by straight lines on the mountains in the Drakensberg?
  7. How does my phone communicate with a bunch of satellites that are so very far away and make GPS work, and yet I can’t speak to the guy down the road sometimes?
  8. Why do some people have aphantasia?
  9. Can you clean up corruption from a government, or is that just the nature of the beast?
  10. Why do some people think everyone needs to be talented? Why isn’t average an acceptable place to be?
  11. Why does my grass not grow in some areas of my garden?
  12. What’s the ‘real’ conversation that’s going on behind closed doors? And what might happen if we got to hear those conversation?
  13. If communication was free, how would the economy change? Especially for people who live outside of cities?
  14. Do we give people more credit than they’re due?
  15. Why do so many people live in Pretoria and work in Jozi? The commute seems madness. And why haven’t we worked out how to ease or eradicate rush hour traffic?
  16. Is there a correlation between the stock market and some weird and strange thing that happens 2 hours before the stock market opens? And if there is, does someone know it?
  17. If humans are so smart why can’t we speak dog, cat, or dolphin?
  18. Why am I so bad at throwing stuff away? And filling stuff?
  19. Why do I feel guilty if I don’t answer the phone?
  20. Why do we sleep? It seems such a waste of time?
  21. Why can’t I remember movies that I’ve watched?
  22. Why isn’t there a universally accepted descriptor for people who speak at conferences? Business Keynote Speaker / Conference Speaker / Motivational Speaker / Public Speaker. Why all of these, and not just one?
  23. Why do people spend so much time thinking up names for their companies and designing logos when it actually doesn’t matter very much at all?
  24. How much money is too much money?
  25. Can I get better at matching colours if I go to colour matching classes? Do classes like that exist? And and the same goes for singing?
  26. Are we collectively stuck? We seem smart and there definitely must be a better way to spend our time on this planet, and yet we don’t collectively live fantastic lives.
  27. Why is there no other real replacement / competition for an Apple computer? I know I’m biased, but surely it can’t be that difficult?
  28. Did big car business and government really ‘kill’ or try to ‘kill’ the electric car a few decades ago?

If you ever assemble such a list, it’d be cool to know how it went for you?

Barrie is a business conference speaker, specialising in Future Thinking, Change, Creativity, Disruption and Generational Theory