WEBVTT

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Hi, I grew up in a sports -minded family where

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athletics was not just an important thing, but

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kind of the only thing. As a kid, most of my

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friends were athletes. I spent my time with athletes.

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I admired athletes. And to be truthful, I did

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not pay much attention to people whose interests

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were different from mine. I'm talking about musicians

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and artists. Theater students. People who seemed

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interested in things I didn't understand or even

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care about. And without realizing it, I had decided

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what a successful life was supposed to look like.

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And because of that, I missed opportunities to

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learn from people who saw the world differently

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than I did. This is just one example of how my

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lack of curiosity limited my life for many years.

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Now what's interesting is that being wrong usually

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is not the problem. The problem is when we're

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no longer willing to consider other perspectives.

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Author Adam Grant describes three mindsets that

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many of us naturally fall into. Sometimes we

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are preachers. We defend beliefs that we already

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hold. Sometimes We are prosecutors. We try to

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prove someone else is wrong. We say what we think

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will win approval from others. All three have

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something in common. They focus on defending

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a position. Now, in a sense, I was defending

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a position of being an athlete and prosecuting

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those who are not. But there's another mindset,

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the mindset of a scientist. A scientist is not

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primarily trying to win an argument. A scientist

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is trying to learn. They're willing to test ideas,

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to question assumptions, follow the evidence.

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In other words, they are curious. And I think

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mathematics is at its best when we approach it

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with this curious mindset. Many people imagine

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math as a collection of facts That must be memorized.

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But mathematics grew because people questioned

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what everyone else accepted. What if there are

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numbers that cannot be written as fractions?

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What if geometry would work differently? What

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if there are different sizes of infinity? Questions

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like these transformed mathematics. they can

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transform us as well. A few weeks ago, we explored

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the idea of certainty. We saw that certainty

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can be helpful. It gives clarity and confidence.

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But we also saw certainty can sometimes close

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our minds. Curiosity does the opposite. Curiosity

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reopens the door. It creates space for learning,

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growth, and discovery. And I've noticed that

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some of the biggest moments of growth in my life

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began when I stopped defending my perspective

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long enough to consider someone else's perspective.

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Or maybe there's an area of your life where curiosity

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could reopen a door. Perhaps a person you stopped

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listening to or an idea you've already dismissed.

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A perspective you've never taken time to understand.

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It seems like sometimes growth begins with a

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simple question. What might I be missing?