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<h1 class="post-title">Curiosity</h1>
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<time datetime="20-10-26" class="post-date">Monday, October 26 2020</time>
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<hr>
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<p>Curiosity is fundamental to a deep understanding of any subject.
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Masters, Ph.Ds, and other fancy name suffixes will never help you
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if you don’t have the spirit of curiosity burning inside of you.</p>
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<p>I was speaking to someone from a journalism major at my school when the subject of hacking arose.
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I expected her to know nothing about it, being a journalism student and all, but surprisingly she had something to say about it:</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>“The best hackers are the ones who are curious.”</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p>That struck a cord with me.
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It seems to me she has nailed down the difference between the students who care about grades,
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and those who want to learn.
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These are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but in my experience they often are due to the way education is structured.</p>
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<h2 id="my-anecdote">My Anecdote</h2>
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<p>In my second semester at SAIT Polytechnic, I took a class entitled <em>Emerging Trends In Technology</em>.
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This class was probably the best class I have ever taken.
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We had to combine two things:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Hard skills</strong>: learning a new hard skill like Angular, Django, or GPG encryption.</li>
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<li><strong>Soft skills</strong>: public speaking and presentation of our ideas.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Soft skills are not usually my area, but I can do public speaking.
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I grew up quite religious, so public speaking was drilled into me young.
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I liked to go off script and talk about interesting things I found along the way to the actual point.
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My creativity was not usually encouraged.
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That said, going off script is useful when teaching and presenting ideas;
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it gives a natural air to your breath and an unquestionable confidence in your speech.</p>
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<p>This is how we learn: in relationships.
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Try explaining ancient Japanese history to a computer science major, or UNIX sockets to an English major and you’ll see what I mean.
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If there is nothing for us to connect the knowledge to, it dissipates.</p>
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<p>So why did I do so well in this class?</p>
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<p>Our task for the semester was as follows:</p>
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<ol>
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<li>Learn a new subject (any <em>emerging trend in technology</em>) which you find fascinating.</li>
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<li>Give a one minute introduction by week three.</li>
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<li>Give a 10 minute non-technical overview by week 8.</li>
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<li>Give a 20 minute technical explaination and demo by week 13.</li>
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</ol>
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<p>This is the only course I have ever taken which lets students’ imagination run wild.
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Their presentation, their rules.
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They treated the students like adults who know what they are doing.
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What happened? Everyone stopped coming because “Oh no! Presentations!”?</p>
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<p>No, exactly the opposite.
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There was never more than one student missing.
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Every single presentation was at least moderately interesting,
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and most students were excited to come to that class.
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You could see it in their faces, the way they carried themselves.
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Every student picked something unique to their tastes, leaving every student more educated than before.</p>
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<p>This class, unlike many others, encouraged the curiosity of the students.
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It rewarded those who had unique interests and an ability to sell others on their ideas.</p>
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<p>The curiosity and the grades were one.</p>
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<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
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<p>Although it’s nice to have a course where these goals align here and there, anyone who has been to collage or university can tell you that is far from the norm.</p>
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<p>On the other hand, I never would have started this site if it wasn’t for that class alone.
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So I thank you, Kitty Wong, for getting me started running my own “research blog” (?)</p>
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This page is mirrored on <a href="https://beta.tait.tech/2020/10/26/curiosity/">beta.tait.tech</a>.
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