Curiosity: the golden skill to thrive in an ever-changing world?
Even with the same efforts and materials, why do a few outperform others in the exam?
What is that golden skill that helps a person to thrive and excel in an ever-changing world?
Curiosity. Lifelong learning. Most conversations on career success agree on this point. But they rarely explore how we make ourselves more curious, or how we implant and nurture curiosity in our children.
A good way to answer this question is to reverse it: What prevents the creation of curiosity in children?
An assessment system of exams that seeks only answers from students has certainly reduced the incentive for asking questions. Things get more challenging as Gen AI gives all the answers.
ChatGPT, at least, forces us to realize that learning was never about giving answers; rather, it was about asking the right questions. Gen AI is becoming a superpower for people who have the drive to drill down. The ability to think and ask questions is slowly becoming the hot skill of the day!
Therefore, it is high time we collectively think through these issues in skill development: how to make someone think; how to make someone go beyond what is given; how to motivate someone to ask questions.
We had started the exploration of these problems in UPSC exams at least five years back. How do we make someone learn and apply beyond what was given in their textbook? Because the civil service exam requires spontaneous and logical thinking, not just textbook content.
Even with the same efforts and materials, why do a few outperform others in the exam?
An inquiry started with this question forced us to dig a little deeper into how we learn and how we express ourselves.
Now, we are at Lead IAS, not only attempting to crack an exam code but also accidentally finding ourselves trying to decipher a 'learning code’ to thrive in an ever-changing world'!