Curiosity Traps

(autodidacts.io)

88 points | by surprisetalk 1 day ago

6 comments

  • bobbiechen 14 hours ago
    And, it's on us to engage with the curiosity doorknob that others have laid out!

    The first time I emailed someone on the internet about something they made that I liked, I was rather hesitant about bothering them.

    The first time someone emailed me for the same reason, it made my day!

    • joshdavham 10 hours ago
      I'll often reach out to bloggers / open source devs via their email if I have feedback, a question or just otherwise want to compliment them on their work.

      If you feel like you have something worth saying, even if just a compliment, it's often worth the email.

      (I will say please don't ask to set up vague meetings, or create stupid github issues, however haha)

    • metalman 3 hours ago
      exactly!, and the article and your statement reminds me that I need to re engage with a small number of people who's work I find inspiring and meshes with stuff I am doing anyway. personaly I have learned to focus on doing some things in a pragmatic linear fashion, but though it seems to then store up my general creative autodiadactic, dislectic, absurdist tendencys, and then release them in a distilled concentrated burst, that unlike other things,luckily does not effect motor function or judgement.
    • Pawenniag 3 hours ago
      I've always found it interesting how much easier it is to appreciate receiving a random thoughtful email than to convince yourself it's okay to send one
  • Hitton 2 hours ago
    Am I blind or is it another curiosity trap that I can't find the turtle in the footer of waitbutwhy.com? (neither in current version or in the linked archived version)
  • drakonka 4 hours ago
    I've gotten so many interesting comments and emails from my personal blog. And sometimes just little ego-boosts, like someone saying some random post helped them years after I'd made published it purely for myself, not really expecting anyone to find it.
  • ungreased0675 10 hours ago
    I love this description of the search to find one’s people.

    But to keep it 100 with you all, nobody has touched my doorknob in a while. How might I improve the odds of finding my people?

    • Pawenniag 3 hours ago
      Maybe the trick is to be more specific rather than trying to reach more people
    • j_bum 7 hours ago
      What should we look at?
  • gopalv 14 hours ago
    When I heard the term "trap", I immediately thought of XKCD's Nerd Sniping[1]

    These are more like a beacon or a "dog whistle" (though that word has taken on a new meaning).

    Attracting like minded people is best done by ignoring your self critic and putting your self out there - a curated interesting personality is not something you can produce by trying hard.

    [1] - https://xkcd.com/356/

    [2] - https://xkcd.com/214/

    • kidfiji 6 hours ago
      Yep, was about to go here and say the same thing :)
  • Vakaiser 14 hours ago
    "Curiosity Traps" are the benevolent cousin to "Nerd Sniping Traps": https://xkcd.com/356/
    • joshdavham 10 hours ago
      My brain also immediately went there when he was talking about the T-shirts :)