I have told the story before that when I was doing my reach early on at Princeton University’s Firestone Library, I became friends with a professor who had known Einstein who taught there. He said to me that I reminded him of Einstein. I was shocked because I was not making new theories in Physics. He explained that the subject matter did not matter. It was my curiosity in trying to figure out how empires rose and fell that inspired me.
He said that Einstein always said we will discover nothing unless we are curious. I came to understand that was the very reason Communism collapsed. They tried to eliminate the business cycle under Marxism and, in the process, reduce humanity to zombie drones denied free thought and stripped of curiosity. Thus, Communism fell by its own weight. There are those spreading the same nonsense that always begins with “equality” and the great divide in wealth. If we all have the same wealth, you destroy the very essential element of how society advances through the ages.
In all my studies, that statement to me about curiosity opened the door to understanding how society advances and declines. Schumpeter saw the boom and bust of the economy as waves of creative destruction. The invention of the combustion engine and the car’s development destroyed the horse and buggy industry, allowing the suburbs around cities to expand. This is Henry Ford in his first car, built in 1903. If it were not for his curiosity, we would have been in 15-minute cities riding our chariots through the streets, and the climate zealots would be arguing to kill all the horses for they are causing climate change as if the climate is supposed to never change.
A Florida sixth grader, Lauren Arrington, has leaped into scientific fame with a startling discovery that could redefine our approach to invasive lionfish. She caught one in freshwater, where it was not supposed to survive. She conducted her own experiment, gradually reducing the salt in the water, and the fish survived. This has been a groundbreaking discovery that demonstrates how important curiosity truly is. We will discover NOTHING without it.
