A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life

Surprisingly moving. Very inspirational. Full of great ideas on how to bring a curious spirit into your life. Really great insights on the power of asking questions vs telling people what you already think, and prioritizing truth-seeking over being right. Highly recommended.

This was a very rare perspective on curiosity! I really loved the tie in to leadership and curiosity and romantic relationships too. Such a refreshing book!

Hats off to the narrator. Curiosity is going to be a part of my life.

Great .

Really good ...

Great way to learn and discover - Thank you Brian

Its sweet :)
I enjoyed listening the real and interesting account of curiosity episodes.

I think I was curious to know what made him write this book and was also curious how so many of his traits match mine

It is truly inspiring. I enjoyed listening the real and interesting account of curiosity episodes.

I’ve generally regarded myself as a fairly curious person...annoyingly so to some of my friends. Hence my interest in this book. I thought I might pick up some new techniques or tips. Admittedly I’m only reviewing the Blinkist summary of the book and I haven’t done the authors the courtesy of reading the whole book. Hence this review needs to be seen against this (unfair) background. On the positive side, I’ve found the Blinkist summaries to be very good where I’ve had the chance to compare with the full book. Anyway, here are a few snippets from the summary that grabbed my attention:
The secret to gaining knowledge is curiosity.....Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart,
was curious to know every detail about his rivals, in case they had any interesting new ideas.....You never know when you'll need any given piece of information, but you'll be glad to have it when the time comes around.
A good strategy one of the authors uses for obtaining more knowledge is to have curiosity conversations,....For example, in 1992, he had a conversation with Daryl Gates, the chief of the LAPD at the time. Years later, when he was working on a film about J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI, a few years later, he thought about Daryl Gates; their conversation and how it had given him an insight into the thoughts and behaviour of people in powerful positions,
Curiosity helps you overcome your fear of rejection, because it motivates you to keep pushing each time you are told “no” until you finally get a “yes.” He [the author] continuously tweaked his strategy for getting the movie made, and eventually he got a “yes.” His curiosity pushed him all the way and the film turned out to be a surprise hit.
Grazer is frequently asked to give speeches...and he dreaded doing this. First he became curious about the origin of his fear, and he realized he was actually afraid of being unprepared. So he started thoroughly preparing for every speech by asking himself tough questions about his goals, his audience and the nature of his speech....These days, he’s not afraid of giving speeches at all.
Curiosity allows you to collect the information you need to tell a good story. When you want to engage your audience, you need to know something they don’t.......The things he learned in his curiosity conversations helped him make the show as realistic and entertaining as possible.
Curiosity doesn’t just help you write a good story though–it helps you grab and hold the audience’s attention......A good title makes you curious to read an article; the cliff-hanger at the end of an episode makes you curious about the next one......Make someone curious about your story and they’ll want to know the rest of it.
When you’re curious about other people’s thoughts, you collaborate with them more effectively. Curiosity fosters cooperation.....Additionally, curiosity doesn’t just help your relationships with your colleagues–it helps you connect with your customers too.....A curious salesperson will make you feel more comfortable. They’ll be better able to find what you want.
A question like “How did your meeting with that new client go?” shows that you’re genuinely interested in your partner’s day.....And a lack of curiosity is definitely a sign of a deteriorating relationship......The good news is that it’s easy to revive a relationship by being genuinely curious.
You don’t get to know them [strangers] just by saying “Hi!” and launching into your life story. You ask them about their own story first.
Throughout history, curious people have always been agents of social progress. They’ve led our society to where it is today.....In Europe, for example, the Church held immense power
it decided what people were allowed to think, and the questions they were allowed to ask. It suppressed curiosity in ideas.......But gradually, people managed to break free thanks to extremely curious scientists like Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton.....[I think it was probably theologians who led the breaks ...plus philosophers].
Too much information can be distracting or demotivating, so it’s important to know what your limits are........It’s not always easy to know when you should tone down your curiosity. You have to be confident about your opinions before you can know when to stop listening to the opinions of others.....Frost/Nixon [a movie] wasn’t a big hit at the box office, which wasn’t a surprise, but it received five Academy Award nominations and was applauded by critics.
The key message in this book: Curiosity is what drives us to learn and encourages us to seek out new experiences. It’s a critical part of achieving success in business, getting closer to your loved ones and growing as a person. It can help you overcome fear, amass useful knowledge and gain surprising insights. Curiosity is an important lifelong asset, so don’t let yours fade!
Actionable advice: Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
My take on the book. Generally Ok, but not great. Very much written from the perspective of a successful movie maker and most of his examples (naturally) seemed to come from his movie making career. But nothing there really about scientific curiosity which has driven the industrial revolution and the services revolution and now driving the information age revolution. Overall, I thought it was a bit ordinary. Curiosity conversations? Well, I guess that’s a new name for chatting with people or interviewing them. Otherwise, not much there that was new and original for me. Three stars.

Enjoyable read with a good message about being (more) curious. His notion of curiosity conversations is a unique one. Favorite quote from the book: "Life isn't about finding the answers, it's about asking the questions."

3.5 Stars, truly. The title and cover prompted me to impulsively grab this from the Popular Picks shelf -- not even knowing who Brian Grazer was (duh). I'm just not up on Hollywood stuff, nor do I gravitate toward non-fiction, but this was a good find. I am interested in learning, and curiosity seems an important component of that. According to Grazer, it is the single most important thing. His entire career and success is founded on his inherent interest in ideas, other people and what makes them tick. The book is part memoir, part sociology, part how-to and though it rambles a bit and has minor riffs on a theme, the content is interesting and thought-provoking. Originally headed to law school, Grazer got a summer job with a movie company (through his curiosity, aka nosey-ness) and that altered the trajectory of his life. Now a major movie producer and co-owner with Ron Howard of Imagine Studios, he has won numerous Oscars and Emmys and has hung with some of the most amazing people in the world. His summer job was to deliver movie contracts to people. He decided he actually wanted to meet these people, rather than drop the envelope at the front desk. That was the beginning of his "curiosity conversations" and his upward climb through The Industry. Since then, he has sought out some of the most influential people of our era just to spend some face time and learn what makes them tick, including: the Presidents of the last 20 years, Princess Diana, Fidel Castro, Margaret Thatcher, F. Lee Bailey, Jim Lovell, Steve Jobs, Michael Jackson, Jonas Salk, Andy Warhol, Isaac Asimov,Carl Sagan, Salman Rushdie, David Byrne and literally hundreds more. Some anecdotes are more in-depth than others, but there is a complete list of his interviewees at the back of the book -- all walks of life and varying degrees of fame and success, but all fodder for Grazer's own creative process and movie-making genius. According to Grazer, curiosity is free, available to everyone, and an excellent foundation for success in life. It is "a tool for discovery, a spark for creativity and imagination, a way of motivating yourself, a tool for independence and self-confidence, a key to storytelling, a form of courage..." a basis for human connection,a way to transmit values, and a great management strategy. Conversely, "familiarity is the enemy of curiosity," and he gives some perfect examples in family life of thinking you know someone and how that leads to stilted relationships."To be effective, curiosity has to be harnessed to 2 other key traits: the ability to pay attention to the answers to your questions .... and the willingness to act." "Nothing unleashes good storytelling like curiosity ... nothing inpsires storytelling like the results of curiosity." If you find any of these quotes intriguing or inspiring, you'll enjoy this book. "Being curious and asking questions creates engagement." It made me think of our educational system, among other things!

Interesting at first--but became a little repetitive. I had the feeling this would have been a great long form essay rather than a full book.

A book on curiosity that acts as biography for the author. There are no studies presented, just a series of anecdotes. That said if the book encourages you to investigate something you would have not normally done then Grazer will have accomplished his mission. Grazer believes that curiosity can benefit all areas of your life, from the way you listen to person to the way you manage your company. While I disagree with his belief that religion discourages curiosityI agree with most of his book.

I dashed through A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. The author is a quite-famous producer of movies (including Splash and Apollo 13). The secret of his success, he reveals, is his explorations of things he is curious about. And that's the whole book. Lots of little stories about his interviews with other quite-famous people, if you like that sort of thing. But really, if you want to save time, just read the title. That's all you need to know.

It was the title of the book that drew me to it; and in that sense it was a disappointment. Grazer talks extensively about his propensity to ask questions and how it served him in his career and perhaps even in his life. I'm not so sure the strategies mentioned will work for others. The book started off well with a quote from Einstein : "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."Yes, Einstein's curiosity did indeed serve him well.

I received a copy of "A Curious Mind" by Brian Grazer, through the Goodreads First Reads program. This was a three hour read but well worth the time. Based on the premise that curiosity is both an undervalued trait and a key to his personal success, Grazer details his personal history of "curiosity conversations" with famous and/or important people and briefly explains lessons he learned from a select few of these folks. Very well written, I assume mostly by co-author Charles Fishman, the book is essentially a collection of interesting stories mixed with Grazer's self-help advice. I found the book light-hearted and fun, and certainly worth the time and effort. Most importantly, Grazer makes me want to better exercise my curiosity by approaching and meeting new a different people. In that sense the book is a complete success. One personal footnote regarding his list of conversations at the end of the book - it contains few literary figures. Plenty of magazine, newspaper and academic authors, but very light on the heavyweights of modern literature.