Is Human Curiosity Dead?

The Biggest Interviewing Fail Of Our Time

Where has human curiosity gone?

The other day my Content Network partner and I were talking about interviewing techniques when he said, “People just don't seem to be curious anymore.”

WHAM. As soon as he said it, I knew he had hit the nail on the head.

Pedal back with me for a second.

We had been watching a series of interviews on various channels in which the interviewers seemed more interested in offering their opinion than finding out what the expert had to say.

By the end of all the interviews, we came to the conclusion that we knew virtually nothing about the interviewee and their opinion, and everything about the interviewer.

And so, during our weekly/bi-weekly discussion, we started chatting about why so many stories/interviews/books/podcasts these days were just, well, ABSOLUTELY DISMAL.

How I (and it seems we) see it, is that people just lack curiosity. Add to that a very strange outcome of the internet age, and that's, no-one wants to look stupid.

You see the world in which we live today, with the internet at our finger tips, has made us somehow believe we need to know everything about everything, and we need to share that with the world.

It has given us a soapbox and dammit, we will say what we think, and should anyone counter that opinion they are instantly marked as a "troll."

But us old journalists (turned marketers and content creators), we question what we know constantly...partly because our ego was trampled on many years ago.

No doubt our egos were HUGE at the beginning when we entered the profession. I mean, journalists, and especially the more seasoned ones, were always made to feel “special.” It was a darned tough profession to get into, and when you did finally break in, it was like the army in that they would knock you down so hard (throwing stories back in your face and being told they are crap), before you finally got it, and then, you were welcomed into the club and let loose on the big stories.

Egos would no doubt explode at that point, but the more people you would interview, the more you started to realize how stupid you really are.

Having to interview countless experts on countless subjects, of which you knew very little about (no matter how much research you did), made you understand that there was no way you could ever bulls**t your way through an interview.

And why would you want to?

You also quickly learned that there is absolutely no harm, in fact the interviewee will respect you for, asking what in your mind may seem like a stupid question, because there is no such thing as a stupid question.

Yes, you will want to show the interviewee that you have indeed put the work in to research them and the subject matter (which you always should), but that doesn't make you an expert...because if you were, you'd be on the other side of the couch/phone. And anyway, don't you want the expert to tell you in their own words? That's why they are here, right?

This is something many may find hard to understand, and I'm sorry to break it to you, but no matter how many books you have read, you still won't become an expert until you have worked in a specific field for many, many years, practiced the art and gained a ridiculous amount of knowledge from your failures and successes.

But ego can be a dangerous thing, and so often interviewers will gloss over something they don't understand, and start offering their opinion. Terrible idea. Or, they are so busy thinking about the next question, they never really listened to the answer, and realized that they needed to dig a little deeper.

Think about it, chances are, if you don't know what the interviewee means, neither will many of the folk reading/listening. So what are you trying to achieve? Is this interview about you, going through the questions, or the expert and the value they bring to your audience?

I can hand on heart tell you that not once in my 24 year career have I received anything but kindness when I have said, “could you elaborate on that because I'm not quite sure what you mean and want to be certain I understand.”

I honestly have no issue with looking stupid, because I know at the end of the interview I will be informed enough to be able to go away, research further, and then write or compile a story that everyone will be able to understand.

The same goes for an interview on TV/radio/Youtube etc. If I ever walked away from a radio interview (back in my radio days) and realized I still knew very little about that person (the real person), how they felt about a subject matter, and hadn't gained substantial insight, well, I had failed. Failed to be curious.

But if there's one thing I can say, and one thing I'm proud of, and it's that I'm curious. Curious about people, their opinion, their experience. Some call it nosey...maybe?

It's hardwired in me. I've always been curious. Ever since I was a kid. I would sit with the adults and just listen, quiet as a mouse. I would read lots, but nothing would give me as much insight as conversation.

You see, I find life fascinating; all aspects of it. It doesn't matter if I am writing about structural steel, tech, or a tragic life tale, I find it all interesting, because I want to know as much as I can about everything and then I want to know how you feel about it, and why.

But, it seems, not everyone is that way. And that's OK. OK if you work in a profession that doesn't require you to be curious, but not if you are working in communications and content.

Actually, thinking about it, is it OK, really? Is this lack of curiosity creating a world of selfish beings? I mean, if you don't try and see where someone is coming from, or listen to an opposing view, or learn something new, how can you grow? But I suppose that's a deeper conversation, and one I would love to have with an expert on the matter (and you can be sure I will ask those probing questions, and then sit back, listen, and soak it in).

Many years ago, a photographer once told me that when people say “I look terrible in a photo” they are wrong. "There is no bad photo, just a bad photographer."

The same goes for an interview.

There is no bad interviewee, only a bad interviewer. Everyone is interesting if you are curious; it's about digging deep, finding out what makes that person tick, and above all, being genuinely curious.