How to follow your curiosity with Sean the Science Kid | ReThinking with Adam Grant | TED

1. 0:00 – 0:24

   Intro

   1. AGAdam Grant0:00

      I don't think I'm a fan of human cloning, but I might make an exception for Sean.

   2. EUEunice0:04

      [laughs]

   3. AGAdam Grant0:05

      How would you feel about being cloned?

   4. SKSean the Science Kid0:06

      Um, basically, we would get along so much, probably because we'd be the same person.

   5. AGAdam Grant0:14

      [laughs]

   6. EUEunice0:14

      [laughs]

   7. SKSean the Science Kid0:16

      I'd have someone that gets me, you know? [upbeat music]

2. 0:24 – 2:43

   Sean's first scientific interests

   1. AGAdam Grant0:24

      Do you remember the first science fact that you discovered that just made your brain explode with curiosity?

   2. SKSean the Science Kid0:31

      To be honest, it was all of them. But, I mean, some of the science facts that really interested me was about how your heart could pump blood to the fourth floor of a building. This fist-sized organ of your body, made of pure muscle, can pump blood throughout your body and make it do one full circle in a singular minute.

   3. AGAdam Grant0:56

      This is, this is fascinating. Tell me, when did you get interested in science?

   4. SKSean the Science Kid1:01

      Well, it wasn't exactly a turning point. It was more of a diffusion gradient.

   5. EUEunice1:09

      [laughs]

   6. AGAdam Grant1:11

      [laughs]

   7. SKSean the Science Kid1:13

      So basically, I was a curious kid, a kid who loved science, engineering, math, all of the cool stuff. But then, slowly but surely, my molecules, out of curiosity, started to diffuse through the semipermeable membrane-

   8. EUEunice1:36

      Oh, boy

   9. SKSean the Science Kid1:36

      ... and through what's known as curiosity osmosis, I ended up on the science side.

   10. EUEunice1:44

       [laughs]

   11. AGAdam Grant1:45

       Wow.

   12. EUEunice1:45

       That's a long answer.

   13. AGAdam Grant1:46

       I love that. That was not at all the answer I was expecting.

   14. EUEunice1:49

       [laughs]

   15. SKSean the Science Kid1:49

       [laughs]

   16. AGAdam Grant1:49

       For, for our listeners who don't know, what's the difference between a turning point and a diffusion gradient?

   17. SKSean the Science Kid1:55

       Imagine you're in a car and you have to pick between two options: going straight and turning into one lane. And the difference between a turning point and a gradient is i- with the turning point, you turn your steering wheel all the way to the other side and cause your car to be on two wheels for a second while drifting into the other lane, while a diffusion gradient is slowly turning into the other lane.

   18. EUEunice2:31

       [laughs]

   19. AGAdam Grant2:32

       Ah, that's great. Eunice, is this what your dinner table is like?

   20. SKSean the Science Kid2:36

       Uh, this is... No, this is-

   21. EUEunice2:37

       Every day

   22. SKSean the Science Kid2:38

       ... what her entire life is like

   23. EUEunice2:39

       ... every day of the week. [laughs]

   24. AGAdam Grant2:42

       Oh, it's so fascinating.

3. 2:43 – 5:52

   Sean's origin story

   1. AGAdam Grant2:43

      So let's, uh, let's talk about your origin a little bit. Uh, there's a rumor that you learned to read before you were even a year old. Is this true?

   2. SKSean the Science Kid2:51

      Uh-huh. Do you think that 10 years ago she would have expected her son to read before she was even a year old?

   3. EUEunice2:58

      [laughs]

   4. AGAdam Grant2:59

      No. No. I mean, most, most babies are struggling to walk at that point.

   5. EUEunice3:04

      Yes.

   6. SKSean the Science Kid3:04

      Yeah. Do you-

   7. EUEunice3:05

      So we got to know Sean could read at nine months, and it was amazing.

   8. AGAdam Grant3:09

      Nine months?

   9. EUEunice3:10

      Yes.

   10. SKSean the Science Kid3:11

       Do you-

   11. AGAdam Grant3:11

       Eunice, what happened?

   12. EUEunice3:12

       Before then, we realized that all he wanted to do was to watch educational videos. So you know how you have a baby, you put the TV in front of them, you put Mickey Mouse and all the other stuff on it?

   13. SKSean the Science Kid3:25

       Oh, yeah.

   14. EUEunice3:25

       And he wouldn't be watching those. But when the adverts come on, which is the educational stuff they're trying to promote, then his attention goes on those.

   15. SKSean the Science Kid3:35

       I actually still have a rivalry-

   16. EUEunice3:39

       He's like, "Yeah"

   17. SKSean the Science Kid3:39

       ... like a professional rivalry [laughs] with Mickey Mouse.

   18. EUEunice3:42

       [laughs]

   19. SKSean the Science Kid3:43

       I just don't like it, honestly.

   20. AGAdam Grant3:46

       [laughs]

   21. EUEunice3:46

       So-

   22. AGAdam Grant3:47

       I don't either

   23. EUEunice3:47

       ... I started to switch it up for him to give him the educational stuff, and he would watch those for over two hours without blinking. So apparently-

   24. SKSean the Science Kid3:57

       True

   25. EUEunice3:57

       ... he was soaking everything. And so one day I drove to Carter's-

   26. SKSean the Science Kid4:01

       Mm-hmm

   27. EUEunice4:01

       ... to get him some clothes, and then when I got there and I parked, he said, "Carter's."

   28. SKSean the Science Kid4:06

       Carter's.

   29. EUEunice4:06

       So I looked back and I said, "Did you just say Carter's?"

   30. SKSean the Science Kid4:09

       Yes, Mama.
4. 5:52 – 7:37

   Dealing with being underestimated

   1. AGAdam Grant5:52

      Sean, d- is it, is it hard being smarter than most adults?

   2. SKSean the Science Kid5:56

      Um, s- yeah, sometimes when people don't know my true- My true power. [laughs]

   3. EUEunice6:05

      [laughs]

   4. SKSean the Science Kid6:06

      When people don't know my true power, they look down on me, and I just get so angry.

   5. EUEunice6:15

      They underestimates you.

   6. SKSean the Science Kid6:16

      Uh-huh.

   7. EUEunice6:17

      That's a good- [laughs]

   8. SKSean the Science Kid6:18

      Hmm. I ho- I hope this isn't bad to say, but the word I was looking for was pissed. [laughs]

   9. EUEunice6:26

      [laughs]

   10. AGAdam Grant6:27

       [laughs]

   11. EUEunice6:27

       You get pissed off.

   12. SKSean the Science Kid6:28

       Yes.

   13. AGAdam Grant6:29

       I, I think we can air that.

   14. SKSean the Science Kid6:30

       Yeah.

   15. EUEunice6:31

       [laughs]

   16. SKSean the Science Kid6:32

       [laughs] It's like, it's like you have been blinded to my true mental abilities. Like, uh, whenever I go to a museum, I also get kind of annoyed when some other kids, like, get the turn before me on, like, the science thing-

   17. EUEunice6:53

       [laughs]

   18. SKSean the Science Kid6:53

       ... because it's like you don't actually understand what-

   19. EUEunice6:56

       [laughs]

   20. SKSean the Science Kid6:56

       ... angular momentum is.

   21. AGAdam Grant6:58

       [laughs] Well, a, a little healthy rivalry has fueled a lot of great science-

   22. EUEunice7:04

       Mm-hmm

   23. AGAdam Grant7:04

       ... from, uh, probably from Newton to Darwin to Einstein and beyond, right?

   24. SKSean the Science Kid7:09

       Yeah. The reason why imaginary numbers exist was actually because of a duel between two mathematicians. [laughs]

   25. AGAdam Grant7:17

       There we go. So we, we like those duels. My colleague Sameer Noor Mohamed, uh, has published some research showing that when other people underestimate you, you feel like an underdog. And if you know they don't know what they're talking about, you become really motivated to prove them wrong. I feel like I'm hearing a little bit of that right now.

   26. SKSean the Science Kid7:34

       Oh, yeah, definitely.

   27. AGAdam Grant7:36

       [laughs]

5. 7:37 – 9:46

   How does Sean stay humble?

   1. AGAdam Grant7:38

      Okay, so a big part of, of I think achieving expertise and making, eventually making great discoveries is confidence, which you have a lot of.

   2. SKSean the Science Kid7:47

      Yeah.

   3. AGAdam Grant7:47

      But it also requires humility, right?

   4. SKSean the Science Kid7:49

      Mm-hmm.

   5. AGAdam Grant7:50

      Um, you have to know what you don't know. You have to know that you're capable of making mistakes. How do you stay humble?

   6. SKSean the Science Kid7:56

      Basically, to stay humble, I usually go and learn something that I know that I won't get on the first try, so then I end up not feeling like I'm the top of the world and the most prestigious genius ever.

   7. EUEunice8:17

      [laughs]

   8. SKSean the Science Kid8:19

      And then I just feel like a kid trying to learn something.

   9. AGAdam Grant8:23

      Oh, that's great. Eunice, do you, do you feel like part of your job as a parent is to keep Sean's ego in check?

   10. SKSean the Science Kid8:29

       Yeah.

   11. EUEunice8:29

       Very much, and I do that a lot. One thing that is with Sean is that if somebody asks him a question and he doesn't even know it, he will use his brain to analyze the question and try to answer it. So I keep telling him that it's okay if you don't know the answer. You just tell them that, "You know what? I don't know this one, but I'm gonna look up for it, and I'm gonna re- s- research on it and then come back with an answer to you." It's okay to say that.

   12. AGAdam Grant8:59

       Okay. So what I'm hearing is something similar to what new professors often face, which is you come into a classroom and a student asks you a question, and you wanna show that you're an expert, and sometimes you, you're more focused on giving an answer-

   13. EUEunice9:14

       Mm-hmm

   14. AGAdam Grant9:15

       ... than trying to teach them-

   15. SKSean the Science Kid9:16

       Oh, yeah

   16. AGAdam Grant9:16

       ... how to think about the answer.

   17. EUEunice9:18

       Mm.

   18. AGAdam Grant9:18

       And I, I know I had to learn, like I don't have to know the answer to every question.

   19. EUEunice9:23

       Mm-hmm.

   20. AGAdam Grant9:24

       And when I'm really secure, I can say, "You know what? I actually don't know. That's a great question."

   21. EUEunice9:29

       Mm.

   22. AGAdam Grant9:30

       "Let me look into that and get back to you."

   23. SKSean the Science Kid9:31

       Oh, yeah.

   24. EUEunice9:31

       Yeah.

   25. SKSean the Science Kid9:31

       Sometimes when someone asks, asks me a question that's obviously not on my level, I'm like, "Hmm, I don't know that one. I might research."

   26. AGAdam Grant9:43

       So another thing I wanted to ask you about is

6. 9:46 – 14:55

   Battling science illiteracy

   1. AGAdam Grant9:46

      we live in a, a time where there's more scientific knowledge available than there ever has been in human history, right? It's, it's so accessible-

   2. SKSean the Science Kid9:55

      Yeah

   3. AGAdam Grant9:55

      ... on the internet.

   4. SKSean the Science Kid9:56

      Mm-hmm.

   5. AGAdam Grant9:56

      But instead of becoming informed, I feel like more and more people are science illiterate.

   6. SKSean the Science Kid10:02

      Oh.

   7. AGAdam Grant10:02

      What do we do about that?

   8. SKSean the Science Kid10:04

      So the thing is s- this science accessibility thing is both a blessing and a curse. But there are a lot of people that I've met, especially in my own generation, Gen Alpha, that are not only science illiterate, but internet fact-checking illiterate.

   9. AGAdam Grant10:28

      [laughs]

   10. SKSean the Science Kid10:28

       There are a lot of fake news out there like, "Guys, the sun is fake. NASA just proved the sun is fake," or, "The moon is alive." And there are a lot of people who think they're getting it from credible sources, but really are just getting something that was plagiarized, plagiarized, plagiarized from, like, a Facebook page.

   11. AGAdam Grant10:54

       So what do you think we can do to solve that?

   12. SKSean the Science Kid10:56

       What I usually would wanna do is, like, take two sources that both seem pretty convincing, like, "Scientists just designed a new particle accelerator," or, "Scientists just achieved the first fusion reactor," and tell people to see which one is fake and which one is real. Which one would you believe?

   13. AGAdam Grant11:27

       Yeah, I think, I think that's a, it's a very powerful teaching method to actually s- show people, first of all, how, how many mistakes they can make, right? How easy it is for them to mess up.

   14. SKSean the Science Kid11:37

       This is literally exactly what I try to do with my entire channel, show people the truth that is shown through equations and math most of the time.

   15. AGAdam Grant11:49

       I think the compare and contrasting method of making people aware of how fallible they are and then teaching them what are the cues and clues that differentiate truth from fiction, great place to start.

   16. EUEunice12:03

       To add to what he said, one of the gifts that he has that we are so happy about is the way he can make very complex things simple and explain it. And he started with me, making me know that there's science in everything. So I think that is a very good approach he's putting in there for, to help people understand that science is not exclusive from life. Science is li- like, everything is science. Even picking up your glass and drinking, it has so much science in it. So he tries to make people li- bring literacy to the world by letting them know that science is very simple and fun.

   17. SKSean the Science Kid12:43

       There's a metaphor that I like to use for this concept, known as the equation utterer. If you were to carry out your daily life, but were cursed with a curse that says you have to say every single science concept that you are using right now, then you would probably pass out.

   18. AGAdam Grant13:09

       I was thinking about this right at the beginning of our conversation when, [laughs] when I asked you about diffusion gradients versus turning points, and you immediately painted the picture of driving a car.

   19. SKSean the Science Kid13:19

       Mm-hmm.

   20. AGAdam Grant13:19

       And that's something you do in so many of your videos, Sean, is, is you take, you take metaphors and analogies-

   21. SKSean the Science Kid13:25

       Yes

   22. AGAdam Grant13:25

       ... and take very abstract concepts and bring them to life in ways that are just, one, fun, and two, easy to understand. Is there anything you can teach us about how to be better at that ourselves?

   23. SKSean the Science Kid13:36

       Well, there are so many things you can compare abstract things, abstract concepts in science to, that are real. Like, what science teachers do when they try to explain action, "Think of it like this," or, "Picture this in your mind." Those are the two phrases that you should be using the most when you explain things. Like, quantum decoherence. Think of it like this. If you flip a coin, while that coin is in the air, it is both heads and tails simultaneously, but any interaction with the environment, AKA gravity, causes it to land, or decohere, which means collapse the quantum system into one singular state. Wheel of Fortune and even casinos all take quantum decoherence and unknowingly turn it into a real-life concept.

   24. AGAdam Grant14:48

       Wow. Oh, I've n- I've never seen decoherence in a casino before. This is, this is a great connection for

7. 14:55 – 20:00

   Sean's career aspirations

   1. AGAdam Grant14:55

      me. I kn- I know you have a, a very specific career aspiration.

   2. SKSean the Science Kid14:59

      A neurocardiosurgeon.

   3. AGAdam Grant15:01

      Tell me about that and, and how you decided on that.

   4. SKSean the Science Kid15:04

      When I was at the ripe old age-

   5. AGAdam Grant15:08

      [laughs]

   6. SKSean the Science Kid15:08

      ... of four, I loved anatomy.

   7. AGAdam Grant15:13

      Stick-

   8. SKSean the Science Kid15:13

      You know anatomy, the study of the inside of that, of that meat suit. [laughs]

   9. AGAdam Grant15:21

      [laughs]

   10. SKSean the Science Kid15:21

       And I decided that the brain and the heart were the most important, because those were my favorite organs, and studying them showed that the brain and the heart are in a loop that mostly fuels the rest of the organs.

   11. AGAdam Grant15:40

       That's great.

   12. SKSean the Science Kid15:41

       I used to wanna be a neurocardiologist, but then I changed it to surgeon, 'cause I loved surgery, and seeing-

   13. AGAdam Grant15:51

       And fixing

   14. SKSean the Science Kid15:51

       ... seeing organs in person-

   15. AGAdam Grant15:54

       And fixing

   16. SKSean the Science Kid15:54

       ... I don't know, just for me sounds kind of cool. But also fixing organs and saving lives.

   17. AGAdam Grant16:02

       Love that. What's, what's the timeline that we're looking at? I, I imagine you've already started thinking about college.

   18. SKSean the Science Kid16:10

       Let me introduce you to-

   19. AGAdam Grant16:12

       [laughs]

   20. SKSean the Science Kid16:12

       ... my life, a thesis. So first of all, I will go to high school and get a high school job-

   21. AGAdam Grant16:19

       Mm-hmm

   22. SKSean the Science Kid16:19

       ... at my favorite place, Chick-fil-A. While working at Chick-fil-A and continuing my studies on how to find X, I will also be-

   23. AGAdam Grant16:27

       [laughs]

   24. SKSean the Science Kid16:27

       ... giving myself some courses to do so that in college I can skip all the boring stuff and go right to the AP classes. The AP classes I'll take are physics, cardiology, and neurology. Those classes will get me through my life plan. Then I'll spend some time in medical school and become a doctor. Then I'll either rent out an old hospital or build it myself, with a building team of course. And with the money I earn from my high school job, and also my college job, I will use that money to hire a construction team.

   25. AGAdam Grant17:09

       To build your hospital.

   26. SKSean the Science Kid17:09

       And this construction team will build my hospital, called Sean's Brain and Heart Surgery Center. And once this hospital has been built, we will start a trial run, take a few of my family members into, into this building, and if they need help, we'll give it to them to test my employees' skills.

   27. AGAdam Grant17:33

       Hey. [laughs]

   28. SKSean the Science Kid17:33

       Once their test ha- once their skills have been successfully tested, then we go on a wild ride. My business starts booming. $1 million, $2 million, $3 million. Noliff. $1 million.

   29. AGAdam Grant17:51

       That's it.

   30. SKSean the Science Kid17:51

       And then I will buy myself a few yachts, a private jet, and a mansion.
8. 20:00 – 21:29

   A question from Saul Perlmutter

   1. AGAdam Grant20:00

      Well, this reminds me of what I think is my favorite video that, that you've done. I thought it was so profound. Um, it was, uh, it was the video where you talked about being made of stardust.

   2. SKSean the Science Kid20:11

      Oh.

   3. AGAdam Grant20:12

      Do you remember that one?

   4. EUEunice20:13

      Do you remember?

   5. SKSean the Science Kid20:13

      Oh, yeah, the Sunday morning bacon.

   6. AGAdam Grant20:14

      That's the one. I was so moved by your description of that. You mentioned the expansion of the universe, and I actually have a question for you about this.

   7. EUEunice20:23

      Mm-hmm.

   8. AGAdam Grant20:23

      One of the things we're doing is we're inviting our past guests to pose a question to our current guests on the show. And last night I got an email from one of our past guests. He's an astrophysicist. Um-

   9. SKSean the Science Kid20:35

      I'm getting excited.

   10. EUEunice20:37

       [laughs]

   11. AGAdam Grant20:37

       I don't know if you've heard of him. His name is Saul Perlmutter. He won a Nobel Prize, uh, for discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe. Does that ring a bell?

   12. EUEunice20:46

       Mm-hmm.

   13. SKSean the Science Kid20:46

       Ooh, yeah.

   14. AGAdam Grant20:48

       So here's what Saul wants to know. He wants to know what's more fun for you, learning something new about the world that makes sense out of something that seems weird, or learning about a way that we can catch the universe doing something really bizarre that's hard to explain?

   15. SKSean the Science Kid21:06

       Pretty sure the universe thing. I mean, explaining weird stuff is basically what science already does, but finding a way to see something that science hasn't seen yet is orders of magnitude cooler for me.

   16. AGAdam Grant21:25

       That's a great answer. I, I think that's what Saul would pick, too. Love

9. 21:29 – 26:05

   Lightning round

   1. AGAdam Grant21:29

      that. Okay, Sean, it's time for a lightning round.

   2. SKSean the Science Kid21:31

      Ooh.

   3. AGAdam Grant21:32

      Are you up for that?

   4. EUEunice21:33

      Mm-hmm.

   5. SKSean the Science Kid21:34

      Let's go.

   6. AGAdam Grant21:35

      What is your favorite science fact?

   7. SKSean the Science Kid21:37

      Oh. Did you know that you have 50% of the genes of a banana?

   8. AGAdam Grant21:42

      Of a banana?

   9. SKSean the Science Kid21:43

      Yeah.

   10. AGAdam Grant21:43

       Wow. Okay. What is your favorite lesson that your mom has taught you?

   11. SKSean the Science Kid21:49

       Hmm. Well, all of them.

   12. EUEunice21:53

       What is your favorite? Just one.

   13. SKSean the Science Kid21:56

       Um, patience is key.

   14. AGAdam Grant21:59

       Ooh, that's a good one for someone who likes to work so quickly. What would you say to kids who think science is boring?

   15. SKSean the Science Kid22:07

       Well, I would probably tell them about how they're using science right now and... in, if it was in a formal setting. If it was, if it was in an informal setting-

   16. EUEunice22:19

       Like the playground?

   17. SKSean the Science Kid22:20

       Yeah, like the playground. Come here. Just kidding. Did you know that you're actually using science right now by swinging on that swing? You cannot escape science. It is everywhere. [laughs]

   18. EUEunice22:32

       [laughs]

   19. AGAdam Grant22:32

       Next question. If you could invite anyone to dinner, who would you most want to meet?

   20. EUEunice22:39

       Ooh.

   21. SKSean the Science Kid22:39

       Neil deGrasse Tyson or God himself.

   22. AGAdam Grant22:43

       What is something you changed your mind about recently?

   23. SKSean the Science Kid22:46

       Not thinking about a shoe known as Heelys. [laughs] So yeah, I've gone on kind of a Heelys craze for the past three days.

   24. AGAdam Grant22:57

       [laughs] Eunice, how did he change his mind on that?

   25. EUEunice23:01

       I always tell him that you always have to know that always prepare for if it doesn't happen, and that is one thing that he's-

   26. SKSean the Science Kid23:09

       Oh, yeah

   27. EUEunice23:09

       ... struggling with and he's working on. So he told me that he's changing his mind about it, but I know in his mind he's still expecting the Heelys. [laughs]

   28. SKSean the Science Kid23:22

       [laughs] Um, um, okay. I might wanna change my favorite lesson to expect if it doesn't happen, honestly-

   29. EUEunice23:30

       Mm

   30. SKSean the Science Kid23:30

       ... because that happens more than patience is key.
10. 26:05 – 28:59

    Sean's trolley problem

    1. SKSean the Science Kid26:05

       Well, I might wanna give you like a thought experiment. So there, I'm g- I made my own version of the trolley problem. So the same setup. Trolley is going towards one person, but this one person has the cure to cancer. And if you, if you divert the track from the cancer-curing person, then it will hit five people who know how to make fusion energy commercial. Would you kill fusion energy or kill the cure to cancer?

    2. AGAdam Grant26:48

       Wow. That, that might be the toughest version of the trolley problem I've ever heard.

    3. EUEunice26:53

       [laughs]

    4. SKSean the Science Kid26:53

       Yeah.

    5. AGAdam Grant26:54

       So okay. So normally when psychologists study the trolley problem, we find that people are really sensitive to errors of commission, but not errors of omission. So they don't like the idea of, of pressing the switch, right, to, to change the track 'cause then they feel like they killed someone.

    6. SKSean the Science Kid27:11

       Oh, yeah.

    7. AGAdam Grant27:11

       But if they don't press it, they feel like they're not responsible when either way they're making a choice.

    8. SKSean the Science Kid27:17

       Yeah, it's like the bystander effect, like.

    9. AGAdam Grant27:20

       Exactly. Your version adds a layer, though, of trying to compare what are the benefits of curing cancer versus what are the benefits of fusion. I, I don't think I'm qualified to answer that.

    10. SKSean the Science Kid27:32

        Oh.

    11. AGAdam Grant27:33

        I think what I'd wanna know, though, is how discoverable is each of those, right? So the, the history of scientific discovery is full of multiples.

    12. SKSean the Science Kid27:43

        Yeah.

    13. AGAdam Grant27:43

        Right? Multiple scientists, um, stumbling onto the same idea around the same time.

    14. SKSean the Science Kid27:48

        Yes.

    15. AGAdam Grant27:48

        And so presumably if one person knows how to cure cancer now, there's somebody else soon who's gonna figure that out. But then the same is true for fusion. So I guess the question is, which one is harder to discover?

    16. SKSean the Science Kid27:59

        Yeah.

    17. AGAdam Grant27:59

        And then which one has more benefit in terms of the number of lives it would save?

    18. SKSean the Science Kid28:05

        If we're talking about number of lives, then I would divert the lever to the fusion energy people. But I'm thinking, which one would have a better impact to the scientific community? The cure to cancer would be easier to find because we already know a lot about cancer. But fusion energy, sure, we've created one, but we still don't exactly know how to make it commercial. So thinking scientific community-wise, I'd kill the cancer guy, but thinking population-wise, the fusion.

    19. AGAdam Grant28:42

        Oh, that's such a, that's such an interesting way to analyze it.

    20. SKSean the Science Kid28:46

        I love making trolley problems that cause people to spontaneously combust.

    21. EUEunice28:51

        [laughs]

    22. AGAdam Grant28:52

        [laughs] That's great. Okay. Final question is

11. 28:59 – 32:51

    Curiosity

    1. AGAdam Grant28:59

       we started this conversation with curiosity.

    2. SKSean the Science Kid29:02

       Yeah.

    3. AGAdam Grant29:02

       And I wanna end it on curiosity.

    4. EUEunice29:05

       Mm.

    5. SKSean the Science Kid29:05

       Oh, yes.

    6. AGAdam Grant29:06

       So in psychology there are two kinds of curiosity. There's deep curiosity where you really wanna know the answer to a question, and you keep digging further and further to try to find it. And then there's broad curiosity, where you wanna know a lot about a lot of things, and you keep looking wider and wider. And Sean, you clearly have both, and I'm, I'm just curious about how you think about the balance of the two and when you go broad and when you go deep, and Eunice, how you think about balancing those two for Sean.

    7. SKSean the Science Kid29:38

       My broad curiosity starts when I feel like I don't have anything to learn. So then broad curiosity initiates. I go on YouTube, Instagram, where I can find learning stuff. Yeah, I'm trying to find the word for, like, my gaze-

    8. EUEunice29:54

       Until you pounce on something.

    9. SKSean the Science Kid29:56

       Yeah. Like-

    10. EUEunice29:57

        And then you're like, "Yes-

    11. SKSean the Science Kid29:58

        Yeah

    12. EUEunice29:58

        ... I'm gonna dig into this." [laughs]

    13. SKSean the Science Kid29:59

        The word is, like, my gaze stops. My gaze halts. It, whoa. It stops, and it focuses on one thing. That one thing I decide to dig more into it. Direct curiosity initiated. This causes me to dig, dig, dig deeper until I find a golden nugget of something that I really like. And bam, new interest found

    14. AGAdam Grant30:32

        Sean, you just coined my new f- my new favorite phrase

    15. SKSean the Science Kid30:36

        Um-

    16. AGAdam Grant30:36

        Bam, new interest found

    17. EUEunice30:38

        [laughs]

    18. SKSean the Science Kid30:40

        Yes.

    19. AGAdam Grant30:41

        That's a line we need in the world more.

    20. EUEunice30:43

        Mm-hmm.

    21. SKSean the Science Kid30:44

        I gotta put it on a T-shirt or something

    22. EUEunice30:46

        [laughs]

    23. AGAdam Grant30:47

        You should. I, I think you just coined it. It's beautiful

    24. EUEunice30:50

        Mm-hmm.

    25. AGAdam Grant30:51

        Well, okay, so Sean and Eunice, um, Eunice, did you wanna add anything there before we wrap?

    26. EUEunice30:56

        Sean is... Let me tell you a s- a little secret. At three, he will learn everything, so I had to direct him. And I remember the psychologist we visited told me that I had to make a conscious effort to get him to play. So we had to play as an effort

    27. SKSean the Science Kid31:18

        Oh, yeah

    28. EUEunice31:18

        ... where kids don't normally play... I mean, you don't have to s- you have to beg them to stop playing, right? I had to beg mine to play. [laughs]

    29. AGAdam Grant31:27

        Wow.

    30. EUEunice31:27

        Yeah.

Episode duration: 32:52