Curiosity will get us out of trouble. No need to insist or speak louder. But being curious is difficult: we must let others speak, encourage them to express themselves and, above all, listen and learn. Let's admit it: our opinions often come from habit, sometimes from ignorance. In the best case, we have seriously studied a subject. Even then, when someone less well-informed interrupts us, welcoming this interruption with curiosity remains the best strategy.

The word curiosity comes from the Latin curiositas which means care. As for the word care, it probably comes from the Latin somnium which means dream and vision. Like a dream, curiosity is something that occupies the mind without harmful consequence. Much like a dream, the curiosity we experience when learning about someone else's position commits us to nothing. This openness and suspension of our judgment costs us almost nothing.

Being curious is characteristic of children, isn't it? As we progress through life, we lose this ease of wonder. As if admitting our fallibility and ignorance represented a weakness. On the contrary, showing curiosity is an unsuspected strength. Chances are that most of our acquaintances share neither our opinions nor our tastes. Being curious flows naturally from this reality. Humans are different from one another but they must collaborate to achieve noteworthy objectives. By ceasing to try to convince others to adopt our opinions, by showing curiosity and suspending our judgment to understand their situation, we build bridges between us all.

Curiosity is a reasonable bet for surviving the typically human automatisms in discussion. Whether it's interrupting, bringing the conversation back to ourselves, or trying to "score a point" by contradicting the other, we all lose a bit in these aborted conversations. Yet what is the real risk? What is the consequence of a strange dream? We wake up, perhaps a bit shaken, but intact. The same goes for curiosity: listening to opposing opinions commits us to nothing, doesn't really put us in danger.

translated from french by Claude Sonnet 4.5