How to stay curious (in your life and work) — and wipe out incuriosity
“To each his own, it’s all unknown/If dogs run free.” — Bob Dylan
Nothing was more pleasing during last summer’s horrific global pandemic than outdoor walks with my K-12 teacher friend Chris. Since he was off for the school year, he was feeling expansive and I — well, while I was able to hold down my job remotely, I still needed to get away from all the screen time.
Sometimes we biked or, if it was too hot, we’d take circuitous walks around the neighborhood and chat about arcane music history. At the time I was toying with a podcast about songwriting, since singer-songwriters (more solo artists than members of a group) were a subcategory that particularly interested me, mainly because if you’re in a band and it breaks up, you’re likely back out on the street “trying to form a new band.” It seemed like way too much trouble. Artists like Carole King, James Taylor, or Jackson Browne struck me as “self-contained” — that is, the band was inside them: concept, vision, style and all. If the band inside them “broke down” (as I’m sure they had moments when the creative well ran dry) they had no one to blame but themselves.
I liked that idea a lot — it was something I could relate to.
