Think like a curious child: Adopt an experimental mindset

Think like a curious child by adopting an experimental mindset. On the curiosity spectrum, you have children on the one end constantly asking questions about everything. On the other end, you have adults who assume things are the way they are for a reason. Adults question very little and so we tend to herd together, doing most things the same way as other people do them. The exceptions, adults who ask questions like children do are known as experimentalists. They question everything. Sometimes they come to agree that a popular approach has merit, but often they stumble on superior alternatives. In the late 1980s, U.S. Olympic swimmer, Dave Berkoff, developed a new method of swimming, the backstroke. He discovered that swimmers move almost twice as fast when completely submerged under the surface of the water, and so developed a technique that involved spending three or four times longer under water than other swimmers tended to do. After perfecting the technique, he broke the world…