and weave them together into a narrative.
Curators add meaning to isolated beautiful things.
I am inspired by curators—and I am clearly not alone. The business world has turned toward the longtime practice of curation with such growing frequency that even the world of artists and art critics has begun to notice.
In 2014, art critic and writer David Balzer published a book with the brilliant title Curationism (a play on creationism) to explore how “curating took over the art world and everything else.” His book explores the evolution of the curator as the “imparter of value.”
Along the way he shares the valuable caution that this rise in curationism can sometimes inspire a “constant cycle of grasping and display” where we never take the time to understand what all the pieces mean. In other words, curation is only valuable if you follow the act of collecting information with enough moments of “quiet contemplation” to truly understand what you are seeing and collecting.
This combination of collection and contemplation is central to being able to effectively curate ideas and learn to predict the future. To do it, there are five specific habits that I believe can help you use curation to better see what others don’t.
The 5 Habits Of Trend Curators
I realize that calling yourself a “curator” of anything can seem like a stretch. Curator is often a job title applied to someone who has years of expertise in something, and perhaps even limited to certain industries. Yet curators today can come from all different types of backgrounds.
Some focus on art and design while others may look at history or anthropology. Some have professional training and degrees while others are driven by passion like Herbert and Dorothy Vogel. No matter their background, every one of them exhibits the same types of habits that help them to become masters at adding meaning to collected items.
Curation doesn’t require you to be an expert or a researcher or an academic. Learning these five habits will help you put the power of curation to work to help you discover better ideas and use them to develop your own observations about the rapidly accelerating present.
| THE 5 HABITS OF TREND CURATORS |
| BEING CURIOUS – always asking why, investing in learning and improving your knowledge by investigating and asking questions.BEING OBSERVANT – learning to see the small details in stories and life that others may ignore or fail to recognize as significant.BEING FICKLE – moving from one idea to the next without becoming fixated, or overanalyzing each idea in the moment.BEING THOUGHTFUL – taking time to develop a meaningful point of view and considering alternative viewpoints without bias.BEING ELEGANT – seeking beautiful ways to describe ideas that bring together disparate concepts in a simple and understandable way. |
For the past five years I have been sharing and teaching these habits through workshops and classes to business professionals, entrepreneurs and university students. Those experiences have taught me that we all have the aptitude to learn these skills.
To learn how let’s start with the first habit: curiosity.
How to Be Curious
Bjarni Herjulfsson could have been one of the most famous explorers in the history of the world.
Instead, his life has become a cautionary tale about the historic consequences of lacking curiosity. In the year 986, he set off on a voyage from Norway with a crew to find Greenland. Blown off course by a storm, his ship became the first European vessel in recorded history to see North America.
Despite his crew pleading to stop and explore, Herjulfsson refused and guided his ship back on course to eventually find Greenland. Years later, he told this tale to a friend named Leif Eriksson who became inspired, purchased Herjulfsson’s ship and took the journey for himself.
As many of us learned in grade school, Eriksson is now widely remembered as the first European to land in North America—nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus. Herjulfsson, on the other hand, has been mostly forgotten and his story illustrates one of the most compelling facts about curiosity: it is a prerequisite to discovery.
Being more curious means asking questions about why things work the way they do and embracing unfamiliar situations or topics with a sense of wonder.
Humans are naturally curious. The challenge is to continually find ways to allow yourself to explore your curiosity without it becoming an ongoing distraction.
When noted chef and food pioneer Ferran Adrià was once asked what he likes to have for breakfast, his reply was simple: “I like to eat a different fruit every day of the month.”
Imagine if you were able to do that with ideas.
Part of being curious is wanting to consume stories, ideas and experiences to earn greater knowledge of the world, even if that knowledge doesn’t seem immediately useful.
REAL LIFE ADVICE (3 WAYS TO BE MORE CURIOUS TODAY)
1 Consume “Brainful Media” – Sadly we are surrounded with “brainless media,” including reality shows featuring unlikeable people doing unlikeable things (sometimes on islands, sometimes in our backyards). While often addictively entertaining, brainless media encourages vegetation instead of curiosity. Curiosity is fueled by consuming “brainful media,” such as a short documentary film or inspirational 17-minute talk from TED.com instead.
2 Empathize with Magazines – Curiosity helps you see the world through someone else’s eyes, even if it is initially uncomfortable. One technique I often use is buying niche magazines to learn about unfamiliar topics. Simply walking into the magazine section of a bookstore offers plenty of options. For example, Modern Farmer, Model Railroader and House Beautiful are three vastly different magazines. Flipping through the stories, advertisements and imagery in each will do more to take you outside of your own world than almost any other quick and easy activity.
3 Ask Bigger Questions – Last year I was invited to deliver a talk at an event for the paint industry. It is an industry I know very little about and so it was tempting to show up, deliver my keynote and then leave. Instead, I stayed and walked around the exhibit hall asking questions. In less than 30 minutes I learned about how paint is mixed and what additives are typically used. I heard about the industry debate between all-plastic cans versus steel and the rise of computerized color matching systems. As a result my talk was far more relevant because I chose to stay and ask more questions instead of taking the easy path.
WHAT TO READ
Historical Fiction – Every great piece of historical fiction was inspired by a writer who found a story in history that was worth retelling and sharing with the world. This curiosity makes books like Erik Larson’s The Devil In The White City (about murder at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair) or Simon Winchester’s The Professor And the Madman (about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary) wonderful gateways to start thinking about the world in unexpected ways.
Curated Compilations – There are many books that bring together real life stories or essays to help you think about new and interesting topics. A collection of shorter topics and stories is sometimes far easier to use for engaging your curiosity than a longer book. For example, the This Will Make You Smarter series edited by John Brockman or any book by You
