Seek
How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World
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- €6.99
Publisher Description
'A timely bridge for our divided world' - Adam Grant, bestselling author of Give and Take
Open your mind, heal your relationships, and connect across divides with this groundbreaking guide to deep curiosity from internationally-recognized curiosity expert, Scott Shigeoka.
At a time when tensions over race, religion, gender identity and more have fractured our lives and relationships, curiosity is the key to fostering connection, growth, and healing.
Seek will help you build the courage to be transformed by the people, places and experiences you encounter – unlocking deep curiosity, and strengthening this fundamental human skill.
Using Shigeoka's transformative four-step framework, you will enhance your capacity to:
Detach: Let go of your ABCs (Assumptions, Biases, Certainty)
Intend: Prepare your mindset and environment
Value: See the dignity of every person – including yourself!
Embrace: Welcome the hard times in life as a catalyst for connection and transformation
A must-read for our times, this book will help you to shift your perspective, understand differences and lead a more curious life.
'Energizing, creative and exciting' - Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of The Happiness Project
'Scott Shigeoka's exploration into the nature of curiosity and how opening our hearts and minds to the unknown can transform our experience is sure to capture the interest of many readers. - Dr Kristen Neff, bestselling author of Self-Compassion
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The relentlessly optimistic debut from Shigeoka, a lecturer at the Center for Integrated Design at the University of Texas-Austin, posits that curiosity can strengthen relationships and bridge partisan divides. As a "city-dwelling liberal Asian American spiritually queer professor and researcher from Hawai'i," Shigeoka in 2019 embarked on a trip from Arkansas to Minnesota to Montana, seeking to meet members of "the other side"—Trump supporters, rural farmers, faith leaders—in hopes of easing his anxieties about America's polarization. What he discovered (in himself and others) was a "deep curiosity" that powers "meaningful connection"; "unlocks" a sense of security, joy, and freedom; and fosters personal transformation. To tap into their own deep curiosity, readers should release preexisting biases, cultivate the "right mindset" for curiosity-seeking (for example, one can "pull curiosity to the forefront by paying attention to the number of questions you're asking in conversation"), work on valuing the inherent worth of all people, and embrace curiosity in moments of hurt and anger. Despite some awkward attempts to sound hip that fail to land ("We need to move away from BDE to the more evolved BCE: big curiosity energy"), Shigeoka presents an energetic case for the power of openness in an era characterized by social isolation and echo chambers. Shigeoka's enthusiasm for exploration and connection is contagious.
