Interesting bits of information; I am not sure that it satisfies a discussion of curiosity. It does explore.

La curiosità è una caratteristica innata dell'essere umano, e si manifesta in molti modi diversi. La curiosità può essere definita come l'interesse per nuove informazioni, esperienze o situazioni, spesso accompagnato da un desiderio di esplorare, scoprire o capire qualcosa di nuovo.

Ci sono diverse teorie che cercano di spiegare cosa ci rende curiosi. Una di queste teorie suggerisce che la curiosità sia il risultato di una discrepanza tra ciò che pensiamo di sapere e ciò che vorremmo sapere. Quando ci accorgiamo di una discrepanza, la nostra curiosità viene stimolata e tendiamo ad essere più motivati a cercare informazioni o esperienze per colmare questa lacuna.

Un'altra teoria suggerisce che la curiosità sia guidata dall'emozione della sorpresa. Quando ci troviamo di fronte a qualcosa di inaspettato o sorprendente, la nostra curiosità viene stimolata perché desideriamo capire e comprendere cosa sta succedendo e perché.

Inoltre, la curiosità può essere influenzata da fattori cognitivi, come la complessità delle informazioni o la novità dell'esperienza. Ad esempio, quando ci troviamo di fronte a qualcosa di particolarmente complesso o nuovo, la nostra curiosità può essere stimolata perché desideriamo capire e apprendere qualcosa di nuovo.

La curiosità è importante perché ci spinge a esplorare, imparare e crescere come individui. Essa ci aiuta a rimanere mentalmente attivi e aperti alle nuove esperienze, e può portare a scoperte importanti e innovazioni in diversi campi. Inoltre, la curiosità può essere vista come un'emozione positiva, in quanto ci fa sentire vivi, interessati e coinvolti nella vita. ( )

willpower (pp .109f); Curious about curiosity: Neuroscience (chapter 6, pp. 95f)

Mario Livio is a very well-known polymath, an astrophysicist as well as an author known for writing books on different math and physics related topics. I had read about this particular book on the New York Times, the idea of exploring curiosity excited me immensely. A systematic look at why we are curious and what the sciences tell us about our curiosity was a very seductive topic indeed.
In the end, the final couple of chapters really redeemed the book, as for the rest of the book, I cannot really put a finger on why the material failed to engage my….curiosity, but it did not.
This is a thin book, not really an academic tome on the science and history of curiosity, yet it retains that flavor throughout. Dr. Livio is a good writer, and undertook a very logical and systematic approach to telling the story, I expected no less from and eminent astrophysicist.
The first chapter examines the very human trait of being curious. He very nicely and in the fine story telling fashion of these kind of books to lay out the ground work for examining what curiosity is and what curiosity means to him personally, as he is the primary investigator of this book.
Three chapters are about people, people who has exhibited the kind of intense curiosity that enticed Dr. Livio to examine the topic. Two chapters tells the story of two legendary polymaths from the past: Leonardo da Vinci and Richard Feynman. These were entertaining and knowledgeable chapters telling the stories of the intellectual prowess of two remarkable men. He makes the case that curiosity is what drove these men to the achievements that they have accomplished. While they are not complete biographies of these two giants of science and curiosity seekers, the two chapters fully drew my attention into the story. Much later, Dr. Livio interviewed living polymaths, people who exhibit the same kind of intense curiosity as Leonardo and Feynman. They are living in the modern world, and their stories are similarly engaging, although they are just a little less fascinating since they have yet to come to a complete picture of the result of their curiosity since their productive life is far from over.
A very scientifically satisfying and thorough examination of curiosity was undertaken through the usual process of reviewing and encapsulating the most recent research being done in the sciences. A substantial chapter was devoted to the anthropology of curiosity, two chapters were devoted to a competent review of what we know about curiosity from the psychological and neuroscience aspects of the topic. A chapter was devoted to the human love of curiosity, a historical look at our civilization and how curiosity drives us into achieving what we have achieved as a civilization. In the end two chapters were devoted to asking the question Why Curiosity and an epilogue which nicely summarizes the book.
I liked the organization, I liked the approach, and it should have been quite an easy sell to me, but it was challenging for me to completely engage in the stories and studies. I would postulate that Dr. Livio made his case in a pretty clinical way. The psychological studies, as well as the neuroscience chapters were kind of a slog because I was not familiar with those areas and I was struggling with some of the conclusions and arguments. I am not sure if doing more with what he had or whether doing less with what he had would have helped. I think I still would have had a challenging time. Perhaps in skimming over the book after some time had passed would do the trick.
Indeed, I am very glad that this book was written and at least this was placed in the popular literature for the sake of posterity. I believe that it is a capable and informative book on the subject of curiosity, which made me curious and being curious, which after all is what the purpose of the book is supposed to be. ( )

So I found this book about curiosity to be dull, which seems to me antithetical to a book on curiosity (also, I keep typing curiousity because the English language and I are having issues today). Even as the book traveled between psychology, neuroscience, and history, all subjects I have levels of curiosity about, I just did not care. Maybe it was the writing style, which is neither dry and scientific nor really pop-science chummy, but somewhere in between (I really didn't need to know, for instance, that the author skyped with certain interviewees in the book)? Maybe it was the lack of narrative, since I'm a sucker for narrative and reading non-fiction books that don't have a story-line is often difficult for me? Maybe there was too much talking about Feynman in the book, who while brilliant, always makes me feel very uncomfortable. Maybe I'm just plain incurious about curiosity? I can't say. But the book left me not wanting more, so I can't say that, in the realms of curiosity, it was a success.

Also, if anyone can explain to me why we don't spell it curiousity, it would be greatly appreciated.

Addendum: Levi is a physicist. Every other book I've reviewed by a physicist, said physicist has contacted me to point out flaws and/or disagree with my review. So I have that to look forward to, I suppose :p

Why? by Mario Levi went on sale July 11, 2017.

I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )