Ever noticed how everyone claims to be “intensely curious” on their social profiles? It’s become the avocado toast of personality traits – seemingly everywhere, but are we all just faking it for social media clout? Are we really curious as cats?

Wait, are cats actually curious?

We’ve branded cats as curiosity’s poster children, but perhaps we’ve got it backwards. In Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment, it wasn’t the cat’s curiosity at stake – it was our own human curiosity about quantum mechanics that theoretically put that poor cat in the box. Come to think of it, the cat was merely a participant in our intellectual adventures.

Maybe cats got their curious reputation because of that old belief about nine lives. Having a cosmic backup plan might explain why cats boldly investigate everything from dark corners to high ledges - they act like they’ve got a supernatural safety net. It’s as if they’re playing life with cheat codes, making every risky exploration worth the gamble since they’ve got eight more chances to get it right.

”I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious.” - Einstein

Easy for him to say, he revolutionized physics! But what about the rest of us scrolling through cat videos pretending to be Renaissance polymaths?

Curiosity Meter?

Let’s get real: If we were to create a “Curiosity Meter” (patent pending :p), what would it measure? Perhaps we could score people on a scale from “Wouldn’t notice if their house changed color” to “Basically Leonardo da Vinci reincarnated.” Here’s my totally unscientific but amusing proposal for measuring curiosity levels:

1. The Screensaver: Only asks “What’s for dinner?” and “Why is the WiFi down?”
2. The Small Talker: Occasionally Googles their ex and reads weather forecasts
3. The Wikipedia Wanderer: Starts reading about penguins, ends up learning about Ancient Mesopotamia at 3 AM
4. The Rabbit Hole Resident: Has 47 browser tabs open about everything from quantum physics to why flamingos are pink
5. The Modern da Vinci: Builds rockets in their garage while learning Sanskrit and beekeeping

But here’s where it gets interesting. Socrates, that old gadfly of Athens, said “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” Yet in our modern world, we seem to have confused curiosity with consumption. We binge-watch documentaries and claim intellectual superiority, but how many of us actually stop to question our own assumptions?

Richard Feynman, the bongo-playing physicist, once said,

“I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.”

Now that’s honest! Perhaps true curiosity isn’t about knowing everything but about maintaining that childlike wonder about knowing nothing.

Is curiosity overrated?

Well, considering it gave us everything from penicillin to pizza delivery apps, I’d say no. But perhaps we’re rating the wrong kind of curiosity. We celebrate the showy, Instagram-worthy kind – “Look at me reading quantum physics on the beach!” – while overlooking the quiet curiosity of a grandmother learning to use FaceTime to talk to her grandkids.

The real question isn’t whether people are faking curiosity (though some definitely are – I see you, internet philosophers), but whether we’re nurturing the right kind of curiosity. The kind that makes us ask uncomfortable questions, challenge our own beliefs, and occasionally make fools of ourselves in pursuit of understanding.

As for whether it’s a positive trait – well, like any tool, it depends on how you use it. Curious people discovered both penicillin and nuclear weapons. The key might be pairing curiosity with wisdom, or at least with enough common sense not to microwave metal. So perhaps instead of claiming to be curious, we should focus on being genuinely interested in the world around us. After all, as Dorothy Parker wisely noted,

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.”

And if you’ve read this far, congratulations! According to my highly scientific Curiosity Meter, you’ve at least made it past Level 1. Unless, of course, you were just curious about when this article would end.

Final thoughts

So next time you catch yourself or your cat investigating something new, remember: curiosity might occasionally inconvenience a cat, but it’s what keeps both species growing, learning, and occasionally knocking things off tables just to see what happens. And just like that empty box that endlessly fascinates your cat, sometimes the simplest questions lead to the most interesting places. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my cat is intensely investigating an empty paper bag, and I’m genuinely curious to see how that turns out.