On Idle Curiosity: A Brief Explanation
Idle curiosity is used here as Thorstein Veblen originally used the term. It is an instinct or habit of thought “by force of which men, more or less insistently, want to know things, when graver interests do not engross their attention.”1
It is "'idle' in the sense that a knowledge of things is sought, apart from any ulterior use of the knowledge so gained".2 Thus, "the sole end of the truly inquiring mind should be irresponsible scholarship, idle curiosity, and useless knowledge."
The pursuit of such learning and knowledge is unquenchable, according to Veblen: “The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before.”
Thus we proceed, with open minds. Like an parachute, minds only work when they’re open. Perhaps, and most likely incidentally, something good may come of it all but if it doesn’t, so be it.
Thorstein Veblen, The Instinct of Workmanship (New York: Macmillan, 1914), p.85.
Veblen, The Higher Learning in America, p. 5.