You may or may not know this, but for awhile now I’ve been doing a podcast with fellow thriller author, Nick Thacker. It’s called (wait for it)…

Stuff That’s Real (That You Didn’t Know Was Real) But Also Is Cool Podcast. Or you can call it Stuff That’s Real or STR, we won’t mind.

Well, Nick might…

So the idea behind this show is that Nick and I both do a lot of research, as authors. We’re always reading, watching, listening to, and otherwise absorbing by osmosis all sorts of interesting facts about the world. We have experiences, we have conversations with each other and with other authors, and we end up with this filter full of ideas. A lot of those end up in our books. But some don’t—and what do you do with them then?

So our solution was to create a show where we share them with the world, two stories at a time, every week. And when we share them, we geek out over them. We discuss them, like two guys having a whiskey at a bar, what-if-ing our way through about 45 minutes of discussion. We talk about the story, and stories it reminds us of, and related ideas, and then we talk about how we (or some other author) might use this stuff in a thriller novel or other story.

It’s a fun time. I highly recommend it. In fact, I know I’m biased, but it’s become my favorite podcast to listen to. No joke.

Now, other than obviously pitching this show to a potential audience, the reason I thought I’d write about this is that STR represents a “secret” that I use ever single day, as an author. And when I say “secret,” I mean it’s really no secret at all. It’s just something I’ve always done, and always will do, in the name of having a never ending well of story ideas. And that secret is “stay curious.”

Today, in a chat about books among a bunch of folks I work with, I used this phrase:

The quickest and easiest way to become a genius is to be curious about everything.

That’s not a quote (well… it is… it’s just me quoting me). But it is a truth. It’s what I’ve observed, over and over, among the “geniuses” in the world. In fact, if it it can be qualified in some way, I would put money on there being an exponential relationship between one’s level of curiosity and one’s intelligence. The more curious you are, the smarter you are.

And the broader your curiosity, the more the higher the exponent in that relationship.

It’s going to be a controversial statement—I’ve actually had people get really angry with me over this in the past—but there’s a dirty little truth about “expertise.” In order to be an expert, you simply need to know more about any given subject than the next guy. Which is to say, an expert knows more about the subject than subjectively anyone else, but may only know more by a fraction.

It’s a relativity game. It means that if you read the top three books on a subject, you would be an expert on that subject relative to other people.

That doesn’t mean your the “top most expert on the planet.” It means that compare to Bob, you know more, and so of the two of you, you’re the expert. If he reads the top four books on that subject, he’ll surpass you in expertise.

All of this is sort of hypothetical, but it checks out, logically.

So if you’re the most curious person in your peer group, and you obsess over reading about anything and everything that interests you, and you consume movies and television shows, articles and blot posts, podcasts and YouTube videos on these subjects all the time—just can’t get enough—it won’t take long for you to be far more of an expert on all of those subjects than anyone else you know.

Most people, even if t hey have a strong interest, only go so deep into a subject. Most of the time, their interest and curiosity is passing at best.

So the moral is, if you want to be smarter than everyone else, consume more information about everything. Cultivate being curious. It’s a superpower.

And for writers, I’d argue that it’s your job. Your career is built on being curious, satisfying that curiosity, and then sharing what you’v learned with the world, through your writing. If you’re not doing that, you’re probably not quite hitting the mark with what you write. You may lose interest in your own writing. And if you do, the reader will.

If you’re a reader, I’d argue that curiosity is the shortest route to enriching your life, and giving you a means for feeling fulfilled and happy. You’ll gain more advantages, you’ll have a deeper understanding of the world and the people in it, and you' will be more interesting, yourself. You want to “win friends and influence people?” The secret is “be curious as hell.”

I’d love it if you gave Stuff That’s Real a try. And if you love it, share it with friends and family. And be sure to reach out to us with any topics you’d like to see us chat about. Say hello. And share in the curiosity.