Embed Notice

"Curiosity is your most important asset." - Futurist Jim Carroll

--
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, The Art of the Infinite Pivot, based on 36 lessons from his 36 years as a solo entrepreneur, working as a nomadic worker in the global freelance economy. The series is unfolding here, and at pivot.jimcarroll.com.
--

Be like Curious George.

I'll often share that quizzical observation on stage to an audience of serious business executives - and the fact is, I mean it.

Here's why: curiosity is not a personality trait that allows you to accelerate innovation, spot trends before others do, or think differently in a world in which everyone is thinking the same thing.

It is an economic asset. And in 2026, with the acceleration of AI, it could very well be the single most valuable thing you can own.

Why? In an AI economy, almost everything you can know has been commoditized. Information is free. Expertise is downloadable. Knowledge has lost most of its scarcity. Everyone is pumping out the same stuff as everyone else. Heck, I'm feeling it with what I write and speak about.

In that context, what remains scarce, and therefore valuable, is a mindset of exploration, the ability to explore new ideas, and a willingness to let go of the norms and find new ones. That's curiosity - the actual human drive to follow things down a rabbit hole, to spend an evening reading about something you have no business reading about, or to tinker with something simply because it seems interesting. That drive to explore cannot be outsourced. It cannot be downloaded. It cannot be faked. It is intrinsic to your value.

In the era of AI, curiosity is the one asset that does not lose value.

And it's powerful. I learned this almost by accident. In the early 1980s, I spent thousands of hours on obscure BBS boards, clunky early communication software programs, and bizarre online communities most of my coworkers had never heard of, via. 300-baud and 1200-baud modems. I didn't know what was going on, but I wanted to know more. To a casual observer and to my co-workers, I was wasting my time sitting up till 2 am or 3 am exploring online worlds. They often told me so in blunt terms. I was throwing away my career. I should be doing more important things.

I didn't care. I just wanted to know what this strange new "thing" was. That apparently frivolous curiosity became the foundation of my entire career as an Internet author, a futurist, and eventually whatever it is I am now.

I wasn't lucky. I was curious.

So here is the practical version. Weaponize your curiosity. Schedule it. Defend it. Block thirty minutes a week to chase something you have no business chasing. Read the article outside your industry. Try the tool you don't yet need. Ask the question that makes you sound naive in the meeting.

---

Futurist Jim Carroll is looking forward to reading the entire Curious George series to his new grandson.

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/05/decoding-tomorrow-the-infinite-pivot-series-35-curiosity-is-your-most-important-asset/