I read widely and collect knowledge on as vast a number of topics as I can, because I want to make unexpected connections.
Standardized school teaches us to make the expected connections: make the right deductive leap to answer an SAT question correctly. Answer an essay prompt in the expected format. Make the correct observations and come to the right conclusions in a chemistry experiment.
Filling up our young people with knowledge is important, and I think it’s worthwhile – even if you never read Charles Dickens again after American Lit. Even if you never employ the Law of Cosines again. Even if you forget that two sharps is D Major!
But we forget why – it’s not to regurgitate the knowledge in class, on a test, or to sound smart later in life. It’s to collect knowledge that you can connect in new ways.
Art is interested in unexpected connections. And whether you’re a painter or a plumber, you can make art in your life by collecting more knowledge and combining it in interesting ways. There are plenty of people doing it like everyone else; the art and the joy comes in doing it your own way. The best way to do that is, yes, with unexpected connections – connections no one else has made.
I want to make unexpected connections, and that is why I am curious.