The gift of attention and the question I love to ask

I’m curious. By nature. I remember being a kid and browsing encyclopedias or other educational books at home: nature, history, geography, the human body, even Webster’s English dictionary. The paper sort, of course, as the Internet was still an infant.

I asked a lot of questions, especially to adults. And I loved storytelling! One of my primary school teachers excelled at this as she always staged this fantastic mise-en-scène to tell us the same tale (the one we always wanted to hear).

I always felt rather at ease speaking to strangers so it was natural to engage into a conversation that would allow me to know them better: “What do you do/study? Where are you from? What kind of music/sports/activity do you like?”

Growing up I’ve started to really enjoy a good “serious” conversation: you know, the ones about the meaning of life, love, the role of women in society & business, the challenges & benefits of modern life, but most of all about the fears and dreams others (or I) hold.

I still carry this combination of disposition (to be curious) and satisfaction (of listening to the stories others tell) which is why I tend to ask many questions when meeting someone for the first time.

But I’ll let you in on a little secret: there’s one question I love to ask nowadays: “To whom do you have lots of time for?” Why? Because I’m interested in finding out to whom the smart people I meet devote the gift of their attention in a time when our attention is one of the most precious gifts we can give.

Who are the authors/thinkers/writers/creators that grasp your attention? Who are the persons that inspire or interest you so much that when they write a new tweet, blog post, paper or book (or play or song or whatever they do) you cannot wait to check it out? Feel free to share your answer via a comment… or save it to when we meet

PS – among others, I have lots of time for JP Rangaswami: I love his writing and the stories he tells. You can find him on Twitter as @jobsworth and go check is blog at http://confusedofcalcutta.com/