PRINCIPLE EIGHT:
AI makes us faster, curiosity makes us better
Technology can help us explore more ideas than ever before, but it can't tell us what really matters.
Curiosity is what keeps us asking better questions, challenging the obvious answer, and looking for something more human.
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From creative to sous chef
Technology can accelerate the work. Curiosity is what gets us outside the brief. I’ve always been curious about what happens on the other side of that document. Not just what people do, but why they do it. That curiosity once took me somewhere I hadn’t planned to go.
I was photographing a chef training session at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley. My job was to capture the morning through my camera. I was perfectly happy doing that, surrounded by talented chefs, gleaming equipment, enough fresh ingredients to make any photographer happy.
Then Master Chef Lars walked over, took my camera, handed me a chef’s coat, and told me to go grab some horseradish from cold storage. Two thoughts hit me immediately: where is cold storage, and am I actually sure I’d recognize horseradish on sight? Turns out curiosity has consequences.
I spent the rest of the morning working alongside four chefs, prepping ingredients, helping put together a meal. What started as a detour I didn’t see coming turned into one of those experiences that quietly changes how you see your own work.
I came away understanding chefs differently. Not just as subjects to photograph or people to market, but as creative partners with their own process, their own pressures, their own ambitions. That made me a better teammate. And it reminded me why I’ve always valued curiosity in the first place.
Today, AI can help us explore ideas faster than ever. It can spit out possibilities, variations, directions, in seconds. But it can’t decide which experience is worth having. It can’t replace the urge to just walk into the kitchen and ask, “What happens if I try this?”
What this taught me...
When you genuinely want to understand someone else's world, you become a better partner to them.
Some of the best creative insight comes from temporarily becoming a beginner somewhere else.
You can ask someone to explain how they work. Or, occasionally, you can put on a coat and find out.
