Very Interesting

“My experience is what I agree to attend to.  Only those items which I notice shape my mind – without selective interest experience is an utter chaos.”  (William James, 1842—1910)

Once-a-year I taught an interesting class, a class about ‘interesting’.  It started when I became aware how often I heard that word come out of the mouths of medical students and trainees.  “Dr. Boxer, I have an interesting case to discuss.”  I became interested in ‘interesting’.  I heard the word so often that I figured that it must mean something very important, it being used so frequently by so many.

Tell me you have an ‘interesting case’, and you’re telling me to pay attention.  I am about to hear something good, something worthy of my time and reflection. You’re also reassuring me of your consideration.  You would never take up my time with something mundane or boring. Tell me that something is ‘interesting’, I will likely invest my time and mental energy.  Actually, if you tell me that something is 'interesting', you are hoping I will find it to be so.  You may or may not.

‘Interesting’ has a positive valence but is not final judgment.  If it is ‘interesting’ it is worthy of attention, observation and scrutiny, but it does not predetermine good or bad, right or wrong.

Calling something ‘interesting’ creates a dichotomy.  If there are interesting cases, there must also be uninteresting cases. Maybe there is not a dichotomy but a spectrum from most- interesting to least-interesting.  Of course, that opens the possibility of an inverse spectrum, least-boring to most-boring.

Is ‘interesting’ an inherent feature of the observed or a subjective impression of the observer?  Answer, yes.  What makes something interesting?  Answer, multiple factors:

·         Biology, including instinct, intelligence, talent and temperament, factors into what is selectively interesting to us as humans.

·         Psychology, factors into what is selectively interesting.  Called ‘confirmation bias’ we select that which supports our beliefs and exclude that which refutes or challenges us to think otherwise.

·         Development plays a role.  What is interesting to an infant is different from what is interesting to a toddler.  What is interesting to an adolescent is different from what is interesting to an adult.

·         Experience, the cumulative narrative of our past, our family, our education, and our social environment, factors into what, for us, is interesting.

‘Interesting’ has a physiologic component, a state of arousal and an orientation towards something. ‘Interesting’ has emerged evolutionarily.   It might be said that the sun is interesting to a plant. I know from personal experience, that a mayfly is interesting to a trout.  Certainly, a ball of yarn is interesting to a cat. Advertisers are experts at identifying and exploiting that which is interesting to the human species.

Humans, especially, seem vulnerable to disorders of interest – too much, too little, inconsistent, misdirected, inappropriate, or pathological.

The world is far too vast, far too busy, and far too complex to be experienced fully.  Our lives our governed through the lenses of selective interest.  We ask, we listen, we see, and we understand according to our interest.  To avoid “utter chaos” we, by necessity, select and then filter out the rest.  Think about it.  It’s really kind of interesting.