My response to a question on Quora:

"How does one recover the curiosity lost in childhood?"

A quick one. Some ideas to share with you:

1) Act like a child, but don't be childish. More precisely, adopt a child's mindset of a beginner.

2) Understand that curiosity starts with interest, and interest permeates all learning endeavours. So develop a personal interest in things, places, people, ideas all around you. The world out there is full of possibilities.

3) Strive to break patterned routines, so as to be able to see something different or think something different or do something different; more precisely, to see the world afresh and anew.

4) Naturally, embrace a warm, sincere and genuine interest in people all around you, as people are your greatest resource, as well as your wonderful opportunity to learn, grow and change.

5) Listen attentively, and talk less. That's why we have one mouth and two ears. Just kidding!

6) Keep learning - and doing - new things, so as to gain expanded perspectives and new experiences. Evolving experiences = more applied knowledge!

7) Since as much as 90% of what we learn in a life-time always come to us via visual cues, according to information scientists, we should constantly enhance our perceptual sensitivity to the environment.

So, more than 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci was absolutely right when he said, use all our senses, especially our sense of sight.

viii) When looking at a problem or challenge or issue at hand, explore beyond the positives and the negatives, like what's interesting here.

9) When you arrive at a seemingly endpoint, intentionally ask: what else is there? what's missing here? where's the gap? what is NOT yet happening?

10) Constantly strategise and think through your problems, by seeing ahead, seeing beyond, seeing from above, seeing from behind, seeing sideways, seeing beneath, seeing within and seeing through.

11) Suspend judgment and make unlikely connections, especially from disparate spheres of activity, no matter how weird they may be. Use them as jump off points.

12) Don't hesitate to play with crazy questions: what would Sherlock Holmes see and/or do? what about Iron Man? Mike Wazowski (Monsters)? Hiro Hamada (Big Hero 6)? Ralph (Wreck-it-Ralph)? Po (Kung Fu Panda? Skipper or Kowalski (Madagascar)?

13) Occasionally, don't hesitate to play, explore and experiment, with analogies:

Personal/Direct/Symbolic/Fantasy (from Synectics).

14) Learn how to imagine possibilities by copycatting, piggybacking, hitchhiking and leapfrogging on other people's ideas. Remember, Ideas Build on Ideas!

15) Playing with all kinds of scenarios in the head - best-case, realistic-case, and worst-case is fun! Indulge in it.

16) Don't be afraid to play, explore and experiment with unorthodox methods to imagine more possibilities: image streaming; constructive daydreaming; creative visualisation; deliberate doodling (with nondominant hand); vision boards (cut and paste collagework); mandalas.

17) Not to forget, read, read, and read widely and deeply, all kinds of published works, mainstream as well as from the fringes, so that you can have continual sustainable intellectual horsepower.

18) Write, write, and write, so as to garner people's attention to your evolving acumen and growing expertise, which often can lead to more public speaking and consulting engagements.

19) Develop a continual and never-ending idea/insight generating mindset, and a pro-active problem solving attitude, so that folks around you can turn to you for advice and help.

20) Go all out to share your knowledge, experience and acumen, as "Knowledge Shared is Power Squared".

21) Last but not least, be humble.

Enjoy your continuing journey with a sense of curiosity, wonder and discovery!