I can’t stand a mystery; never have been able to. I have – and always have had – a deep abiding need to figure out and understand the world around me. Whether it is what someone is thinking, how something works or why something happens, I simply need to know and, according to my mom at least, I’ve always been that way.

Some of my earliest clear memories involve exploration of one sort or another. Many of them specifically involve taking things apart that I probably shouldn’t have. That’s just me. I take things apart; and I don’t get people who don’t take things apart. I have to know what makes something tick. I need to know how the mechanism inside works to produce the end result. I’ve simply never found anything I am afraid to take apart. A few times I had some second thought well into the deconstruction process, but that’s a whole other discussion. Rather it is a car engine or a laptop, it’s fair game. And I could sit and watch shows like “How its made” or “Ultimate Factory” pretty much non-stop, given the time, and never get tired of it. Sometime I feel like Johnny 5 from Short Circuit; need more input.

The flip side of that same coin is that I’ve always made stuff. Over the years I’ve built everything from transistor radios to strobe lights just, well, because it would be cool. That, and it was an exercise in further understanding a concept; and that curiosity has certainly served me well in life, but has from time to time landed me in trouble. In fact, the worst beating my dad ever gave me was because of it (calm down, mom. I’m using the term beating for effect. Well, OK, not so much in this particular case, but you know what I mean). My parents had just gotten a brand new Sony Trinitron TV when I was perhaps nine. It was a brand new technology and one of the most expensive TVs out there. We were far from rich but my mom had gotten it in barter for work she’d done for the owner of an appliance store. The point is, it was an extreme luxury item for us.

Well, as luck would have it I was working on a project at that time that was in need of a power cord… so I removed the one from the TV. Oh, and I should mention that we’d had the TV less than a week. Stop looking at me like that, I was gonna put it back before my parents got home. The operative word here, of course, being was. Unfortunately dad, who was a union guy and never ever got off early, got off early. And the first thing he did when he got home? Turn on his new TV. And the first thing he did when it didn’t come on? Check to see if it was plugged in. And the first thing he did when he discovered that it wasn’t plugged in, nor did it have a power cord any longer? Well, that’s where the beating came in.

I still haven’t worked up the nerve to tell him I’d also completely disassembled that same TV the day before. Oh, and I should note that I wasn’t a kid who took things apart and left them broken. I’ve always been able to put them back together in working order, and with no parts left over as an added bonus. Somehow that fact seemed to console my dad very little that day. Oh, and dad, if you’re reading this, now you know. I took it completely apart. But the TV still works to this day, right? OK, right, I’ll call before next time we come down just to be safe…

The same curiosity applies to people too. Well, I mean, I’ve never taken one apart and have no plans to, but I need to know what makes people tick. I could spend the day at Disney doing nothing but watching those around me given the chance. People are just fascinating to me. And again, that evidently dates back to my earliest years as well. My mom tells me that I was the easiest kid in the world to take care of when I was little; as long as she sat me somewhere I could see people I would sit quietly and watch them for hours. They didn’t have to be interacting with me, just where I could see them. The same still applies. In the many times I’ve been stuck in an airport because of a canceled flight or weather I’ve never had a problem passing the time. Some people read, others strike up conversations with those around them and still others get on the phone. I, on the other hand, sit and watch everyone read, talk to each other and talk on the phone. Don’t get me wrong, I also get involved in conversations with those around me sometimes, it just isn’t necessary for me. I’m entertained either way.

People’s ability to constantly surprise me is part of the draw I think. I mean, a computer is cool and fun but, unless you install Vista on it, it is a fairly predictable thing. The same input will produce the same output every time. Not so with people; you simply never know how or why someone will react to a given circumstance. I’ve always been an informal student of psychology. Talk about the ultimately complex system. I mean, wow! Now here’s something I’ll never figure out!

Reading through this it may sound like I’m watching fish in a bowl or bugs under glass but that isn’t it at all. I love people. I am a very social creature and empathetic to a fault at times, but that doesn’t mean I can’t also watch whats going on with those around me. It is far more entertaining than anything on TV.

What it really boils down to is this: curiosity defines me. In fact, it is the culmination of the curiosity about things and curiosity about people that has led me to where I am today. The job I have is very specialized in several regards, but nowhere more so than in the ability to work on very complex systems while still being able to relate to non-technical people in English. That, and being able to read those customer’s reactions since further business for my company often hinges on how well I do so. I am very very good at my job but only because it fits my natural disposition so completely.

The only real downside of that tendency for me is when I encounter a mystery I’m not allowed to solve. Not something I am incapable of solving – that doesn’t bother me it only makes me dig my heels in more – but those I’m not allowed to. Sometimes it is because it involves a customer’s proprietary or sensitive information that would inherently be disclosed by any further digging. Sometimes it is for personal reasons; respect for a friend’s privacy or things that I know are simply none of my business. Not being allowed to explore that curiosity causes me a discomfort that is almost physical. It is a burr under the saddle as it were. But, as with any other area of life you learn to deal with the limits you are given. It’s just that that particular one is a tough one for me.

And it seems that, through the wonder of genetics, Justin has inherited that same inquisitive nature about both people and things. He is able to take things apart (and put them back together) that most kids twice his age would have difficulty with. It is just something he gets. And any time I pull out the tools he is positively mesmerized. If I show up with some tool whose function isn’t immediately apparent he will stand ans quietly stare it it (not me, it) until I explain it to him. If I’m not quick enough to explain, he starts asking about it. The last one was a digital multimeter. Try explaining that to a three year old sometime. Fuuuuuun.

And, while his language skills lagged way behind that of his youngest sister, Courtney, he is far more observant of people. Courtney at 6 has already begun to defer coordinating any sneaky activity or requests for candy or anything we might say no to to him even though he is half her age. She knows he is far more likely to be successful. It is really amusing to watch him sometimes; he conducts almost obvious experiments in other people’s reaction. He will do things to provoke a reaction from you (good or bad) and you can see in his little face that he is actively observing your reaction. Then later you can see him apply what he learned in his attempts to get you to let him have something he wants. At 3 (well, just turned 4) it is painfully obvious when he is trying to manipulate you, but I’m very concerned about when he gets older. I fear he will be a little slippery. But the point is, he is in constant observation mode. Courtney is extremely smart and is always learning, but not in the same way as Justin. She absorbs information from books, he absorbs it from the world around him.

So I have a hint of how his life might unfold and what to watch out for, unlike my poor mother. At least I have that. And I fear for my stuff. As he gets older who knows what he will take apart (and hopefully put back together). Just the same, it is really neat to watch. Sometimes I feel like I have my own personal mini-me. So for me, as I suspect it will be for Justin, the phrase ‘learn something new every day’ is more an active statement than a passive one. I am constantly striving to learn new things and rare is the day that I don’t. My task now is to make sure he does as well, I suppose. Now, if I can just have him do it without taking apart my laptop…

/g