Are you Curious?

how i spent a year...

Don’t rush the answer. Most of us would say yes. But the real question is: do you actually explore your curiosity?

I’ll admit. I’m a nerdy nerd 🫠. And the thing about us humans is, we’re wired for curiosity. If not, we’d still be chilling in caves. Thank God for curiosity.

But here’s the sad part: the way we school kids, the way we sometimes raise them, it quietly kills that natural spark. Curiosity becomes “distraction,” asking questions becomes “disturbance.” Before you know it, wonder is replaced with “just do what you’re told.”

Yet, curiosity has a partner in crime, pessimism. Back in the cave days, it kept us alive. Imagine two people hear a lion roar. The optimist goes, “Pfft, nothing there.” The pessimist says, “Yeah, no thanks, I’m not moving.” Who do you think became dinner? Exactly. 😂

Fast forward to today: being curious won’t get you eaten by a lion. At worst, you’ll waste a little money or time. At best, your life changes. That’s where rational optimism comes in, weigh the risks, then go explore.

The thing about curiosity is that it doesn’t just keep you entertained. It gives you a set of knowledge. And that’s a dangerous kind of power.

See, not everything can be taught, but almost everything can be learned. Schools give you formulas and textbooks, sure. But curiosity drags you into alleys you never knew existed, hands you tools you didn’t know you needed, and sometimes makes you trip over knowledge you’d never find in a classroom.

That’s the beauty of it: exploring your curiosity turns you into a kind of one-man army. You end up stacking weird skills and perspectives that don’t look like much in isolation, but together they make you… relevant. Useful in ways other people can’t even imagine.

Think about it:

We all have that one friend whose curiosity never lets them rest. Think about that one curious person. Maybe they started with biology, geeking out on how the brain works. Then they picked up coding, writing little scripts just for fun. Later, design and storytelling caught their eye, so they learned how to make ideas look good and sound convincing.

On their own, these skills don’t look like much. But put together? Suddenly they’re building an app that uses neuroscience to help people learn faster, coding the backend, designing the interface, and telling the story so people actually care. None of it came from a classroom. It was curiosity, weaving science, tech, and art into something powerful. Crazy.

The point is, curiosity equips you with specific knowledge that doesn’t just sit in your head, it sticks to your skin. It gives you an edge in conversations, projects, and life. And half the time, you won’t even realize you’ve leveled up until someone else goes, “Wait, how do you even know that?”, “How did you do that?”

That’s why exploring your curiosity matters. Because in a world where everyone has Google, the only thing that really sets you apart is the strange, hard-earned, oddly specific things you know and can do.

And that’s where my story really begins. I just came out of boarding school and, honestly, I had zero idea how life worked. For sixteen years, my whole schedule was school, madrasah (Islamic/Arabic school), and the occasional taekwondo kicks here and there. That was it.

So when I got out, I was like a fresh fish flapping on dry land. Sure, I was good in school, but ask me what I wanted to study in uni? I had no clue. I was just searching, hoping I’d bump into something that made sense.

So I took a gap year and it’s about to end in few months (pray for me as uni looms 🙏). And honestly? It’s been a full Lagos danfo ride. But the ride was never boring.

will you follow me 🫣

It started innocently (sincerely), with Rich Dad Poor Dad. That book whispered sweet nothings into my ear: “You can be filthy rich. 20 houses, 100 stocks, maybe an empire by eighteen.” I believed it. So, I marched online, opened an account and bought stocks and read a bunch of articles about investing. Did I understand all it takes? No. Did I care? Also no. I had screenshots, and screenshots don’t lie. I was an “investor” now.

Then the danfo screeched to its next stop: the Scam Bus Stop 😅. From affiliate marketing to “refer and earn” crypto schemes, I heard about them all. Each one looked shinier than the last until it wasn’t. Somewhere along the line, I graduated with a PhD in spotting scams. These days, just show me a business model and give me five minutes and I’ll tell you if it’s money or madness.

Another turn, another conductor yelling: “Computer Village! Hacker route!” Bored and curious, I enrolled in a Coursera course and convinced myself I was about to become a world-class hacker. What I actually learned? A bunch of legal jargon and how boring the internet can get. Still, that stop led me into tinkering with AI, playing with automations, and pretending I was a Silicon Valley tech bro. That one wasn’t a total waste it laid the foundation for what I’m doing now.

And of course, every danfo has those unexpected detours. Mine included a website design phase, a digital marketing agency (yes, I even paid for the course), a brief romance with copywriting (mehn, i’m a master sales person. lol), and let’s not forget the YouTube dream.

Also, shout out to the people who sponsored all these madness.

Fun fact: I bought a tripod and microphone four months ago. They’re still staring at me, untouched.😂 One day I’ll start the channel for real. YouTube is my first love. Substack just happens to be the side chick.

Looking back, it feels like the danfo never reached a final destination. But every chaotic stop gave me something, a little lesson, a tiny tool, a piece of myself I didn’t know I needed.

All in all, within a year. I picked up a framework for learning. Built habits I actually enjoy. Understood financial literacy (still broke, if you’re my helper don’t think i’m rich ooo 🫠). Learned how sales and marketing really work (I can spot a funnel from a mile away, so good luck selling me anything I don’t want). Discovered a bunch of other stuffs a love for writing that started as journaling and grew.

I promise I’m not some confused guy with no direction. I just needed to get my hands dirty. And now, I’ve finally found something I can stick with for the long run, something that fits both my love for learning and my obsession with logic: coding.

Most importantly, I figured out what sticks. Beneath all the noise.

I’ve been deep into backend software development, and it’s going well. Honestly, I’m good enough to take an intern role at your company (yes, this is me shamelessly applying in the middle of my newsletter 🫣). Don’t blame me, Oyin Osikoya already said we should be “officially shameless.”

The danfo didn’t take me straight there. But maybe that’s the point. Lagos danfos never go in a straight line, yet somehow, they still get you closer to where you’re meant to be.

Why I’m Telling You This?

Not everyone needs to be a nerd like me, trying every single thing i come across. But curiosity is worth protecting. It’s messy, sometimes expensive, occasionally embarrassing but it pays you back in ways classrooms never could.

By the way how do you expect me to know what to do without trying a bunch of stuffs.

Life, at its core, is a series of opinions. What matters is having the tools: reading, writing, arithmetic, persuasion. Stack curiosity on top of those, and you’ll be fine.

So here I am: still curious, nerdy, learning, building, and sharing.

If you made it this far, thank you. Really. And we’re almost at a hundred subs. If you hit that subscribe button… well, that would be a genius-level decision 🫣.

Byeeee,
~Abdulrahmon 💫
Stay curious, stay nerdy.