Unsatisfied by Answers: Why Curiosity Saved the Cat
By Iris Vaughn
Curiosity killed the cat, (but satisfaction brought it back).
Image Sourced through Pinterest
Image Sourced through Pinterest
RIP cat — curiosity killed you… Or did it save you? This strange idiom has been around since the late 16th century, but in 2025, I feel that the lack of curiosity seems to be a leading issue. As humans, we need to feel hunger, and we can never do so if we remain full. So, do we ever truly feel satisfied if we aren’t curious enough?
Answers are presented to us every day. There seems to be an understanding that media consumed, information presented, and viewing situations at face value is true knowledge. With information so readily available, we rarely allow ourselves to expand. We all desire to understand, to our detriment, that we avoid being confused, lost, and uncertain. We kill uncertainty before curiosity has the chance to “kill us”.
I have been under the impression that in order to be satisfied, I had to know, and not understanding was a measure of failure. I had accepted what I am bad at and that I must be an expert to spark interest. There’s a level of humility in saying I know very little and I want to know more, but that cost is worth the price of expanding knowledge, empathy, and drive. We all desire to have an abundant amount of knowledge, but the only way to truly be well-versed is to have moments of uncertainty.
Still from Little Mermaid (1989)
Still from Tangled (2010)
Satisfaction is directly linked to curiosity, so much so that the completed version of the quote is “ Curiosity killed the cat, and satisfaction brought it back”. Everybody we look up to in any field is led by passion and curiosity for their craft. Their expertise does not come from immediate revelations but through processes of curiosity and discovery. Nearly every piece of storytelling media leads to this conclusion, yet we remain complacent and reject moments of discomfort. Consuming media isn’t enough- we must question, ponder, and discover subtleties for ourselves.
Curiosity is full of risks and unknowns, and being stubborn, stuck, and paralyzed by limiting beliefs is rooted in comfort and answers. Simplicity can be nice, but curiosity leads to an understanding of layers and nuances that fulfill.
Image Sourced through Pinterest
