Fortune #39

In 1960, twenty-six-year-old Jane Goodall traveled to Gombe in Tanzania to observe chimpanzees. She did not yet have a university degree, but brought patience, fascination with animals, and support from Louis Leakey. At first the chimpanzees fled from her. The work had to begin at a distance and wait until they tolerated her presence.

Goodall watched a chimpanzee she called David Greybeard strip leaves from a twig and use it to fish for termites. This was not only tool use but tool modification, challenging the scientific belief that such ability separated humans from other animals. She also documented complex cooperation, attachment, hunting, and conflict.

Curiosity kept her from forcing the unfamiliar into an old category. She named individual animals and attended to personality, a method criticized at the time. She later completed a doctorate, and research that began with one young woman and a notebook became a decades-long study of wild chimpanzees.

When something unfamiliar appears, change “That is strange” into “How does it work?” Observe before naming the problem and ask someone with direct experience. Curiosity does not require liking or accepting everything. It prevents fear from closing the flow of information before you understand what you are facing.