Curatorial Intelligence

The intelligence we most need to cultivate in the next 10 years is that of curation.

Curatorial Intelligence
Photo by Patrick Tomasso / Unsplash

The intelligence we most need to cultivate in the next 10 years is that of curation. Developing “curatorial intelligence” is paramount for three reasons:

  1. When everyone has a platform to speak, we have to make decisions about where we direct our attention. We simply can’t digest all the content and stay apprised of all the information. So people who curate their sources strategically will have an edge.
  2. Curatorial intelligence is a new type of intelligence, and we’re not that good at it yet. One old model of intelligence was “memory intelligence” where your success depended on how much you had memorized and retained, not on your ability to weed through ubiquitous information and separate signal from noise. We need to grow this new muscle.
  3. If we don’t take more ownership over the curation of our sources, then we are unwittingly letting AI algorithms do it for us. Curation is happening whether we’re aware of it or not. A sophisticated curatorial intelligence draws from a wide range of sources, seeks content that destabilizes our worldviews, metabolizes ideas that we disagree with, and has the potential to expand our intellectual and spiritual horizons.There is no bigger decision we make than whom we let shape our worldview and our selfview.