LinkedIn Presents

I'm Caleb Bissinger and this is the next big idea.

Today, why you were born to explore. When I was in sixth grade, we did this thing called the Explorers Project. Every kid in the class

was assigned to adventurer from the age of discovery. I got Captain James Cook, and we spent

weeks just learning everything we could about them. 30 years later, that classroom project is still

my anchor when I think about what it means to be an explorer. I picture

swashbuckling rogues, hobbled by peg legs and scurvy, greedily sailing into uncharted waters.

But Alex Hutchinson has a different definition. When I'm talking about exploring, I'm talking about something that involves

making a choice so that you're taking an uncertain pathway. You don't know what the outcome is

going to be, which inherently means that there is the possibility of failure. You're putting

something at risk. You're taking a chance and you don't know how it's going to turn out. In his new book, The Explorer's Gene, why we seek big challenges,

new flavors, and the blank spots on the map, Alex Marshall's, the latest findings in anthropology,

neuroscience, and biology, to show that you don't have to be Columbus or Earhart to call yourself an explorer.

The itch for the new is hardwired into all of us, and we can satisfy it in ways both big and small.

Whether it's climbing a mountain or getting furniture from IKEA or having kids, exploring is an amazing source of

meaningfulness, of a sense of purpose, of a sense of satisfaction.

All things we're increasingly missing out on.

We're exploring less and less.

Research shows that creativity scores and kids are declining. Adults are stuck in routines we never question.

We're not just missing out on new discoveries,

we're missing out on what makes life worth living.

So how can you become a better explorer,

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