While I was an engineering student at McGill University, we were required to complete a few elective credits — courses that were not a part of my program of study.

Most of my classmates opted to take “Musical Appreciation,” – A course with a reputation for being easy to ace with minimal effort.

Rather than optimize for grades, I pursued my curiosity and dived headlong into a course on “Human Cognition and the Brain,” despite not having the pre-requisite anatomy courses necessary.

While I loved the course, I bombed the tests – lowering my GPA while others lifted theirs.

School teaches us to optimize for grades rather than curiosity. It invites us to choose the tests we will excel at rather than those which challenge us to rise to the occasion.

But curiosity will always lead to growth. We just lack the proper tools to measure it.