Genuine Curiosity Trust System
Earn access by learning openly, adding value, and revealing your thinking
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
The Genuine Curiosity Trust System treats access as an honest, reciprocal learning relationship rather than a transaction. First, the interviewer arrives with real questions and allows the subject's knowledge to reshape the emerging account. Second, the interviewer creates reasons for the subject to welcome future contact by making conversations stimulating, useful, or simply pleasant. Third, the interviewer reduces suspicion by sharing evolving thoughts, testing theories openly, and inviting disagreement. These practices change the interaction from hostile extraction into collaborative discovery without surrendering editorial independence. Subjects may still be surprised by what ultimately receives emphasis, but they should not feel deceived about the interviewer's interests or methods. Trust accumulates through consistent curiosity, value, and transparency over repeated encounters.
Origin
Michael Lewis outlined these recurring prerequisites on Masters in Business when asked how he gains the trust of guarded institutions and unusual subjects.
Core principles
- 01People respond to genuine curiosity
- 02Questions should discover rather than confirm
- 03Access improves when your presence creates value
- 04Trust requires reciprocal openness
- 05Subjects should understand your evolving interests
How to run it
- 1
Lead with a real question
Start with something the subject knows and you genuinely want to understand. Frame the interaction as learning rather than validation.
Pro tip Ask about a concrete result, puzzle, or event the subject can explain from direct experience.
Watch out Do not disguise an accusation or settled conclusion as curiosity.
- 2
Let discovery redirect you
Listen for information that changes your initial assumptions and pursue it. The subject should see that answers influence the investigation.
Pro tip Follow unexpected details with specific, nonjudgmental questions.
Watch out Collecting only supporting quotations signals that the story was predetermined.
- 3
Make your presence valuable
Create an incentive for continued access by contributing thoughtful questions, useful reflection, or an enjoyable interaction. Aim for the subject to welcome your return.
Pro tip Value can be intellectual, practical, or interpersonal; it need not be a material favor.
Watch out Do not manipulate subjects with gifts or promises that compromise independence.
- 4
Expose your thinking
Share relevant interpretations and developing theories instead of hiding your perspective. Give the subject an opportunity to respond, object, or correct you.
Pro tip Present theories as provisional and specify what evidence could change them.
Watch out Transparency does not require surrendering final judgment or previewing every sentence.
- 5
Maintain honest continuity
Keep interests, behavior, and representations consistent across encounters. Build enough mutual understanding that the final work does not feel like a concealed agenda.
Pro tip Periodically summarize what you think you are learning and ask what you may be missing.
Watch out A late disclosure cannot repair a relationship built on earlier deception.
In the wild
A reporter approaches a baseball executive without a thesis about analytics or management. He asks why the team wins despite limited resources, follows surprising answers, and keeps returning with questions that help both parties clarify the system. As his interpretation develops, he tests it openly with the executive instead of hiding it.
→ Sustained access reveals a deeper decision-making system than a one-off interview would uncover.
A consultant enters a security department that distrusts outsiders. She asks engineers to explain a recent success, acknowledges what she does not know, and shares her provisional process map for correction. Each session gives the team a clearer description of its own work.
→ The team begins volunteering candid operational details and correcting misunderstandings early.
Common mistakes
Arriving with the story finished
A fixed theory turns the subject into a source of decorative quotations and blocks genuine learning.
Being costly to host
If every interaction is tedious or extractive, subjects have no reason to continue granting access.
Hiding your interpretation
Concealed theories make subjects feel ambushed and deny you valuable objections that could improve the work.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for journalists, researchers, leaders, consultants, and interviewers who need truthful insight from unfamiliar groups.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for extractive interviews conducted solely to confirm a fixed narrative or obtain predetermined quotes.
From the transcript
“People respond to genuine curiosity, which is different from I have a theory and I want you to sort of dance inside my theory”
“You want to make them want you there.”
“it has to be an honest relationship, right, it just has to be an honest relationship.”
From the episode
'Who is Government' with Michael Lewis