I saw an ad today that said they were seeking the most inquisitive minds. I am interested in measures, criteria and decision-making. A doctoral student could write a whole dissertation on the subject of identifying people with inquisitive minds. There could be self-report (I am not inquisitive), teacher judgment (that student was very inquisitive in my class), classmates could be asked for nominations. With a little work, we could probably uncover other methods including The Kirby Inquisitiveness Questionnaire, which doesn't exist but give me a few days.
I was reminded of the time I held a printed spreadsheet in my hand and I realized that I could fold it along the row of the student who had scored right at the average and count students by how far they were from average, disregarding whether they were above or below. One of the key words in seeking "the most inquisitive minds" is that word "most". You have in "most", a superlative, a word for the highest degree. When seeking MORE inquisitive minds, we are dealing with a comparative but when we want the most inquisitive minds, we are into the MOST group.
You know the old Greek rule of thumb: everything in moderation. You might know some academics that are so used to being required to cite sources and evidence that they can barely speak a sentence without citing a book or periodical that includes their point. I just Googled "pathological inquisitiveness" but I didn't find a name for such a disorder. With a little work, I am confident that you could persuade some students, some scientists, some lawyers and some politicians to reach heights of inquisitiveness not previously inhabited.
