What drives people to innovate? Why do some people keep innovating and others are content to leave everything the way it is, thank you very much? In Gallup’s Strength Finding system, there’s a whole category devoted to people who like to learn things for no reason except to learn them.  And another devoted to people who like to have new ideas. What links them—and why should you care?

According to Dr. Todd Kashdan, in his new book Curious?, every human being is born with a certain amount of curiosity. The amount is probably determined genetically and has some correlation with risk-taking. (If we weren’t curious, we’d still be sitting in caves). The second part of the equation is environment. If the nuns slap you on the back of your hand for asking impertinent questions, you’re less likely to keep asking. The third part of the equation is your own interpretation of the curious impulse. If you think it’s anxiety when you head into a new situation, you’re less likely to try something than if you label that feeling as exploration.

So how do you tap into this well?  Another part of the answer comes from a book called Why Don’t Students Like School, by Daniel Willingham. He says that brains are actually pretty lazy—they don’t like hard problems. When faced with a tough new challenge, they’re likely to give up before they start. They also don’t like easy ones—they slip immediately into answers they’ve already used. So it’s only the Goldilocks problems that engage humans in new thinking—just challenging enough.

The trick, whether you’re trying to summon up your own creativity or encourage your team, is to find problems that are just hard enough to engage natural curiosity without scaring off or boring our lazy brains.