I think you're absolutely right about curiosity, but also important is a sort of meta-knowledge about knowledge. Far more people have heard the expression that "knowledge is power" than believe it. You don't have to have curiosity for its own sake (though it helps), if you at least understand the value of finding out how things work - of trying to understand how the world around you works.
@quadrivial
Americans, culturally, are a deeply incurious people, not just because they lack innate curiosity but because they do not see the value in having knowledge.
The flip side of "I don't need to learn that because I can always just go look it up" is... never going to look it up, whatever it is.
My fellow Americans strike me as blithely unconcerned with the potential dangers of not knowing what they don't know.
@chu @CoolBlenderKitten