Bestselling author and Brown alumna Xochitl Gonzalez: ‘Never forget to keep asking why’

After six months, Gonzalez applied for an advertising job and got hired on the spot. What her new employers loved most wasn't her degree or work experience at the shop. It was that she understood the city and its people and wasn't afraid to make quick decisions.

"It is the trait that brought me to Brown - that spirit of wanting to know - that has given me a life of joy and surprises," she said. "A form of success no job can promise and no title can ever encapsulate."

Curiosity as a compass

Like the members of the Class of 2026, Gonzalez graduated at a time of technological advancement, entering the workforce right when Google's web search became widely available. The answer to any question she could imagine was just a few keystrokes away, and Gonzalez found the possibilities thrilling.

"But I have also observed, over the ensuing decades, how having such easy access to answers has conflated the retrieving of information with true understanding, and how the certainty of fast facts has replaced the uniquely human wonder of wondering why," Gonzalez said. "Curiosity requires vulnerability. To be openly curious - to ask other humans questions, particularly publicly - is to admit all that we do not know."

That can be challenging in an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, automation and algorithms. Gonzalez reflected on how many people become less curious as they grow older, not because they have stopped wondering, but because they're embarrassed to acknowledge that they don't already have the answer.

"I don't think it's a coincidence that children are both the most openly inquisitive and the happiest humans we tend to see," she noted.

Over time, Gonzalez has come to believe that curiosity serves a far deeper purpose than simply acquiring information. True inquiry, she said, leads people toward understanding - of themselves, of others and of the world around them - and that understanding is a deeply human need.

She encouraged Brown's new graduates to remain defiantly human.

"Learn to discern the quick high of checking a task off of a list from the deep satisfaction that comes from digging deeper and truly knowing," she said. "And perhaps above all, learn to be cautiously suspicious of certitude: It almost always means enough questions have not been asked."

Gonzalez said she believes Brown graduates are uniquely equipped to resist that tendency. While alumni of every institution may share affection for their alma mater, the connections at Brown run deeper.

"We're not just linked by a set of common memories," she said. "We are linked by this shared trait of intellectual curiosity that Brown's distinct culture nurtures so brilliantly."

In closing, Gonzalez offered graduates a piece of advice: Guard that trait fiercely. Protect the willingness to ask questions, remain open to uncertainty and seek genuine understanding.

"It is an unpredictable world out there, full of quickly shifting tectonic plates, but I am not worried about you," Gonzalez said, speaking directly to the Class of 2026. "Your curiosity can be your compass if you cultivate it. So go forth, and never forget to keep asking why. And always remember the importance of being nosey."