[prof_hobart]

Curiosity in general is probably a fundamental part of human nature.

But you have to make a call at what point you stop trying to understand everything about everything. Thomas Young, the early 19th Century scientist has been famously described as "The Last Man Who Knew Everything" - the sum of human knowledge moves on so vastly that it is simply physically impossible to have an in-depth knowledge of every possible subject.

I don't think he's saying that he knows absolutely nothing about these subject (I'm sure he's probably got a rough idea that the oil probably came in a big oil tanker for example).

But there's over 5 billion articles on Wikipedia, and at some point you've got to decide that you haven't got time to understand how the Four Hu (to take the first random topic I found) came about because you're spending time thinking about how AI works or whatever.

[atemerev]

Of course, but there is (loosely defined) hierarchy of knowledge.

I haven't read (until now;)) the article about Four Hu (a specific topic), but I did read on 214 Kangxi radicals (more general/beginner friendly topic), and, of course, on Mandarin and Cantonese in general (I can't speak neither).

This is how it works. Curiosity is insatiable.