[krylon]

Might sound dull, but I recommend Wikipedia.

There is a word for it, which I forgot, when you look something up on Wikipedia, the article contains a link to another article, and you go, "Oooh, that sounds interesting", open it in another tab, then, when reading the second article, you come across two or three more of such links, and before you know what is going on, you have dozens of tabs open. The only limit is your patience and your computer's RAM.

Eventually you'll end up reading articles that are not even remotely related to your initial inquiry, but highly interesting nonetheless.

[clemesha]

I built an app based on that exact concept: http://thewikigame.com which has been running for many years, and is now quite popular.

The database of the site now contains a large record of millions of game plays of players trying to go from one Wikipedia link to another. See here for some interesting academic research that has been done on the site's dataset: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jSGFRZYrJnlDUBhGbQrO9e-n...

[matthberg]

I think that hacker news might have given it a hug of death, I currently have a 'site down' alert when viewing it.

[krylon]

Hehe, that looks like a lot of fun!

I know what I'll be doing next weekend! :)

[diyseguy]

Please make an Android version ty

[Mahn]

Wikipedia is probably the most dangerous procrastination tool on the net. There's not limit there, the rabbit hole just goes deeper and deeper.

[Fernicia]

tvtropes should also be considered in this category.

[krylon]

Oh my, yes! I went there to look up one term, and before I knew it the entire afternoon had gone by.

OTOH, I learned a lot that afternoon. Watching TV programs has never been the same.

[saboot]

There's also http://www.scholarpedia.org/ which is basically wikipedia but written by college professors and domain field experts. It goes very in depth on many topics.

[orb_yt]

https://xkcd.com/214/

An interesting side note: if you repeatedly click the first link at the beginning of any wikipedia article (except links in parenthesis) you will always end up at Philosophy.

[hithereagain]

If you start with Mathematics, you'll end up in a loop: Mathematics > Quantity > Magnitude (mathematics) > Mathematics.

Ignoring this backlink, though, it would work:

Mathematics > Quantity > Magnitude (mathematics) > Mathematical object > Abstract and concrete > Referent > Linguistics > Science > Knowledge > Fact > Verificationism > Philosophy

[amenod]

Also, starting with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Internationaux_de_Strasbo... (random page) you get into loop around "Languages".

But if the algorithm should ignore the already visited links then it would probably work because the pages usually describe something using the higher level concepts first. The question is how much larger the pool of "always found" pages becomes.

[wdbbdw]

Test of n = 1: ("Random article") -> Yūyūki -> 1989 in video gaming -> Golden Joystick Awards -> Video game -> Electronic game -> Game -> Play (activity) -> Psychology -> Behavior -> American English -> Variety (linguistics) -> Sociolinguistics -> Society -> Social group -> Social science -> Discipline (academia) -> Knowledge -> Fact -> Verificationism -> Philosophy

That was fun!

[horns13]

I started with 'God of War (2018 video game)' and ended up at 'Philosophy'!

[guide42]

Serendipity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity

[chris_wot]

The danger isn't reading it, it's writing in it. It could literally drive you to suicide. It did for me, though of course I survived.

[argentenergy]

It's called link diving

[krylon]

Thanks!

[zengr]

I agree. I was pleasantly surprised by the Wikipedia iOS app, it's really addictive https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wikipedia/id324715238?mt=8

[subtik]

a rabbit hole?

[jaclaz]

Cited from Matrix:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/quotes?item=qt0324307

which cites Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rabbit%20Hole

[jonathansizz]

serendipity.