I love Wikipedia for its seeming endless supply of well written articles about anything from the meaning of 'Big-O' notation to the descrition of TV shows like Heroes. My only problem with it is the depth of the knowledge it holds. To demonstrate what I mean, let me take you through a normal WP session...
Hmm, let's look up Prime numbers. I start to read the description, but in the first couple of words I see links to Natural Numbers and Divisors, all of which I should, by inference, understand to better understand my original target, Prime Numbers. So I start with Natural Numbers, in the first sentence alone I come across 4 more linked references, Mathematics, Positive, Non-Negative and Integers. On and on it goes in an endless spiral of information, each linked reference leading you to more, often in a geometric progression using a common ration greater than one!
What can I, a one-time 'Know-It-All' do in the face of such depth of content? I have two options, actually: continue to click, click, click, hoping I will eventually get to that article that simply says "You've reached the END of Wikipedia, please put an icepack on your head, take two pain-relievers and check back in a few days for more links" or I curl up in a ball and whimper quietly to myself in the corner.
Sometimes I choose the former, some days the latter...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment