To be clear, Wikipedia is really just a jumping off point. You can only put so much information on a topic into a Wikipedia article. You really start learning

To be clear, Wikipedia is really just a jumping off point. You can only put so much information on a topic into a Wikipedia article. You really start learning when you read the references, and have 5 or 6 browser windows open with web searches to things that either interested you and weren't referenced, or to terms that you didn't understand. >That meshes with my empirical experience that the best way to learn is to "play". It has actually been shown in educational studies that this is one of the best ways to learn; so social science seems to match up with your experience as well.