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I do the same kind of thing, and apparently, many others here do too! Frankly, I'm not surprised. This is not an illness, it's a common trait of polymaths and

I do the same kind of thing, and apparently, many others here do too! Frankly, I'm not surprised. This is not an illness, it's a common trait of polymaths and intelligent people to be curious about everything, even things that appear to be irrelevant to their daily life. There's a great story about how Bill Gates asked his secretary to buy random magazines and journals, and he'd flip through one every day. Print-era Reddit, as it were. He read one about sowing machines and realised the software for the newfangled computer-controlled ones was terrible, and for many years basically all sowing machines ended up with Windows as their OS! Another similar story is how Apple devices have nice typography because Steve Jobs randomly took a calligraphy class. I shock people at work semi regularly by pulling random little things out of the back of my brain where I filed them away "just in case". Sometimes, the "in case" turns up! Something I've noticed about IT these days is that it's becoming less about having some sort of raw talent, and more about simply knowing what tools, SDKs, and APIs are out there, written by other people with talent. In the past, you had to be wizard, now you just have to know about wizards.

roxymusic1973 4y ago
> for many years basically all sowing machines ended up with Windows as their OS Presumably this also helped Microsoft pivot into reaping machines.
- pnutjam 4y ago
  of course, you reap what you sew.
jonwinstanley 4y ago
So basically knowing that those "awesome" lists on github exist
- tomjakubowski 4y ago
  yes, and a good filter to detect the stuff that's not any good. something which experience is good for
boilerupnc 4y ago
^^^THIS. I've always felt that my greatest superpower was the gift to search/find information fast. This allows me to both discover a wide range of info and also go hunting for targetted info when the situation dictates a more narrow scope. Pre-fetch provides the quickest time-to-value. With a near infinite cache to fill, it only makes sense to continually feed a steady diet of information to satisfy relentless curiosity. Bookmarking, re-reading/re-visiting past info, writing and sharing info tidbits of random info, etc ... all help to lock-in what I'm aware of and also provide confidence to go hunting and rediscover a known nugget when a particular situation/conversation could benefit. TL;DR: Awareness comes in two forms: quick immediate recall and fuzzy vague confidence of related material. To expand breadth and depth of both forms, it's beneficial to hunt information efficiently.

roxymusic1973 4y ago

> for many years basically all sowing machines ended up with Windows as their OS Presumably this also helped Microsoft pivot into reaping machines.

pnutjam 4y ago
of course, you reap what you sew.

jonwinstanley 4y ago

So basically knowing that those "awesome" lists on github exist

tomjakubowski 4y ago
yes, and a good filter to detect the stuff that's not any good. something which experience is good for

boilerupnc 4y ago

^^^THIS. I've always felt that my greatest superpower was the gift to search/find information fast. This allows me to both discover a wide range of info and also go hunting for targetted info when the situation dictates a more narrow scope. Pre-fetch provides the quickest time-to-value. With a near infinite cache to fill, it only makes sense to continually feed a steady diet of information to satisfy relentless curiosity. Bookmarking, re-reading/re-visiting past info, writing and sharing info tidbits of random info, etc ... all help to lock-in what I'm aware of and also provide confidence to go hunting and rediscover a known nugget when a particular situation/conversation could benefit. TL;DR: Awareness comes in two forms: quick immediate recall and fuzzy vague confidence of related material. To expand breadth and depth of both forms, it's beneficial to hunt information efficiently.