

Ask HN:How many of you nerds "read" wikipedia? - rick_2047

It is my understanding that reading the encyclopaedia cover to cover is a long standing tradition in the nerd culture. These days the hardbound 22 volume encyclopaedia has become somewhat obsolete.Wikipedia is the wave of the future.<p>So how many of you read, I mean actually "read" wikipedia? As in just open the website and just start reading. I have been doing it for quite some time.(I started with superheroes and still reading about them, I knew there was a lot to know but didn't know there was this much. I usually skip things which don't really interest me in the title but even then its a long long read.)
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_delirium
I do this quite a bit, but unlike with a paper encyclopedia, it leads to
exponential explosion of my "TO-READ" stack, as I keep middle-click-opening
new tabs throughout the process of reading an article. Often I then eventually
get to one of the tabs and have no idea what it is or how I got to an article
on such a bizarre subject. Eventually I have to give up and close 40 unread
tabs.

edit: <http://xkcd.com/214/>

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rednum
Using a tab grouping plugin could help you. Recently I have installed tab kit
(which groups tabs and show them in vertical layout) and it made browsing much
easier - it automatically puts new opened tabs in correct groups so I know
where each tab came from; also it shows unread tabs and allows you to regroup
them and fold a group.

If you are a FF user I would strongly recommend you this plugin (Tab Kit).
However it seems that it doesn't work with new firefox versions; but there is
another called Tree Style Tab with similar features.

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branden
It's pretty rare that I head over to Wikipedia so I can read any random
article, but I'll use it to satisfy the mildest curiosity about nearly any
noun I interact with. For instance, I used BART for the first time on
Thursday, and now I kind of want to know all about it. So off to Wikipedia.

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lmkg
My girlfriend is amazed that I have the patience to read a 10-page wikipedia
article from start to finish. I think I got that because I started reading
newspaper articles when I was very young (strongly recommended to all
parents).

It seems I'm a bit different than most other people here that I open and read
new tabs as they come up, rather than opening them in the background and
coming back to them (like a call stack instead of a queue), which helps for
maintaining context. The articles that I tend to get large stacks on are math
articles. I think my stack-based approach came from starting on math articles,
because you need to understand underlying referenced concepts before you can
continue with the rest of the article. Most other subjects aren't so linear,
not even historical subjects, because an individual tends to participate in
several events, an an event impacts several individuals, and you get all sorts
of back- and forward-references.

On a related note, I have read references books cover-to-cover, including a
selective dictionary (one that only includes difficult words, not "the" and
"door"). Textbooks with excercizes are far better for retention, but I always
stop instead of doing the excercizes.

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gte910h
For awhile I had a bookmarklet as my homepage which would load a random page.
Then it brought up a VERY inappropriate page (some weird Japanese fetish
article) in front of inappropriate people.

Since then, no more random Wikipedia for me.

~~~
rick_2047
Can I have the link of the bookmarklet. And for the record I didn't ask for it
for the fetish article.

~~~
mkramlich
Unfortunately the weird Japanese fetish was a sexual attraction to having
bookmarklets that open random pages on Wikipedia.

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Synthetase
Studying Wikipedia is the best way to get up to speed on a subject quickly. It
lacks scholarly depth but

It was simply assumed on my high school quiz bowl team that one read Wikipedia
in his spare time. I've got around ten tabs open while I crash through data
structures. Will it give the same depth as Knuth? Nope. But it dos give me a
80% understanding for 20% effort.

~~~
petercooper
_But it dos give me a 80% understanding for 20% effort._

That's the sort of knowledge that's most valuable for the average person to
have nowadays. Enough knowledge to know what questions to be asking and what
queries to be making, not necessary enough to answer every question
accurately!

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Mathnerd314
I read <http://rosettacode.org/> from time to time, to get a feel for the
various programming languages.

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arthurdent
my colleague reads math entries in wikipedia at least 4 hours a day. obscure
optimization and nonlinear fitting methods.

it blows my mind. in the last 6 months he has learned a TON of material and I
am very envious of the knowledge he's gained.

i want to learn what he has learned, and more importantly i want to WANT to
pore over wikipedia math articles and try out the techniques, but its just not
in me.

i learn when i have to and i force myself to. he does it because its fun. he'd
do it even if it didn't help him or have any application to his work
(frequently it doesn't). reading, testing, confirming new algorithms is his
"guilty pleasure" in the same way some people can't stop playing starcraft.

kind of awesome really.

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jcapote
<http://reddit.com/r/wikipedia> is my nighttime reading

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dkberktas
I start with one tab and continue with only one tab. Going previous page is
permitted but openning a new tab is not. For instance yesterday I started with
google's wikipedia entry and spend approximately 2 hours. Now i know who wrote
lex

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tokenadult
I read Wikipedia. I follow links as I please. I sometimes visit the main page
for the featured article or the "Do you know?" or the news articles. Now I am
also a Wikipedia editor (as of April 2010).

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Natsu
I do. Honestly, how many of us don't? I use it to get a starting place on
learning about anything I don't already know and sometimes as a place to look
for sources of more information.

~~~
rick_2047
This is not what I was talking about. This is retrieving information on wiki,
I talking about reading just for the sake of its aesthetic value

~~~
Natsu
I'm not sure what you mean by "aesthetic value"?

What I do is to wander it somewhat randomly in search of information, only to
click on anything that looks interesting, often reading things far in excess
of my original query. Heck, I just closed a couple of Wikipedia tabs a few
seconds ago.

But my goals are information seeking and have nothing to do with aesthetics.

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Qz
I was doing this earlier today -- pulled up some article on the French
Directory and went through maybe 15 related pages.

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moomba
I've read many articles, but don't do it for the sake of reading. It usually
accompanies other reading on said subject.

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starkfist
When I move, I am downgrading my internet connection at home because I spend
too much time reading wikipedia.

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mmphosis
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerd>

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baddox
All of us.

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zackattack
This thread prompted me to subscribe to the Daily article mailing list. I'll
give it a try for 30 days. I like getting information by e-mail because it
lets me read it on my phone (oldschool Blackberry 8510c, $25 shipped via eBay)
when I don't have access to a computer.

<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/daily-article-l>

