> I can't even imagine why I should bother trying to understand it.
Well, maybe you should just try for the hell of it and see how far you get? Becoming fit seems impossible to a morbidly obese 45 y.o, and it is if that person's expectation is unreasonable, but if they just change it to be more reasonable, break it down into manageable
routines, then they can get somewhere eventually.
Find some papers, fill many gaps, dedicate a few years in your spare time, in 6 months you'll be 6 months closer than you were.
Whether there's a reason or not, idk, it's something to do, be curious. Don't forget that by dedicating their life to something, they're naturally not dedicating their life to other things, things that you might be able to do, like climbing mountains, making pizza, or coming up with witty banter in social situations.
I recently discovered the https://openlibrary.org/ by The Internet Archive. On the face of it, their "about" page[1] sounds appealing (not least because it resonates with my open source values):
One web page for every book ever published. It's a lofty but achievable goal.
To build Open Library, we need hundreds of millions of book records, a wiki interface, and lots of people who are willing to contribute their time and effort to building the site.
To date, we have gathered over 20 million records from a variety of large catalogs as well as single contributions, with more on the way.
Open Library is an open project: the software is open, the data are open, the documentation is open, and we welcome your contribution. Whether you fix a typo, add a book, or write a widget--it's all welcome. We have a small team of fantastic programmers who have accomplished a lot, but we can't do it alone!
Well, maybe you should just try for the hell of it and see how far you get? Becoming fit seems impossible to a morbidly obese 45 y.o, and it is if that person's expectation is unreasonable, but if they just change it to be more reasonable, break it down into manageable routines, then they can get somewhere eventually.
Find some papers, fill many gaps, dedicate a few years in your spare time, in 6 months you'll be 6 months closer than you were.
Whether there's a reason or not, idk, it's something to do, be curious. Don't forget that by dedicating their life to something, they're naturally not dedicating their life to other things, things that you might be able to do, like climbing mountains, making pizza, or coming up with witty banter in social situations.