Why do I have to know everything?

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For some reason, whenever I see or hear about a subject that I haven't studied, I have to go out, get a book on the subject, and learn it until I am competent enough to hold a conversation.
For instance, this is my reading schedule for the next couple of weeks: A book on infectious disease, a book on ethics, a book on chemistry, a book on the neuroscience behind flavor and food, a book on stem cell research, and a book on economics.
The name of the thread is, incidentally, copied from another thread that I saw which I thought would have a similar topic to mine, but didn't.
I intend to major in physics in college, for a reason that most people can't understand. I want to know everything. Clearly this is an insurmountable task. However, if I can understand how the universe works, then I will understand everything, since the universe encompasses everything else.
Is this a bad thing? Is there a psychological explanation for why I feel the need to know everything? Are there other people out there like me?

i like learning, i do it for its own sake and i find immense pleasure in doing so.

not that it isnt usefull but usually its simply a massive time sink in the eyes of others.

I do the same thing knowleged it what power is in my opinon power is knowleged.

It's always good to take an interest in continuing to learn stuff throughout your life. However, what you describe is obsessive compulsive behavior. Needing to learn all about every topic that becomes introduced to your mind is not normal. The attempt to learn EVERYTHING is doomed to failure, as it just isn't possible, and not being able to do this impossible task is likely to stress you out. It also is likely to interfere in other areas of your life by taking up time that should be spent on those other things. For your own health find a way to tone it down. Figure out how much free time you have for your research hobby, and don't exceed it. To help you with that add all new topics of interest to a list. When it comes time to start a new topic, start with the ones most relevant to your life, that will help you in some way, or are of personal interest in some way--other than as one of your research topics. Since there isn't enough time in your life to learn everything, those topics on your list that aren't somehow relevant to you can be passed over in favor of those that are. If you reach a time when all the relevant topics have been cleared from the list, and you have some free time, then you can pick one of the non relevant topics to wade into. That should help tone this obsession done to reasonable limits.

Just remember no one can know everything, and no one has to.

"It's always good to take an interest in continuing to learn stuff throughout your life. However, what you describe is obsessive compulsive behavior. Needing to learn all about every topic that becomes introduced to your mind is not normal. The attempt to learn EVERYTHING is doomed to failure"

With respect, I think questor may be overreacting a little bit-- honestly it depends on how curious you are how much time you have and how smart you are. Some people can cover a lot of ground in relatively little time.

The one thing to be aware of is that if and when you go to college the objective there is to prove your stuff in one area. NOT a bunch of areas and that is where cramming in too much can be a huge problem-- especially if you (like me ) use learning new stuff as a way to procrastinate and reduce anxiety about whatever it is that needs to be done that is less interesting.

It is true that the world is an increasingly large and complex place, and it is no longer possible to know everything in the way it was for Aristotle, or Da Vinci or Frances Bacon but you can still know an awfull lot more than most people care too. Some people will say it's intelectual cherry picking or being a mile wide and an inch deep, but the more you know the more connections you can make and the more likely you are to discover something new.

The thread title is essential: why do you want to know everything? Do you just want to know or do you want to learn? Is it actually "have to" (which means it's not your decision, which I personally would call "bad") or are you just very motivated to?

To keep it simple: if it's enjoyable and you like it, learning is good. If it's mostly for other reasons, it might be "bad" (but that depends on your values and measure of reality). For example, it could be that you feel inferior or psychologically incomplete if you lack certain knowledge (e.g. because you can interpret it as a sign of weakness), which usually proves to be a source of unhappiness.

I come from a whole family like the OP, though I'm not as extreme as some members have been. My father was reading quantum physics two days before his 98th birthday, while his brother had such an expansive library of books on different languages that a University bought it after he died.
My Uncle died before the internet, but dad got huge pleasure out of the web. We couldn't live without the internet, but still brought our essential books - about 8,000 of them - with us when we retired and emigrated. My brother was once evicted from a flat because his books were so heavy they were threatening the building!

I am somewhat like you, though I can't be bothered to go beyond Wikipedia with some subjects I consider frivolous. I think it's fine as long you don't get so obsessive that it's ruining your life. Who cares if it's insurmountable? Keep at it until you die (or get tired of it). I majored in physics for the same reason as you want to, but I do not feel that it gave me anything near an understanding of the universe. I basically did a ton of vector calculus, not really understanding where the equations came from/why they worked, and sat through a lot of half-assed lectures where the professor constantly spoke to us in metaphors, hardly ever relating anything to the real world, and superficially explaining what, but never why. I would suggest you look through some physics books before you commit to that goal, because you may end up frustrated and bitter, like me. There are actually some seemingly simple things in physics that are totally unknown, such as how one magnet attracts or repulses another. There is a model to explain it (physics is overflowing with models), but there is no way to determine if the model is consistent with reality or not, and then you get into the question of "well, what does consistent with reality even mean if we can't see, touch, taste, smell, or feel it?" Like in the case of a magnetic field. And then, like me, you will be going out to get a book on the philosophy of science, lol.

Most likelly come from intellectual overexcitabilitie http://giftedkids.about.com/od/gifted101/a/overexcite.htm

I am similar to you in many ways. My desire for understanding is VERY intense. I am intensely interested in virtually every scientific discipline, philosophy, mathematics, history, etc.... I have known many brilliant people with enormous amounts of knowledge but I have never met anyone with the thirst that I experience. I agree that it is unnatural in my case, but I can't help it and I don't really want to. I love learning more than anything, but I have learned to force some balance upon myself.

Psych reason: for me it is that I find that life feels empty to me and I have no other reason to live.

I have learned the hard way that 99% of people don't want hear about "the most recent development in......." and they tune out within seconds. I would love to share what I have learned but people just don't care and many regard my desire to share as irritating pedantry.

Anyway, you are not alone and if you ever want to PM me to discuss this or anything else feel free.
All the best,
slave

Good to know. At least there's one other person out there who's like this. Thank you, by the way, I think I will PM you sometime to discuss this. No one else seems to be able to relate to this.

plenty of us do. we simply feel there is little to add that hasnt already been mentioned :

You are not obliged to know everything nor could you even if you wanted to.

ruveyn

You'd hate being a programmer.



I understand your motivation, but you may find yourself taking the Socratic position that you are only certain of your own ignorance. The interconnected structure of nature demands that a perfectly unambiguous and objective description of one thing is made in terms of all things. Your axiomatic understanding is limited by your senses and experiences, which only deals with a sliver of (interpreted) nature at a time.

Yes, knowing the rules in which a system operates certainly does allow you to derive knowledge. Just today I recalled Fahrenheit-Celsius conversion formulas with the use of slope-intercept lines since I could not look them up at the time. Thing is, this process takes time. Can you imagine unambiguously describing the neurology of narcissism from a quantum physicist's standpoint?

Oxford's Very Short Introduction to the Philosophy of Science suggested that physics may actually not be able to describe things in specialized sciences as well as their own respective schools of thought. I highly recommend you add that to your reading list since it touches on your concerns. Finding the rules of reality requires lots of induction, but David Hume had something to say about the logical volatility down that road.

What I'm trying to say overall is that your journey to learn more will only leave you more humbled by the thought that the secrets of life may forever elude you. The good news is that you may end up being OK with this.