I suffer from Wikiploria (Wikipedia Exploration Disease). It is terrible. This syndrome has cost me my family, my friends, and my health. I only have my job because the corporate proxy server blocks the site. I am embarrassed, but I spend all of my time reading from this captivating site and I cannot stop. Wikipedia has information on every conceivable topic, except the remedy for Wikiploria.
My problem manifested itself three or four years ago when I started using this snow ball of information. Initially I would only look up things occasionally and would not follow cross references. As this tar pit of facts grew and cross references became more numerous, I started spending greater amounts of time reading topics of interest and following links. I eventually reached the point where I would lose myself in this labyrinth of data for hours on end completely forgetting the original topic I was researching. I only manage to break out of this suction cup of knowledge I follow an external link link into a uninteresting subject.
As an example, yesterday I tried to find the caloric content of an Avocado. After hours of perusing I learned that an avocado has 60% more potassium than bananas, has the highest fiber content of any fruit, and is toxic to many animals. I never did find out the caloric content of an avocado, but I did learn that Wendigo is a mythical North American cannibal, Donner Pass is where the Central Pacific Railroad crosses the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and that tallow was used to lubricate the engines of steam locomotives.
I have talked to a therapist about my condition and she recommended that I retrace my steps and analyze my weaknesses in order to help me over come this disability. Following my quack's advice I retrieved and summarized the following session from my browser history:
- Avocado: Possibly co-evolved as a food for the now extinct giant sloth
- Ground sloth: Proposed to be the basis for the South American mythical forest creature mapinguari
- Mapinguari: Many have dismissed this creature as a folkloric creature much like the North American Wendigo
- Wendigo: a malevolent cannibalistic spirit
- Cannibalism: a famous instance of Cannibalism is the Donner Party
- Donner Party: settlers that were trapped at Donner Pass
- Donner Pass: The location where the Central Pacific Railroad passed the Sierra Nevada Mountains
- Central Pacific Railroad: Was leased until 1959 when it formally merged with Southern Pacific Railroad
- Southern Pacific Railroad: The Souther Pacific Railroad painted the majority its steam locomotive fleet black
- steam locomotive: Enginemen used tallow as a lubricant for the pistons and valves.
- Tallow: is rendered form of beef or mutton fat.
- Mutton: I realized that I have a Wikipedia problem.
In retrospect my therapist is correct. I can clearly see the error of my way. I should have followed the links to either "traction engine" or "Steamroller" from the steam locomotive page. Tallow was clearly a bad path to follow since it ended in a mundane topic like mutton. In actuality this analysis does not help me to resist my vice, rather I now want to look up traction engine.
Until a cure is found, I will have to resolve myself to a life as an e-bookworm.
My name is David Syzdek and I am a Wikipedia addict.
P.S. The traction engine article is very interesting.