Great article. I recently wrote a short play entitled Psychopomp after one such encounter with a word. I think curiosity is great - but it doesn't make me hugely productive. I preferred not knowing, because then the desire to look things up wasn't addictive. Sometimes when I've looked stuff up, my desire to know is satiated and then I forget the thing i looked up. I'm quite useful in pub quiz teams - the info is in there (somewhere) but sometimes knowing a thing out of idle curiosity is a burden.

On the plus side, the perpetually curious make great writers and like most script writers my internet history is somewhere between insane toddler and professional murderer. :o)