Wikipedia 15 wouldn’t allow me to post a long story, so here it is
Wikipedia is the reason I could bring myself to care about learning. Back in high school, I hated school and especially math. I thought I was bad at it and I felt bad for feeling bad.
But then I read Wikipedia’s article on ‘addition’. Kind of an odd thing to read. Only about half of it made sense, but the other half that I didn’t understand also hinted at things that seemed almost incredible. So for the first time, but (including now) not the last, I went chasing wiki-links. 8 hours later, I was convinced of one thing: I wanted to learn math.
Fast forward 5 years and I’m about to get a bachelor’s in mathematics from the best university for it in the world. I can see myself getting a PhD in it. And more of all, I now have something, in fact many things, to care about.
Wikipedia started that and it’s one of the few things I actually give money to. I am so glad it exists that I still marvel at the fact that I can read several lifetimes worth of knowledge, all for free.