The idea of abstractions has really been nagging at me lately. Specifically the abstractions that other people use to understand the world.

I know that personally I enjoy conversing at least specific level of detail that includes only the subset of things that are relevant, while my wife will enumerate all the elements in a set even if there is a perfectly good description or name for that set.

I really just want to tap people on the shoulder and ask them, "excuse me, how do you think that thing you're doing works?". Unfortunately I haven't found a setting where that is socially or professionally appropriate, and includes people that would give interesting replies.

Conversely I know just enough about cars to be dangerous, I'm sure there's a mechanic out there that would find my explanation of the workings of an engine interesting.