What accelerated your understanding of how the world works?
Maven911: Wow! I always thought it strange that I felt I was the only one who was truly obsessed about "how the world works". It always amazes me that people under 20 don't even bother to watch news to stay up to date with current events or special information reports...Me personally, I would say the newspaper. I would read it cover to cover when I was a kid (yes I know, I am weird like that). Even clip out articles I found super interesting.Nowadays, with the internet and wikipedia, anything that pops in my mind is easily searchable. Plus, I read a lot of non-fiction books on a variety of topics (though I mostly prefer anything having to do with money, analyzing human behaviour, social/society issues and analysis).One book I would highly recommend to understand the concrete world around you (power lines, power plants, road development, etc.) would be this fantastic book: http://industrial-landscape.com/index.html