Others say they pick up useful knowledge about everything from changing fashion and mores to medical science.
Traditionalists believe Divane Hafiz of Shiraz is the book of knowledge, containing everything from poetry to philosophy.
He is an information hound, craving knowledge of everything from public opinion of himself to the game on the field to, apparently, wide-ranging topics off the field.
They are expected to soak up knowledge on everything from the farms and the roast to the grind and and milk texturing.
On Knepp's safaris, experts impart their knowledge on everything from nightingales to purple emperor butterflies, ancient trees to rutting deer, while visitors study wildlife in its natural habitat.
He is a marine biologist, so his infectious, almost childlike, enthusiasm for the natural world is matched by a vast scientific knowledge of everything from seaweed and fungi to trees, bugs and cooking methods.
Yet aside from the humiliation of being all but erased from the story, given my firsthand knowledge of everything from the founding (I was there when Screw was conceived, during a meeting at The New York Free Press) to the birth of Goldstein's son (I was outside the delivery room), I can attest that the record is set forth faithfully, for the most part, and also entertainingly.
'I can't bear pretension about food.' But the trip's greatest asset is Seed's own encyclopaedic knowledge of everything from the region's mythological significance to the best gelati café in Sorrento, to the slightly racy rumours about the lineage of the Oriental-looking chef in the next village.
The man with the eccentric accent, the tantalizing hints of family fortune and the impressive conversational knowledge of everything from physics to art to the stock market is actually Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who grew up in Germany, came to the United States as a teenage exchange student and never left, not even contacting his family back home for the last 20 years.
Finally, the report suggests that the government make better use of indigenous knowledge, covering everything from traditional medicine to sustainable agriculture.
