Explain

Cognitive understanding is big for me. I need to understand. I need to have things explained. I used to be happy when someone gave me the answer to a question, or the results of an event or process. I wanted to take the pieces and see what the picture looked like once they were all put together. But I didn't always care to do the assembly; I was only interested in the end result.

What kind of bird is it? (but I'm not all that interested in subtlety of the markings)
What does Yeats mean when he uses the image of the gyre? (not how did he come up with this concept and where else does it manifest itself in his writings, his philosophy?)

But I'm not so easily pleased anymore.

I hate to admit it but I'm finally reaching the cognitive maturity I wish I would have had while I was still in school.

I feel like an idiot for admiting that I was never that smart, never asked the better questions. But I'm trying to get more comfortable being stupid. When I was teaching I fell into that nasty habit of being smarter than my students (damn those freshman). And it made me what I can't stand: A stubborn idiot who thinks they're always right, and so doesn't go look it up and confirm what they think they know.