Something about that is incredibly interesting to me. And for some reason it makes me sad:<p>You cannot fully understand even a city. It takes too much time -- as soon as you understand one piece, the other pieces have changed.<p>Cities are small, in the grand scheme of things. When it comes to larger things-- states, nations, planets, there&#x27;s no way you could ever fully understand them. All you can get is a tiny, ephemeral snapshot, stuck in time.<p>It&#x27;s humbling to think about, and I don&#x27;t really know why it makes me sad.