I'm always more motivated by the pain of a funny character than by what makes him funny.
Part of the scientific temperament is this tolerance for holding multiple hypotheses in mind at the same time.
Apprentice is the beginner - the first years you work in a craft in the European sense you are an apprentice. That takes 3 or 4 years. Then you are a journeyman. You can go from one master to another and learn other tricks and other secrets.