Following the tributaries will open your eyes to new things and ideas. If knowledge is a river with tributaries, then curiosity is that which steers you along. See what you have been missing. It is the thing that makes you learn and grow, for without curiosity you would follow the river to the ocean and not be able to get back. If curiosity and knowledge are like a river, then life is the search for the head of that river.
Life is like a vast grassland with many rivers flowing through it.
But to get to the rivers there are any number of paths to follow. Some people will follow one path, never deviating or straying. Others will make their own, not knowing where they re going or where they came from. Yet there are people who do both, they will follow a path until they come to a point and realize that the path has been twisting and turning like the meanders of the river that they are trying to reach. These people then cut through the grass and connect the path in a more direct route.