Most academics will admit that, despite their own curiosity, their actual output has almost nothing to do with curiosity. Nor are grants awarded based on curiosity, because that's really hard to measure.
We know HN is all about curiosity. But my addiction to it, if you call it that, has nothing to do with curiosity-- except that last bit in TFA about the invulnerability
I come for the curiosity, but I stay to feel ... vulnerable? Comfortable? Invulnerable? Fuck knows.
It's probably related to the "fact" that dopamine hits come from anticipation of reward rather than reward.. curiousity spikes once a couple of weeks on HN and that's too regular and sparse to get addicted to. Do people get addicted to buying lottery tickets? Unless the tickets smell really great, that seems unlikely. It's more of a compulsion.. thus even less related to curiosity.
I don't know about the other addicts. Eg those here who average 20-100s karma per comment maybe they do know how to scale curiosity, and that is a GOOD thing, no question about it.