I trust that the interface, be it the C++ standard, or boost::whatever, is well enough tested that I don't need to know "how it works".
It would be nice to know how everything works but there is only finite time in the working day.
You can understand the source of your libraries just fine, but still be grateful that they are usually hidden behind interfaces that let the compiler help you spot silly mistakes.
(OK, less so in C++, more so in eg Haskell.)
It's necessary to see beyond chosen words. I might ask how a computer program works and it could mean "how do you use it," or "how does it function." The other party has to infer my meaning.
I don't think you can take a phrase that is common in your life and apply it to everyone else. Words / phrase have different meanings in different contexts for different people.
Sure, I'd love to live forever so I could take the time to fully understand everything, but unfortunately I have to optimize my time, and learning the ins and outs of an engine just isn't that important in my day to day life.
While I tried to convey my own excitements and my dislikes, I was careful in my comment not to say that everyone most like the same things.
What I will say though is that there is a difference between known how a thing works and how to use it. Very often you only need the latter. But thinking that it equals the former is just an error.
But then you find a way to try and turn even that into a flaw of some sort, and continue with your narrative that it's somehow a problem that people don't take the time to fully understand everything they use.
PS. Australian here. Yes, people do speak like that, but I agree with your conclusion.
I saw "how does it work" used as "how to use it" on American TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEFXhopARyw
I like the (literal) treatment of this topic in Harry Potter and the Method of Rationality.
Never heard of it before. For anyone else interested; http://www.hpmor.com/
What I meant by "well enough" is that the explanation that he gave -- or even the one that I now have in my head -- is nowhere near the truth. Engines are complicated, and I will never truly understand them. But at least they can be demystified.
When I was a kid, I wanted to know how all the black boxes worked -- one of my greatest days was when my father explained the internal combustion engine well enough that cars no longer seemed like magic.
Later I noticed that many people -- especially when talking about electronics -- would ask "How does it work?", when they actually meant "How do you use it?" I thought this was just a quirk of the Australian dialect, but as I gained more experience with people, I realised it was really an aspect of human thought.
To most people, knowing "how it works" is no more than being familiar enough with the magic spells that you can use them with confidence.