River is fictional but likes to have a good time. Mostly he listens, watches and learns. He didn't always do this. As exposed in the episodes in the book he had trouble with all of these as a child, adolescent, and young adult. As life moved on he learned he could think through about anything. His mission was to ensure the answer to his question "does this make us better?" was always yes. If the answer was no, his thinking wasn't finished.