Thread:User talk:Armondikov/Mr. the Chemist

I've always understood organic compounds to be compounds made of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen. Today (or more accurately, just now at 12 in the morning), I read on Wikipedia that the distinction between organic and inorganic compounds is actually arbitrary and that it includes any compounds containing carbon, excluding stuff like pencil lead and carbon monoxide. What is the meaning of this? What foul conspiracy have you chemists perpetrated upon me? I demand answers!

More specifically, where did my initial misconception come from? Did I pull it out of my ass or is there some basis for it I picked up at some point and forgot the origin of? Thanks