Mostly the latter. Let’s see… I fell into the sun, got eaten by a huge fish, drowned in some water, suffocated on a moon with no atmosphere (and figured out what the suit is for). And just plain gotten my ship into a place it couldn’t escape from, mostly by getting stuck in the trees on my home planet nor far from the launch site. But I did talk to the guy on the Attlerock (is that the right name?) who whistles. I guess that’s something.
Really, these all just seem like random encounters and I am not learning anything yet. I get the “keep exploring” idea, but I would think there would be some sort of clue by now what I am looking for or why, but everyone I talk to is all, “keep exploring”.