It may not have turned out the way I planned when I was 12, but at least I got this part right!

Once again, Bjørn Stærk has an astounding little entry in his blog. When thinking of this man, to my mind comes the expression from the Book of Daniel, chapter 5, verse 11: “…illumination, insight and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him.” (In all fairness, the wisdom of the gods at that time was perhaps less impressive than we might wish for in a god today.) There is, to once again reference the book of Daniel, “a high spirit in him”. This is even though he is not religious in the traditional sense. I am not sure if I have any part in that lack of religion: We have had communication since many years ago, and he may be one of those who picked up my habit of meditation, which is more transformative than I knew at that time.

Be that as it may, you should make a habit of keeping track of this man. Even when I am gone, he is likely to continue to illuminate the world, for he is many years my junior, and yet in some ways ahead of me.

Trying to be ignorant about different things than everyone else is a short and concise argument for diversity of knowledge. He does not belabor the point that we today have an astounding diversity of knowledge in our work, and that a shared knowledge base in our free time may help retain social cohesion. I largely agree with him: There is if anything less diversity in the freetime of the non-knowledge workers, so it seems to me.

I remember when I was about 12 years old, I decided to learn unusual things, so that my future wife and I together would cover a large spectrum of knowledge. I don’t think this decision has contributed much to me still being single nearly 40 years later — there are too many other reasons for that — but it may have contributed to my happiness. Some familiarity with mainstream knowledge is bound to seep in even from basic socialization, so even alone I have some of that spread of insight that I aimed for. And I love it.

But go read at Bearstrong.net, there is indeed light and insight like the wisdom of small gods. Although he has diversified out of writing only that, it is still a good place to graze.