Tuesday, October 01, 2019

Far from Close


A problem with the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is that it implicitly means “What do you want to ignore?”. Our minds and hearts have biological capacity. Gradually we are seduced by specialisation. The closer to the edge of human knowledge you are about something, the more of your vocabulary and experience is chunked. One word carries such specific meaning and depth, you cut yourself off from other people. We end up with various experts who are so far apart in the space of understanding, they have little experience of each other’s worlds. We lose competence in the basics. The ability to build trust. The ability to break bread. A strong base is significantly more important than how far you reach. Particularly if the connection to the stars you touch is so weak it fades as you turn to dust.


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