Kudos to the author for this article; it takes real courage to write something like this, and it will undoubtedly help many in similar places.<p>I&#x27;m inclined towards Buddhism and other spiritual weirdness as well, but I recognize (and I hope that this article helps teach others) that this sort of fun wisdom often comes at the expense of <i>groundedness</i>.  There is much to be said for being somewhat ungrounded- see every great leader and thinker that was criticized in his or her time for being an out-of-touch idealist, or their era&#x27;s equivalent invective- but one can also find oneself losing many of the &quot;common sense&quot; reference points that are important for dealing with day-to-day existence.  Human minds are messy things, and often generate absurd notions that we all, mostly subconsciously, squash simply because they violate our ideas about who we are and how the world works.  Be &quot;open&quot; enough to take in radical new spiritual ideas, and you&#x27;re also open enough to take in a great deal of fuzz.<p>This sort of openness doesn&#x27;t need to take the form of metaphysical &quot;woo&quot; (see, for instance, conspiracy theorists), but the belief that we&#x27;re animals living in a physical world is a useful one, since it lets us easily declare invalid a large range of potentially harmful beliefs.  <i>Perhaps</i> its untrue, but while our human urge to take nothing for granted is noble, it can easily land us in trouble.<p>The &quot;hacker&quot; crowd is, stereotypically, full of bright individuals who like to take nothing for granted, so I wouldn&#x27;t be surprised if Reitz&#x27;s story represents a fairly common narrative.  There&#x27;s an interesting parallel; for spiritual seekers, just like startup founders, its crucial to learn how to balance oversized ambitions with the necessities of mere human existence- and to rein themselves in, or even to give up the chase, when the latter becomes seriously threatened.