Having something "click" in a way that makes the chain of resulting understandings overwhelming. EG: "Wait... you mean c is c because there's a relationship between time and space, so that the speed of light is really a product of the ratio between time and space?" Click. "So THAT's what c is doing in E=mc^2, and why time slows to zero and mass increases to infinite and distance contracts to zero as you approach c. And you can't go faster than c because, from your point of view, you will have reached your destination before you had time to accelerate any faster, AND the slowing of time is the reason why a man on a train traveling at near c who turns on a flashlight will perceive the light to travel at the same speed as someone standing on the platform..." and... and... and... until I'm pacing back and forth, explaining it back to myself, snapping my fingers at each new rock this new crowbar can turn over. Hours later I'll realize I've been in a fugue for most of the day, there's twelve tabs open in the browser, many of them Wikipedia pages, and I've written 2,000 words of essay without effort. It happens for culture, too, particularly when I recognize an actor, look up what else they've been in, and start laughing like a madman. "AHH!! Billy Mumy played Lennier in Babylon 5, but he was the original Will Robinson from Lost In Space. AND he was the omnipotent kid in The Twilight Zone. AND he was the guy who sung the 'Fish Heads' song!" I've started to call it "Actor Nerding". It's like your head explodes.
I'm not sure I understand. What I meant was that--tongue in cheekishly--it's as if there was a culture of people who get off on making and discovering connections between things. Hawking and Burke are good explainers and famous for it, so if you fell asleep in science and history class because the professor was boring, having things opened up makes you feel less of an idiot. You get a rush. My eyes always glazed over in high-school math classes, but then somebody loaned me a copy of _Godel, Escher, Bach_ and my teenage mind devoured it. As a teenager I got the impression that Calculus was something only brainiacs could understand and that I was too dim to grasp it, and then my Dad gave me his old, 1969 reprint of _Calculus Made Easy_ by Silvanus P. Thompson (F.R.S.) and things started to make more sense. Today I might be in a crowd and mention Hofstadter, Burke, or Silvanus and there'll be someone who's eyes light up, and you instantly know that they're not just aware of them, but are excited, too.
Oh! Right. I just wasn't sure about your use of the word "shibboleth." But yes -- I can sleep through all physical sciences in high school because that's not where I want to be, but if reading Bill Bryson or Wikipedia is where I want to be than I'm all over it for hours.
The book I was talking about is A Short History of Nearly Everything. If you want to start small, his book on Shakespeare is fantastic and only about 150 pages I think. Also recommend At Home and A Walk in the Woods. One of my favorite authors.
This is incredible. I can tell this ignites your soul because of the passion even in your writing. Keep having stuff click man.