In my second year in graduate school, I took a computer course

The words “In my second year in graduate school, I took a computer course and that was like lightning striking” by Ted Nelson are not merely a recollection of an academic experience; they are the echo of a revelation — the moment when destiny reveals itself to a searching mind. Nelson, a visionary who would later pioneer the concepts of hypertext and the very architecture of the digital web, spoke of that moment not as a lesson learned, but as an awakening. “Lightning striking” — such words capture the divine shock of recognition, the instant when one realizes that life has shown its path, and that the world will never appear the same again.

In the style of the ancients, we may say that this quote describes what the Greeks called epiphaneia — a sudden appearance of truth, the kind of illumination that changes the course of a soul. For Nelson, that flash came through the mystery of computation. To him, the computer was not a machine of logic alone but a living idea — a vessel capable of carrying human thought in new dimensions. In that classroom, among the hum of circuits and code, he glimpsed the future of communication, of knowledge, of human connection itself. The lightning that struck was not destructive; it was creative fire, the spark that forged his lifelong vision of an interconnected world — a dream that would one day become the Internet’s foundation.

This moment of revelation is not unique to Nelson, though its form was his alone. Every age has known such moments — when invention and inspiration collide. Isaac Newton, sitting beneath an apple tree, felt a similar flash when he saw in the apple’s fall the universal law that binds heaven and earth. Archimedes, stepping into his bath, cried “Eureka!” when he realized the principle of displacement. And Nikola Tesla, wandering in a park at dusk, saw the vision of his alternating current system outlined before his eyes. In all these moments, reason met revelation. The lightning that strikes the mind of the seeker is the same across the centuries — it is the soul’s recognition of its purpose.

Yet, such lightning does not strike the idle. It seeks those who prepare, who wrestle, who hunger for truth even when they do not yet know its name. Nelson was already a thinker, a poet, a philosopher in search of a vessel worthy of his imagination. When he found the computer, he found not a tool but a language for his mind. From that point on, he devoted himself to building what he called “Project Xanadu,” a vision of a universal network of ideas — a dream too vast for its time, but prophetic in its essence. The lightning had transformed him, and he would spend his life following its afterglow.

We see in Nelson’s words a deeper teaching about the power of inspiration. It comes suddenly, often without warning, but it rewards those who are open to wonder. Many pass through life seeking only comfort or convention, and so they miss the lightning when it flashes before them. But those who question, who dare, who are willing to follow curiosity into uncharted lands — they become conduits of that divine energy. When the strike comes, they do not hide; they stand and let it burn through them, shaping vision into creation.

Dear listener, the lesson is thus: prepare your mind for the lightning. Study, explore, labor — not to memorize, but to discover what truly ignites your spirit. When that spark comes, as it did for Ted Nelson, do not doubt it. Follow it with courage, even if it leads you beyond the safe and the ordinary. The world is shaped by those who obey the call of inspiration — those who, when struck by the lightning of insight, choose to build rather than retreat.

For in truth, the lightning of revelation is the voice of destiny. It visits each of us in some form — a moment of clarity, a realization, a calling. If you welcome it, your life will be forever divided into “before” and “after,” as Nelson’s was. Seek your lightning, and when it strikes, let it illuminate not only your path, but the paths of all who will come after you.