From the Spectrum: Finding Superpowers with Autism
Aug 12, 2026 · 27 min · 11 segments
In this episode, you can learn: - **Why success, popularity, and growth do not necessarily reveal truth or goodness** - **How the Parable of the Weeds exposes the limits of human judgment and why…
And that raises another question, not simply what am I becoming, but where does that becoming ultimately lead? I think this is why one of the most important questions we can ask of any culture, institution, movement, family, school, church, or system It's not merely, what does it say it believes, but what does it grow? What kind of human beings emerge from it? What does it reward and punish? What does it teach people to admire? What does it train them to fear and avoid? Where does it direct attention? What does it make easier to become? Because every system has an idea of the good human being hidden somewhere inside it.
Every system rewards certain ways of being.
And over time, those rewards shape behavior.
Behavior becomes repetition.
Repetition becomes character.
Character becomes the person.
What are we becoming? But I think the parable of the weeds forces us to ask one more question.
Not only what are we becoming? Not only what is the crowd becoming? And not only what kinds of people are our systems cultivating? But the question is, why happens when the thing we are becoming looks successful? What happens when the weed is beautiful and it receives applause, admiration? What happens when millions of people imitate it? What happens when it produces wealth, power, attention, status, or influence? Do we assume that because something grows, it must be good? Do we assume that because something wins, it must be true? deserving do we assume that because a crowd follows the path must be right the third temptation should make us extraordinarily cautious about that because satan did not offer jesus failure he offered him the kingdoms if you are so righteous and good just take control make the people follow you He offered splendor.
He offered the visible signs of victory.
Which means success alone cannot tell us what kind of seed produced it.
Growth alone cannot tell us whether something is good.
Popularity certainly cannot tell us whether something is true.
And the crowd cannot tell us who we should become.
So perhaps the question is not merely whether something is growing.
Everything is growing and changing.
The question is towards what? And perhaps even more importantly, into what? And perhaps this is where the parable of the weeds becomes most difficult.
Because everything grows toward something.
A seed does not simply grow.
It grows into something.
And if human beings are continually becoming, then becoming is not merely a movement.
It has a direction.
We can become more courageous, more cowardly, more truthful, or more deceptive, more capable of love, or more consumed by resentment, more willing to see reality as it is.
We're more skilled at protecting ourselves from anything that threatens the reality we have constructed.
And that raises another question, not simply what am I becoming, but where does that becoming ultimately lead? I think this is why one of the most important questions we can ask of any culture, institution, movement, family, school, church, or system It's not merely, what does it say it believes, but what does it grow? What kind of human beings emerge from it? What does it reward and punish? What does it teach people to admire? What does it train them to fear and avoid? Where does it direct attention? What does it make easier to become? Because every system has an idea of the good human being hidden somewhere inside it.
Every system rewards certain ways of being.
And over time, those rewards shape behavior.
Behavior becomes repetition.
Repetition becomes character.
Character becomes the person.
What are we becoming? But I think the parable of the weeds forces us to ask one more question.
Not only what are we becoming? Not only what is the crowd becoming? And not only what kinds of people are our systems cultivating? But the question is, why happens when the thing we are becoming looks successful? What happens when the weed is beautiful and it receives applause, admiration? What happens when millions of people imitate it? What happens when it produces wealth, power, attention, status, or influence? Do we assume that because something grows, it must be good? Do we assume that because something wins, it must be true? deserving do we assume that because a crowd follows the path must be right the third temptation should make us extraordinarily cautious about that because satan did not offer jesus failure he offered him the kingdoms if you are so righteous and good just take control make the people follow you He offered splendor.
He offered the visible signs of victory.
Which means success alone cannot tell us what kind of seed produced it.
Growth alone cannot tell us whether something is good.
Popularity certainly cannot tell us whether something is true.
And the crowd cannot tell us who we should become.
So perhaps the question is not merely whether something is growing.
Everything is growing and changing.
The question is towards what? And perhaps even more importantly, into what? And perhaps this is where the parable of the weeds becomes most difficult.
Because everything grows toward something.
A seed does not simply grow.
It grows into something.
And if human beings are continually becoming, then becoming is not merely a movement.
It has a direction.
We can become more courageous, more cowardly, more truthful, or more deceptive, more capable of love, or more consumed by resentment, more willing to see reality as it is.
We're more skilled at protecting ourselves from anything that threatens the reality we have constructed.
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