I have struggled with this one a lot, feeling its truth, but confused because of the messages I learned from the world which taught the opposite.

Just as it is necessary to guard the mind from ignorance,, so is it equally necessary to protect it from the opposite, namely from too much knowledge and curiosity. For if we fill it with a quantity of information, ideas and thoughts, not excluding such as are vain, unsuitable and harmful, we deprive it of force, so that it is no longer able to understand clearly what is useful for our true self-correction and perfection. Therefore in relation to the knowledge of earthly things, which is not indispensable, even if it is permissible, your attitude should be as of one already dead. Always collect your mind within yourself, with all the concentration you can; and keep it free of thoughts about all worldly things.
Let tales of the past and news of the present pass you by, and let all the changes in the world and its kingdoms be for you as thought they did not exist at all. If anyone brings you such news, disregard it and turn it away from your heart and imagination. Listen to what St. Basil says: 'Let listening to worldly news be bitter food for you, and let the words of saintly men be as combs filled with honey.'
...
All other enquiry and investigation is the offspring and food of self-love and pride. They are the nets and shackles of the devil; he sees the srength and firmness of will of those who pay attention to spiritual life, and strives to conquer their minds by means of such curiosity, in order to gain possession of their mind and will.

-- Unseen Warfare (Lornezo Scupoli, edited by Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain and revised by Theophan the Recluse)

Really, on the face of it, the world's "knowledge is power" mantra should be very obviously wrong to a Christian. Just rephrase it as "You will be like God". The thought is very clearly along these lines, "You must know a lot to take care of yourself". Rather than doing well what God has given us to do, using the gifts he has given us properly with thanks, we turn to ourselves either with pride at what we imagined we have attained for ourselves or despair at what we cannot.

Not only does it lead us down the wrong path when thinking of pure survival, the world takes it one step further and teaches that curiosity is a virtue. Out of the "vain, unsuitable and harmful" types of knowledge he listed, vain knowledge really struck me personally. Knowledge for knowledge's sake isn't a virtue, it is destructive in that it enfeebles us. For a God that cares very deeply about us destroying ourselves (his cherished work), this is a big deal. And for those of us with minds that easily become consumed with new challenges and interests, this is very dangerous indeed.

Let tales of the past and news of the present pass you by,

I imagine this would strike most people as pure lunacy. Just watch how people react if you don't know the latest talking points which are being fed to everyone. Listen to the strong opinions people have about things they have no personal experience with or responsibility for. See how much of their energy is spent on keeping up with these things and forming ideas about them. They imagine that their thoughts about it matter in some way like some perverse form of prayer. But this is considered responsible behaviour by the world. Ask yourself, "Do I control the world? Does this bring any benefit or peace to me or those around me?"

My children, if you are truly strugglers, men who pay heed to virtue and care for your souls, and you earnestly desire your mind to be limpidly pure before Christ and to do that which is pleasing to him, then it surely behooves you to accept for His sake every warfare kindled by our nature's passions, the attractions of this world, the duration and persistence of the demons' wickedness with which they are accustomed to confront you, and all their snares. Do not grow faint-hearted because of the continuing and obdurate fierceneness of the battle; do not become hesitant because of the long duration of your struggle; do not grow lax, neither be afraid of the hosts of your enemies, and if for a season you should perhaps stumble and sin, do not fall into the pit of despair. But if something should befall you in this great war and you should even be wounded upon your face, let this in no wise hinder you from attaining your goal. Rather, persevere in the pursuit that you have chosen, and you will achieve that thing most desirable and praiseworthy, to prove steadfast and unmoving in war, reddened by the blood of your wounds. Never cease, therefore, from wrestling with your adversaries.

-- Saint Martinian ( as quoted by St. Isaac the Syrian )

Some members of our church put out a pretty handy website and mobile application which pulls up church fathers who talk about each verse in the bible. As handy as it is, as someone who literally makes a living from open source software, it always kind of bugged me that it wasn't open sourced.

There is an open source tool, however, called CatenaVetus which does the same thing, and actually contains more content. It does this by using another open source database of church fathers.

The somewhat pleasantly surprising thing is that it runs offline and as a terminal application. I don't know how many people who are interested in both patristic commentary and OS shell environments there are, but there must be at least two; the one who wrote this and me.

I found this a while ago, went to find it again to install it on a different laptop, but couldn't find it. It seems to have been buried for some reason, so I am posting it here in case others find it helpful.