Torley Lives

Good gosh, I'm so embarrassed. I'd snowplowed through an avalanche of emails and was working on the Second Life Knowledge Base when beez Linden asked me what I was up to. Some conversational exchange later, here's a big *blush* for me as I'm pointed to the latest company holiday schedule. Y'see, I didn't think today was a holiday 'cuz I was going by an old paper record… deprecated. I'LL NEVER TRUST DEAD TREES AGAIN.

So yeah, I'm taking the day off. But very much intertwined with the ultimate busman's holiday, Second Life.

All of this gives me a great opportunity to explain how it's impossible for me to only think of Second Life as play. For it is work too, and even when I'm exploring inworld on the weekends, I make casual notes in my Google To Do list of what needs to be reported and resolved in JIRA (which Linden Lab uses as an issue tracker) when I'm officially on-the-clock. I grab things as they flow by; otherwise, that's just asking for a lot of catch-up pain. My Firefox Bookmarks and Scrapbook see heavy usage too.

Why I'm sharing this is not because I'm a particularly busy person. I am, but that's lateral to the point: IT'S BECAUSE I'M SO FREAKIN' EXCITED ABOUT REVOLUTIONARY WEALTH AND THE TIPPING POINT!!!!

Positive prejudice: I haven't finished, haven't even got midway into these books yet, but with strong starts and my previous familiarity of the authors in question, Alvin + Heidi Toffler and Malcolm Gladwell, respectively, I can tell they're going to be amongst the finest tomes I've read.

Why?

Many of my fave writers are people who can take high-level, sophisticated concepts, and explain them in an entertaining, vibrant way. They help turn alien pets into cozy, domestic companions. Allow me to ramble, please: I've started using the word "memorable" more, because whether it's a "good" or a "bad" thing you remember — or more realistically, something in between — what takes up your mindspace contributes to the sum of your experiences. In a so-called "Information Age" where we're confronted by the data equivalent of junk food and our brains are spammed by glut we ultimately don't need, that'll have little bearing on our well-being months, years down the line… what you feed your noggin matters!

I'm not a fan of snobby, egghead scientists who know it all (and perhaps do), yet are socially useless to greater society because their "contributions", as advanced and complicated as they may be, are pedagogically poor. Mediocre. Lacking because their mode is like dirt-encrusted gems far too heavy to be lifted into the water for a good cleaning. They cannot communicate their ideas to the people!

On the other hand, we have geniuses like the Tofflers and Gladwell, who can take novel notions, load them up like rocket launchers of love, and fire them straight into the beneficiary of our cerebral cortex, and have the resulting ripples resound in our hearts. *thumps chest*

They, and Michio Kaku, Stephen Hawking, Stephen King, Albert Einstein — who famously declared:

Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.

and more of my All-Star Author League, have attracted me on my lifelong learning.

Both Revolutionary Wealth and The Tipping Point contain a smorgasbord of appetizing ideas which are directly relevant to the future of humanity, to my specific vocation, and myself personally. From creating value in "irreal" places like online worlds to my role as a community connector, there's a lot of good stuff between the covers.

I'm sure I'll have more to share following the completion of these books. In the meantime, if you've not already read them and you'd like to keep pace, I'd strongly suggest borrowing a copy from your local library. Or, if you're as enthusiastic about tomorrow as I am, buy 'em!