The importance of play

An old roommate of mine recommended the Ted talks. I have not been listening to all of them, but the one I listened to this morning seemed particularly interesting to me. You can find it at this link. It is Stuart Brown talking about why play is vital, no matter what your age. He leads the National Institute for Play and makes some interesting and (I believe) profound points.

Nice quote from Cory Doctorow

From TWIT 183 -

Cory Doctorow: Using programmer tools to do other stuff is like using chef knives to cook, all right?

Leo Laporte: Yeah.

Cory Doctorow: It’s dangerous. You can really hurt yourself but they really work.

There's always a market for quality content

One of the first TWITs I listened to also happened to be the best one I have heard yet. TWIT 133 consisted of a panel discussion with and about Jonathan Coulton. I had never heard of him before, but the discussion about niche markets was fascinating and informative.

He quit his job as a software engineer to be a singer/songwriter instead, and now he makes more money doing that than he did as a software engineer. The "crazy" part about this is that he offers a lot of his content for free from his web page. He allows people to use most of it in derivative, non-commercial work (license). This is counter-intuitive to most people. What is also counter-intuitive is that people buy banana, robot, and monkey gifs on his site as a way of donating money. The point is that if you create quality content, somebody will pay for it. The trick is finding your niche. Coulton's niche is the tech nerd (Code Monkey is one of his more famous songs). I am having a hard time explaining. Check out his site and listen to TWIT 133.

Also, I think I saw him in Atlanta when I was flying back to Utah from my job interview at BAE a year ago. The airport was pretty messed up due to some ice (I was delayed for a number of hours) otherwise I think I would have got an autograph or something. It would have been a little awkward, since at the time my only exposure to him was TWIT 133. Don'y worry, I now have the whole year of Thing a Week.

Let me be clear: this is not a get rich quick scheme. At first I thought this was a new dot-com bubble. Maybe it was, to some extent. However, the bubble burst in October. Producing quality content that someone will pay for takes a lot of hard work, talent, and time. I do not have the time to put in the work, so my blog remains cluttered and not updated. However, many people I know have the time or have talents that are more easily shared over the internet (e.g. writing).

Speaking of writers, TWIT 184 talks about the death of print media. It is just not cost effective, especially with devices like the Kindle 2 coming out. One journalist I know had his local branch shut down this past year, and another newspaper employee I know was laid-off this week. If you have relied on printed media to publish your work in the past, I would highly recommend listening to TWIT 133 and TWIT 184. Then start self publishing on the web as much as you can. Create your own brand. It is worth something to the right people, and the right people are out there.

Podcasts

I tend to never have time to listen to my podcasts. Hopefully, after my family is finished recovering from our colds, I plan to start exercising again and then I can listen to my podcasts. That's an added motivation to get moving! Here are the podcasts I subscribe to right now:

BlizzCast - The Official Blizzard Podcast

The Economist - Audio content from The Economist magazine

ESPN: PTI - Washington Post columnists Tony Kornheiser and Michael
Wilbon face off on the day's hot topics

General Conference Audio (MP3) Podcast of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - A single audio (MP3) podcast containing all of the messages of inspiration and guidance delivered at the most recent general conference by the First Presidency, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and other General Authorities and general officers of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each April and October the files in this podcast will be new.

Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing - Quick and Dirty
Tips for Better Writing

Internet Safety Podcast - Family safety meets cyberspace

Jumping Monkeys - Join Megan Morrone, mother of three toddlers, and Leo
Laporte, father of two teens, as they talk about parenting in the
digital age, featuring lots of helpful links and advice, plus interviews
with other geek parents, web site designers, and bloggers

NPR: Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - NPR's weekly current events quiz.
Have a laugh and test your news knowledge

The Official Lost Podcast

Software Engineering Radio - Information for Software Developers and
Architects

Strong Bad Email - Homestarrunner.com

Tekzilla - Embrace digital technology. Join the Tekzilla crew and make your tech work better for you. Or you can go live in the woods with an axe. Every Saturday, Patrick Norton and Veronica Belmont deliver product reviews, computer help, tech tips on everything from iPods to camcorders, HD to the Internet, plus do it yourself projects.

this Week in Tech - Your first podcast of the week is the last word in
tech. Join Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, John C. Dvorak, and
other tech luminaries in a roundtable discussion of the latest trends in
high tech. Winner of People's Choice Podcast and Best Technology Podcast
in the 2005 People's Choice Podcast Awards. Released every Sunday at
midnight Pacific.

Walt Disney World Resort: Plugged In -

That's it. Typically I get through TWIT and Wait Wait regularly, and the rest occasionally. Anything awesome I am missing out on?