Today, I stumbled across a great article written by Clay Shirky. Or, to be more precise, a great transcript of a speech he gave at a Web 2.0 conference. In case you took a little deeper look at my homepage, you already know that I’m quickly drawn into books that teach us new ways of looking at society or explain why people behave the way they do. Clay takes a look at the way how we’re spending our freetime and he’s explaining why someone who is playing World of Warcraft for 3 hours a day is not actually a no lifer, but rather doing something at least partially useful – especially compared to watching TV.

I have to admit I haven’t been the biggest supporter of people “wasting” lots of time in the World of Warcraft (then again, who am I to judge these guys – after all, I’m into playing cards and in the eyes of some people, this must look just as weird…), but I changed my thinking a little after reading over this article.

Further, thanks to my good friend Matthias, I have been introduced to the remarkable novel “The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson. This is easily one of the 5 most entertaining novels I’ve ever read. The novel tells the story of Nell, a little girl who got in touch with an interactive book (the “Primer”) and shows how she grows up in a world that is ever changing and always presenting itself with new challenges for her which she solves thanks to the help of her Primer. Clay pretty much shows that the idea that has been spelled out in the novel (interactive learning is the future) has almost become reality.

For me, that already makes two good reasons to order Clay’s book. Maybe you want to do the same after reading his article which can be found here.