There is nothing I respect more than expertise! Seeing or listening to a true professional at work is a thing of beauty and it almost brings tears to my eyes. No matter if it's someone cleaning windows, playing piano or writing code - you can see it in the economy of motion, in the emotions they bring or in the efficiency of their code how extremely talented and trained they are. They love what they do and they have done it a million times yet still love it.
On the Internet you can find all kinds of videos of experts in action, the TED talks are a great example of this (
http://www.ted.com ), they are joyful, awesome, educational and just
so passionate about what they do! Not all of them are great of course but for instance Adam Savage's presentation about making a replica Dodo-bird is so full of passion you want to stand up and applaud in your own room afterwards. Burt Rutan's passion for flight brings tears to my eyes and I know the future exploration of space is in good hands when I listen to Bill Stone.
But these are people who are already big, Adam Savage - for good reason - brings millions of viewers to Discovery Channel with his show, Mythbusters. Burt Rutan has built the prototype of commercial space flight already and Bill Stone is working with NASA. What about the less known geniuses, experts and purveyors of awesomeness? Well, for them, we have Youtube!
Here is a two-part video of Colonel Louis Zocchi, the owner of Game Science and a veteran maker of dice. Yes, dice, and not just the normal casino-dices either, but the super-nerdy 20-sided dice used in Dungeons and Dragons-type games. He is an expert in such a small niche that only geeks and serious gamers know him but as you watch him present his wares you can see and hear the passion! I never needed a 20-sided dice and probably never will, but I find him describing how its made and what makes it good fascinating and I hope you will too!
Isn't the democratization of communication and information just plain awesome?
