Quick Hits of the Week

• Last week, Dan Miller and his son Jared released their new book, Wisdom Meets Passion. The need for passion was a big thing for me to get my head around. See, I don’t hate doing my job, but I don’t have a passion for it. When I sought out purpose in it, I couldn’t easily lay my hands on it. Nothing about it moves me or frustrates me. I can’t see myself ever leading there. I realized I needed something more, and I began moving towards work that I could celebrate. I’m looking forward to getting this book and reading through it. Jared seems like a remarkable young man with a fresh voice that will only add to his father’s already impressive insights.

• What if everyone actually had only one soul mate, a random person somewhere in the world? Our chances of finding them would be stupidly small. We should be really glad that we can make do with most of our fellow human beings.

• It was announced last Friday that Paragon Studios, developers and maintainers of the long running MMO game City of Heroes, was being closed down immediately. City of Heroes will be shut down on November 30. Now, this was sudden, the reasons given by parent company NCSoft were vague (“a realignment of company focus”), and unsurprisingly the extremely loyal core fan base has responded with vary degrees of shock, sadness, and fury. There is an online petition calling for NCSoft to keep the game alive. There are grassroots plans to try to get the game under a new studio. However, the consensus is that these efforts have a slim chance of succeeding, despite what NCSoft’s mission statement might claim. I’ve played City on and off over the last several years. I’m going to miss it when it’s gone, and I’m going to miss the characters I was able to create. I don’t know if I’m going to find another game to replace it. I loved being able to fly.

• I love this kid’s entrepreneurial spirit. I hope he never lets it go.

Is there something valuable or important or cool or funny or weird or awesome out there I missed this week? I can’t hit it all, but you should let me know about it by dropping me a line or sharing it in the comments below! I’d appreciate the heads up. Leave your replacement game suggestions in the comments, too.