Anybody around here ever play video games with friends?

No! That pastime is still for dorks timotheories! And dorks don’t have friends! So go play your dorky game by yourself! Dork!

Ouch.

Well I hate to break it to you, mean text-based figment of my imagination, but video games represent a pretty substantial portion of the entertainment industry, heck, it’s grown to the point where it’s a bigger deal than film in terms of revenue.

The worldwide game industry has grown by almost 10x what it was worth between 1990 (4.7 billion) and 2007 (44.9 billion). And if we look now at how much video games have made between 2007 and 2015 (115.1 billion) it’s grown by another 2.5x.

Which is why I’m going to write about levelling up in today’s Wisdom Wednesday post, dear readers.That’s right! Well it’s not why, but it’s a good lead up to the concept. And so I’m excited to tell you that it is possible for you to become a better version of yourself and it won’t have to cost you 6 millions of dollars.

For the uninitiated, I will explain what levelling up entails.

The concept of experience or experience points, is used in role-playing games (also games with RPG elements) to illicit a feeling of character growth, similar to what happens in life as you attain mastery of a complex skill. The idea goes that people tend to get better/stronger at whatever they do the more they do it. Experience points are accumulated until you have a certain amount, which then is represented by a higher level of skillfulness.

Most games start their characters off at a low level, in particular, the main character(s), and sometimes (read: often) slightly stronger characters are introduced along the way. These new characters appear to be amazing, but are only cool until something bigger and badder comes along.

Let me further illustrate my point with a popular manga series which demonstrates this thoroughly. While not a video game itself, though there have been games made based on it, the Dragon Ball (Z) (GT) (S) franchise encapsulates this idea incredibly well. Goku is a Super Saiyan now so he could beat Frieza? Well let’s make Gohan a 2nd level Super Saiyan to defeat that even more important bad guy Cell that Goku cannot beat.

And that’s not really the point I wanted to make. But you’re hooked now, so you’ll love this next part.

I love learning and I am always looking for ways to learn more, faster. Do you feel the same way folks? Well I like to think of learning as levelling up. Or was it the other way around?

However, two of the major issues I face with this lifestyle choice and attitude to keep improving is both the cost and time involved.

For instance, I want to learn to speak French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, German, and Hebrew, but taking classes or buying language learning software can add up pretty quick! And that’s just one of my interests! We haven’t even scratched the surface of academics, programming, musical instruments, and DIY projects.

Oh sheesh y’all.

But luckily for us, the internet is a wonderful place, and as always on Wisdom Wednesdays, I am here to impart some knowledge and get you the content you can use to make your life just a little bit more productive. Or maybe reproductive if that’s something you are working on and these other things are taking up too much of your time.

The No Excuse List is self-tagged as “the best place on the web to learn anything, free.” You can learn all about academics, art, computer programming, cooking, access eBooks, HowTo’s and DIY, languages, music, and other topics.

And. it. is. all. free. So stop with the excuses.

I’m telling you about this now so that you can form some good habits well in advance of the holiday season and not participate in the New Years Resolution bandwagon. This is a useful resource and I want you to appreciate it properly. Because we all know that the January plan almost never works out for anybody. Take advantage of this directory and finally learn how to cook mexican food properly, build a liquor cabinet, program a countdown clock for the next James Bond movie and/or new J.K. Rowling movie, or discover 50+ other free online resources.

What do you want to learn friends? Did you find something on the list yet? Leave some comments! Maybe you can tell me what I should learn next?

Tim!