Writing

Writing has always been a big part of who I am. A voracious reader, I wanted to tell the kinds of stories I enjoyed reading. I tried to write my first fantasy novel in fourth grade. My interest in role-playing games led me to writing my own RPG game systems. I shifted to nonfiction when I became more interested in philosophy and technology. Most of my own writing focused on exploring ways to use technology to empower people in ways that combined philosophical principles with technological solutions.

I began writing EmpowerThyself as a realistic cyberpunk role-playing game book, but I realized that if my real interest in writing an RPG was to tackle real-world issues, I would be better off developing a sort of real-life RPG manual. Empower Thyself is like a Player's Handbook for strengthening your "character" by developing your "skills" and having "adventures". The book became too large a project for me to do on my own so it transformed into the EmpowerThyself web site. I am constantly writing to develop this system.

Now I find myself working on the most challenging writing project I've ever had: The core empower thyself manifesto, an introduction to the fundamental philosophy of self-empowerment and overcoming apathy. I am gathering and synthesizing the many ideas that I have written about and discussed verbally over the years. An elegant, persuasive and inspiring explanation of empowerment is long overdue.

I've always been very interested in the written word, and since a young age I have enjoyed writing up various short, fictional stories. My use of writing in a persuasive manner is fairly new to me, but I am trying to get better at it. Online debates and conversations on forums and other means of communication have been a good outlet to sharpen my linguistic ninjitsu.