The other day, I was actually having a bit of a crisis when discussing with a friend just where the city-center for modern philosophers was. New York – art. DC – museums. New Orleans, LA, Nashville and Austin – music. Las Vegas – sin. The best I can remember is that historically, ancient Athens has been the only ever city-center for philosophy which would perfectly explain the likes of Kurt Cobain, some of my friends and, indeed, about 3% of the artists and bloggers and authors online. They’re homeless in a way. Could YouTube be our modern city-center?

First of all, what’s a philosopher today? The list of ancients and greats seems to imply that no person alive fits the bill. So lower your standards. Today’s philosopher detests 9 to 5; has never been in a true, knock-down, drag-out fist-fight; wonders why people argue; relates to damn near anyone, and; with no epicenter, tangles up in music, art, poetry, writing and other public acts of expressing thought-out questions into abstractions that can be shared and evaluated.

Today’s philospher is that friend of yours who can’t seem to settle down. They might own a home, but they seem restless, artistic, ponderous, verbose at times, misanthropic at others. Relationships are peculiar and friendships are quite true, but few by the numbers – and most everyone loves them. Outside of Universities, there’s no community that understands how to embrace today’s philosopher. But again, how about YouTube?

With 6MILLION views, Johnny Chung Lee’s exploration into further utilizing today’s affordable technology has won him the attention of inventors, universities and Microsoft (even Bill Gates knew of Johnny Lee before an MS head-hunter brought up the name). Johnny Lee laid out public instructions telling how to control TV’s with Wii remotes, create a $60 virtual whiteboard, use sound for high-speed photography and, so far, his only business has been the poor-man’s steady-cam which is $30 if you buy it, $14 if you build it and all the instructions are there for the taking.

Microsoft snatched him up. But this is not an inventor. The New York Times quotes:

“Sharing an idea the right way is just as important as doing the work itself,” (Johnny Lee) says. “If you create something but nobody knows, it’s as if it never happened.” … Mr. Lee encourages innovators to ask themselves, “Would providing 80 percent of the capability at 1 percent of the cost be valuable to someone?” If the answer is yes, he says, pay attention. Trading relatively little performance for substantial cost savings can generate what Mr. Lee calls “surprising and often powerful results both scientifically and socially.”

Maturing ideas is a true Dinarius concept as seen in our original slogan a decade ago: Maximize Your Potential. Johnny Lee isn’t inventing digital whiteboards, Wii remotes, IR tracking, steady-cams and paint-ballooon painted inner city buildings (source ), he’s openly sharing his ideas of maximizing what’s around us; not rushing off to the next, big thing; making the most out of what you already have. It’s a philosophy. It’s quite nice as living a good life goes and it flies in the face of today’s technology rush which is why it’s so much more ironic that it’s the vehicle that’s rushing Johnny Lee’s message all over the World.