I'm a big fan of knowing by doing. I'm an even bigger fan of CEO's who know of what they speak because they know by doing. If you haven't read it yet, Bruce Nussbaum has written a great post about how a CEO who doesn't "get" technology might not be able to command a towering compensation package in the future.
True Story: in the process of coming up with the Firefox design project for my Creating Infectious Action class at Stanford, Mozilla VP John Lilly and I held many of our working meetings using virtual networking tools -- call it Web 2.0 if you want. Our killer app? World of Warcraft. Beyond just being The New Golf, the private chat feature in World of Warcraft was a great way for the two us -- busy people with young families -- to find some time to talk on a Friday night without the overhead of conference calls, mobile phones, etc...
Plus, it's more fun than being in a conference room. Don't ever underestimate the fun factor. (or my ability to rationalize my subscription to World of Warcraft)
Where are you learning by doing today?
