Mitch Kapor on Second Life
Yesterday I heard Mitch “Lotus 1-2-3″ Kapor give the third of three talks at the UC Berkeley I-School on “Disruptive Innovations I have Known and Loved” (podcast). This talk was about Second Life; the first two were about the PC and the Internet. It was a very nice talk I would have enjoyed more if I hadn’t had a cold. Even with a cold I was pleased by two things:
1. A graph of on-line Second Life activity. It was increasing at roughly the same rate as SLD-forums activity.
2. A comment that the short-term effect of similar technologies is less than expected; the long-term effect is far greater than expected. One long-term effect Kapor predicted is virtual meetings. I knew someone who was head of design for a very large powerful company — supposedly a dream job. But he had to travel all over the world to meet with his subordinates. Incredibly exhausting. So it wasn’t a dream job, and he gave it up.
I knew about the “disruptive technologies” idea from my work on variation in rat bar-pressing, which led me to read Clayton Christensen’s excellent The Innovator’s Dilemma. Disruptive technologies can be as simple as hydraulic power, which caused several steam-shovel companies to fold.
I had not thought of SLD as a technology; but I realized that’s what it is: A weight-loss technology. Disruptive, who knows, although Aaron Swartz was optimistic quite early. And today in the SLD forums I read this:
I’ve lost 85 lbs. and I have 25 lbs. to go and I just. Can’t. Quite. Process that idea. . . I’m at a new job where no one knows that I used to be incredibly heavy and there’s even a really cute fellow faculty member who seems to like me. He smiles at me. A lot. It’s nice. Everything is so . . . fantastic. I’m so happy I’m practically beside myself. . . . Almost every morning . . . I catch sight of myself in the full-length mirror out of the corner of my eye and the first thought is still “Is that me?”. And I have to stop. And look. And wrap my arms around my tummy - my much, much smaller tummy - and think “Oh that’s right. That IS me.” It always makes me laugh.
Podcasts of his earlier talks here (PC) and here (Internet).
November 30th, 2007 at 6:49 am
NIFTY! I’m going to have to read this more regularly. I was fascinated by the Aaron Swatrz article.
Y’all’s,
Del
November 30th, 2007 at 11:18 am
The quote from the forums is wonderful and something I can relate to. I’m around 100 pounds lighter than I used to be now, and have ranged from 80-100 pounds lighter for more than 2 years. I still get a thrill when I see people I haven’t seen for a long time, usually acquaintances or people who I’m friendly with but not exactly friends. I start talking with them, they wonder who the hell I am and then go through a shock of recognition — “Tim?!”
And at a dinner party a few months ago with a number of people who had weight problems present, a woman I was meeting for the first time asked, “Have you *always* been thin? How do you do it?” I delight in being asked that.
I have not had the experience of a new job with people who only know me as thin. That must be interesting, like taking on a social identity…
Cheers!
November 30th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I love hearing stories like that, of course. Having a new job with people who only know you as thin must be like a Twilight Zone episode. The opposite of wearing a fat suit. Except it’s true.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Hey Seth — interesting post, but also noticing that you report having a cold, and recall you had gone I think several years without one having virtually perfected your sleep. Has the record been broken for a while?
Any new thoughts/commentsdevelopments in this sleep/immunity situation? Would be interested to hear. I have tried the standing technique and not achieved similar improvements in my sleep.
November 30th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
I haven’t had a cold like this — obvious symptoms, lasting a week — in about 10 years, ever since I started standing a lot, etc. But it isn’t completely surprising because recently my sleep has been the worse it’s been in a very long time. I don’t know why. So in a way this new cold supports my idea that better sleep = more resistance to colds.
To get reliably better sleep by standing I found I had to stand about 8 hours. Below that the effects were unclear.
No new developments on the sleep/immunity connection.