Less is More

I think I might get a bit involved in Second Life again.

Internet engagement tends to be cyclic, as I already observed back in 2008 in a post entitled Boom and Bust. It now appears that one’s level of participation can go through both short cycles and long cycles.

My first long cycle of engagement in Second Life lasted, with a few minor interruptions, from my avatar’s birth in late 2007 to the time of my last prior post in May 2011. Since then I have been “away” from Second Life for several years, doing other things.

During that first period of engagement I had great plans for my Second Life. I was going to learn to build and create content, to write scripts, perhaps to start an in-world business. But my goals were overly-ambitious, and out of phase with my real level of in-world knowledge. I failed to master even the most rudimentary tasks, such as shopping and improving my appearance. I put on some new clothes once in 2008, and have never changed them since! And I never put on any skin different from the one I was born with. (In fact, I am rather proud of Danton’s old-style avatar, because it shows how long he’s been around.)

So I should face the facts. I will probably never take the time to learn how to use Second Life well - let alone write a Second Life User Guide! (Actually I had a lot of fun capturing images of the in-world interface to use as illustrations for that User Guide website – until a new version of the viewer rendered them all obsolete.)

This time around my plans will be more modest. My main goal will be just to maintain some sort of Second Life presence. Maybe I could start by learning how to buy a new set of clothes.

In general, it seems that the higher you plan to fly on the upswing (the “boom”), the flatter you fall on the downswing (the “bust”). Thus the first principle of sustainability: less is more.