You Can Do Anything vs. It's Just Too Hard!

It must have, you're a beam of light 'round here.

Thanks for the link!

O

I know you can! Thanxies+welkies!

Then you're talking to some weird people. I happily bought L$ my second week here because I wanted to score some cool goodies. It was worth the ten bucks.



Please. You have to have mistyped this. Second Life is as open-ended as a canvas in terms of what you can create. An infinite amount of new things can be created from textures and shapes and strung together with scripting. This would have been like Da Vinci saying "Oh, man, everyone built and painted things for thousands of years. What more can I contribute? Fuck this, I'm going to work the fields."



If they're expecting luxury entertainment they can expect luxury spending. I don't recall Xboxes being given away for free.



Your outlook of defeat as a natural state of being would make me very miserable if it were my own burden.

a few random thoughts:

- I agree that every business in SL is competiting for brand attention, and competing for people's leisure dollars

- I still think the barriers are amazingly low right now... not really much higher than when i started SL a year ago. Clothing design, for example, seemed crowded then and it seems crowded now.

- I know a lot of entrepreneurs in RL who LOVE picking a sector with a few established gorillas. Not only does it prove that is money being spent, but it gives you some real targets to gun for

- it will get harder to compete as market noise increases with increasing entrants and the possible entry of RL businesses... no question. At the same time, the overall market will grow the population size, so interesting niches which are not big enough to be a market right now should become so

- There are lots of ways to entertain yourself in SL. Again, if "playing successful entrepreneur" is the most important one, then we have a problem. This isn't like making it easy to level-up in a typical video game.

- every entrepreneur will tell you that there a million reasons NOT to do something. If you think you have what it takes, if you think you might love it, then sometimes it's worthwhile being a little irrational and going for it! (heheh... but I'll grant ya, sometimes, the idea is just a bad business idea)

Ah, yes, here it is. The crux of the Argument For Defeat. Life is a zero-sum game. If I succeed, it's at the cost of my neighbor, etc, etc. That explains a thing or two for me, anyway.

you know how i love art references:

Eugene Delacroix, the great french painter wrote in 1824:

"The very people who believe that everything has already been discovered and everything said, will greet your work as something new, and will close the door behind you, repeating once more that nothing remains to be said." ... "Newness is in the mind of the artist who creates, and not in the object he portrays."

(flame removed)

I think this conversation would be better suited on Slog, I think.

wrong side of the bed this morning spinnaker?

do you disagree with the concept expressed?

are you about censoring the forums now?

I don't know? Why do they? Feed me some statistics, please.

And how are you defining "successful"? Are we sticking with the whole monetary thing here?

Because, if so, then I am failing at something I simultaneously feel quite successful at. Because the rewards --- friendships, intellectual and aesthetic stimulation --- I get from SL have nothing to do with my making or even spending money inworld, and are commensurate with the sort of rewards I enjoy in my equally successful first life. And, sure, I have to make money IRL; which money I could, if I chose, funnel into SL ... but, so what? I could also make money in SL, if I took the time to learn the skills and perform the tasks and had at least a little talent ...

Why do the majority of people playing RL continue to do so --- as opposed to blowing their head apart with a .45 at very close range --- if not to "play successful"? How about because it's fucking fun, is why; and oftentimes that fun also partakes of experiences we call meaningful. Which meaningfulness, although it requires a certain amount of initial *fnord* monetizing to support, is less about financial acheivement and more about enjoying ... friendships and intellectual and aesthetic stimulation.

Oh, and sex.

Did I neglect to mention that?

Of course, it's always all about teh sex, isn't it?

[/b]This is likely to cause a traffic jam, potentially leading to a massive multi-avatar pileup on Second Life's highspeed pedestrian walkways.

OMG!!! Thanx for the namedrop! Which reminds me,

Believe in yourself. What each of us brings here is something no one else can. There is only one of each of us, and hopefully we can come together and make Second Life a better world for the whole community! There are so many people who have succeeded here in their own way... I hope this encourages more successes. For each of us to find happiness, personal empowerment, and to kick back and have a fun time.

Yes... OMG SUEZ THAT'S BRILLIANT!

And what happens next is a brilliant Resi will invent a NEW WAY of transport in SL so we can all walk better!

While pornography may be the father of invention, necessity is the mother!

I'm sorry, but there are some EXTREMELY talented people in SL. I suggest you go check out what's being made and how imaginative / creative it is before you continue going in this thread.

But, you know, it really isn't relevant. I know who's making the big bux and it's not the forums.

Certainly, SEX is something many people can be successful at. qDot Bunnyhug's pioneering achievements have shone like cosmic diamonds! And I look forward to more. There will be more, better ways to explore sexuality in Second (Sexond?) Life and I look forward to more Dr. Ruths, Violet Blues, Tristan Taorminos, and Nina Hartleys! But wait, why reference those names? We've got some great inworld inventors already! This is such an exciting time to be excited!

actually what you just said is really relevant

there are amazingly talented people in SL, some of whom create for products some of whom create for fun. I'm a fan of both.

I'm typically a fan of any entrepreneur in RL or SL (assuming they are ethical), because I've been there in RL from ground zero and I know how hard it is, and how every bit of support you can get helps.

What i always dislike are those who have never been entrepreneurs, or those who have worked for startups, but never actually started one themselves, thinking they know better and getting judgemental and snarky. (that comment is just an aside, not targeted at you blaze)

but where you've lost me is how you were so offended:

"The very people who believe that everything has already been discovered and everything said, will greet your work as something new, and will close the door behind you, repeating once more that nothing remains to be said." ... "Newness is in the mind of the artist who creates, and not in the object he portrays."

the point of that text is to say, ignore the critics, ignore the naysayers, ignore the defeatists, and believe in yourself and your vision.

i just think delacroix said it well, and given that he was a MUCH better painter than I'll ever be, I like to listen to him.

Oh man. You caught one of his rare flashes of rage! Brilliant!

You've been here how long, and you've already got it all "figured out"?

Sounds like somebody's jumping to conclusions to me.

I think blaze has a club for that.

blaze, you can make your own blog and then masturbate to yourself! Its free!

He's basically got that with the SL Forums, Cory.

I was wondering when the first shot would be fired against Slog. I have a feeling this won't be the last we hear of this.

Three thoughts on this thread:

First, this thread belongs on late-nite SLTV. Along with the paid promo shows of all the people hawking ways to get rich by selling cast-away real estate, notes, and in-your-home-industries to the millions of imagined losers out there.

Second, Enabran is obviously angling to become the Donald Trump of Second Life, and this is his opening move toward inventing an SL version of The Apprentice. And with the hair and the attitude, he's just the cardboard cut-out businesstoon to do it.

Three, I'm with Lo Jacobs. I'm much too busy and successful in the real world to work hard in my second world. Here, I jes' wanna be faaahreeeee!!!

So what about it? Is there a place for unvirtual successful people who wanna be slackers in Second Life? Or must we always endure the barbs of real life losers who've found temporary virtual success in a toy world?

It's up to YOU to decide!

I noticed SLOG. I read Pol Tabla's very funny piece! I was going to comment on how funny it was, but there was no way. I asked Forseti how to get on there so I could do it. The answer was, I can't.

So much for that blog. So I told him to just tell Pol how cute I thought his piece was.

So now you've heard more, Aimee.

coco

Your honest criticism is hardly a "shot" on par with "go take the mutual masturbation fest to slog"

For the most part, there are numerous other blogs providing an open forum for discussion, bickering, and "masturbation" comments None of us felt another was needed. Sorry to lose a reader but we understand that not every flavor blog is going to please every person. Slog may just not be your thing.

And you haven't even seen my stampshady Grimm suits!

Ah, yes, an SL version of The Apprentice. We'll use shots of the Templar Botworks Building in Bonifacio for the credits. We even have a board room in Nexus Prime that would be perfect for the post-mortems of the teams' failings. I'm going to need a George and a Caroline... Possibly Aimee and Chip Midnight? Yes...

The first task would be sending the teams out to create a new promo for Snapzilla's advertising banners. Then Cristiano could call me on a speaker phone to tell me about who sucked and who won.

With all due respect, it isn't that difficult to succeed here financially. All one has to do is try just a little.

This is not the real world, it is a land of milk and honey by comparison. Money will come unless you do absolutely nothing.