RL/SL balance: how do you decide?

Ok, this is probably a difficult question but I'd really like to know..

The problem I'm thinking of is this:

- if you're successful in SL you could have all kinds of experience and things useful in the real world, business knowledge, 3D art, and so on;
- but if you fail then from the point of your potential next boss, you just wasted however-many months playing a computer game, and didn't even win..
- and you can fail through no fault of your own (trying something bold and new that turns out not to be popular enough to support itself, for instance).

So.. how do you decide how much time and effort to put into an endevour on SL, given that you don't want too much to jeopardise other things which would definitely be useful IRL?

Easy to answer. I don't look to succeed at anything in SL beyond enjoying the time I spend there. I am not looking for new skills, or artistic endeavors, or any sort of business accomplishment. It's purely for personal entertainment.

New aim high
never take any risks
always lock your doors
and trust nobody

the perfect plan to never fail

there is a way that is more fun but you have to ignore the above for that *winks*

Edit: sorry i was just being playfull..
it takes time to build certain things but confidence has to be there no matter what ..faith in what you are doing or in what you are creating..failure is only an option if you choose it to be..there is always another boss out there somewhere..and anything you have learned is never a waste..we end up where we are because of where we were.

Very, very, very few SL business turn income-level profit.

Truly, some content-creation skills are applicable to real-world jobs. But if you want to apply for real-world jobs, that time you spent doing nothing but SL is just a big, fat hole in your resume in which you were unemployed.

And honestly, people skilled in 3D graphics have a lot more income potential in real-world jobs than SL business.

The risks are too high, and the reward too low, to forgo other real-world employment to pursue an SL business.

Do your SL business in your spare time. If, in your spare time, you discover actual living wage potential, then you can give up your real-world job.

It's much easier to give up your real-world job if your SL business becomes amazingly successful, than to explain that resume gap to an employer after your SL business failed.

Edited to add: If you think you have that amazing, profit-filled idea, get investment capital to fund your pursuit. Not only do you prevent yourself from starving, but even in failure, it looks better on your resume.

Sure, but the problem is.. if I'm doing something that's relatively high effort (like working in SL) in my spare time, then I'm conscious of the fact I could be doing something else with the same amount of effort (working in Flash, learning a language, learning guitar) etc. that would definately be an RL marketable skill.

yes but one thing you have to look at also is where will the platform you are workig in lead you and how far..
people need to get out of the mind set of SL staying a game or being only a game..also SL only being the pioneer in these types of worlds..right now we are in the beginning stages of something that is gonna blow up into something really big with communication and virtual worlds..
learning something in here i think is gonna give people a really good jump on the comming future..
i really think this will be the one they all look to for basing their worlds they create to attract people to do business of all kinds in..SL is just the first serious one..there will be more coming down the road..

With your hypothetical SL business, what is your best case and worst case scenario for success? How much time will it take to acheive success, or recognize failure?

As to your alternate uses of time, how likely are you able to translate the spare time learning other skills into income? What's your best-case, worst-case scenario there?

That's research you need to do based on your own particular circumstances. A general philosophical discussion in the forums isn't going to get to deep into answering that.

In general, I'd almost always lay odds that the things you could be doing outside of SL are more profitable than the things you can be doing inside SL.

Unless you've really developed exactly what you could be doing with your time, though, you're not going to find meaningful answers.

B-b-b-balance?

*nervous tic*

laughs



Boss? Oh, I remember those. Had some in the 90's. Ah... avoid 'em if you can.

I see them as a sort of a choice, I guess... there were some high-point moments, and a sort of illusion of security... but I think I was just projecting. At the end of the day I really do prefer relationships with equality.

But hey, who am I to say what lifestyle is right for anybody... a lot of people turn pale at even contemplating just walking out the corporate door and figuring something else out. I remember when I did it, it was so liberating, not a little bit scary, and... I felt the most free I'd ever been in my whole life. Still do.

* * * * *

I have this really crazy view... well... it goes like this.

There are some people you could dump naked in a cornfield with absolutely nothing, and five years on their level of income and lifestyle would be pretty much indistinguishable from the one they have now. Capable, sharp people.

You've probably noticed a competent boxboy at the grocery store, or a waitress... you get this feeling about them, and sure enough in 2 years they are running the place. Then moved on, then driving a better car than you are. Most notably they make it look easy, smiling all the way. You can almost feel an aura about them - not in a new agey way, but... you can just sorta tell.

Then there's other people that you could give limitless cash, love and utter control - and they would still bring down everyone and everything around them. In five years, you'll still be getting up at 1:30 AM on a weeknight to bail their sorry behind out of whatever trouble they are in. Again, you can kinda tell.

Most people are between those two extremes.

* * * * *

I think the key is to let go a little bit, relax, and not fear the future.

Most people are so concerned about maximising their income, about preparing for 'someday'... and oh so fast you find out... all you got is today.

I have a friend who saved up a fortune, literally got rich via careful planning, decades of frugality and austerity... only when he got to retirement, his wife was diagnosed with cancer. In short order, she was gone. All the trips and golden sunsets they planned... and could now afford... never to happen. He's still rich. His wife died well over a decade ago. Something to think about.

So finally getting around to answering Yumi's question... I don't really 'decide' - I tend to do things for the love of it. If I'm too poor, I'll take steps to sort that out; if I have enough, I'm going to do what I love.

It's possible but unfortunately SL is demonstrating some negative things about it too, the most obvious being that no matter how sophisticated you make a virtual world, unless there's a lot of social engineering in place it will become a talker (and possibly a gallery) when introduced to real people.

SL is merely a hobby for most of us; even most of the "successful" types. We do it because it's fun. If you enjoy your time in SL, I don't think you can ever call it a failure. You can indeed develop skills in-world that can help you professionally in the real world- just as we all bring our real-world skills into SL. Again, if you spend your time creating or doing things you love to do, you're only going to get better at it, and I can't see how that's a failure by any measure.

I think it will be more business orientated than it will anything..
I don't think they will be able to do it themselves and will have to either work together or combine with other corporations that have to do with their would running smooth..

I think public will be more of entertainment area than the serious money..
I just see it being used as another form of communication with more options in one place..kind of like a one stop shop without leaving your home..people are already working from here but their jobs are outside of SL..
If we see the potential then they have seen it long before us..i used to think maybe they did not know what they had when they made SL..
but they did..i don't think they saw the amount of people joining so quickly and were caught off guard there..

from seeing some of the conference videos they needed their own power plant to run the world a year ago and hardware is not keeping up with them..

a lot of it is just guessing and only time is gonna tell.. being in here we get first dibs on the changes as they happen..
i agree the social aspect is important to an extent in something like that because the businesses that come in will need customers..
but i feel things that will be added will have to do more with RL than virtual..it will just be the channel we use..

What is this RL of which you speak?

Well, because this sort of assumes that you love every moment of the process of creating things. When in fact for most people, there's going to be some (varying) amount of frustrated struggling before they're actually able to make anything they like. And for some people, the desirable part might not be the process of making but the results. Or it might be something social that has an objective limitation. Or something like that.. so it's deciding on that kind of thing that's difficult.

I think the questions asked aren't that much about SL. Any endeavour you put serious time or risk in, whether it's RL or SL will leave you with the same questions.

It's all about how much risk you're willing to take, and how much of your securities you'd like (and can afford) to leave behind. Finding the balance between those two things is a question which goes for all of us, whether we use SL or not.

And it's not something that anybody else but the OP can answer.


I can just give some guidelines from my own SL (and RL) experience:

1. If you consider something as work, you will experience it as work. (And you'll lose part of the fun in it.)
2. Success is a two edged sword. If you're successful in something, it will become the norm, and you're only going to get back to the same question as before. (Do i now stay in the now new secure situation, or do I try something new and exciting?)
3. Anything you do that requires you to learn or experience something new, will in the end always pay off, one way or another. Even if you learn you're bad at for instance, marketing (I am , you'll at least know where your limits are in future endeavours.

I for one decided in the end that the process of change, trying out new things, is more important to me, than if the one thing i'm working on right now is successful or not.

What you do is call it "Research" and write some impenetrable postmodernist b*ll*x about it.

N.B. This probably only works for careers in academia

Risk are scary, sometimes the expectations of those risk fail.
It doesn't mean we are failure.
I have been struggling content maker for over ten years because I am driven,
yes there is always going to be someone better, smarter but I feel called to do this.
I don't make a whole lot of money here or in real life, in fact I live below the poverty line
but life is about being happy and doing the best you can, even with all the unknowns.
Persistence is all I got going for me.
Balance is good to if you're good doing the balance thing, some of its more of struggle.
Most of all just be open to enjoying your life regardless if it's real or virtual.
Take the risk you can afford to deal with consequences, but remember if you fail it's okay just keep going on.

I agree that SL is best regarded as a hobby. A good business aim is to cover your costs and make a small profit. Making an RL living out of it is highly unlikely.

I like being creative and enjoy the idea that, in my small way, I've contributed to the SL visual environemnt. I also like participating in something that is an experiment in virtual living.

I try to limit the amount of time that I'm logged on (to RL!) now, more than I used to.
I think one should ration one's pleasures, then they are more enjoyable when one does partake. That didn't stop me eating a whole box of chocolates at the Forum Cartel Hangout last night, mind you! And not a millimetre added to my waistline!

Since no one knows what direction SL will go, I would never risk giving up my real job for it. Even not, if it generated the same income or more.

Still, I like what I do in SL, and slowly my business is starting to make a small profit. Quite possible that within a few months, that profit is going to be higher, but it is not my utter goal. So how do I keep things in balance?

Simple. First Life comes first. So there is my job, study for some exams I need to do, my family, and my friends. Those all come first. My spare time is put into my SL business, so it goes a lot slower then it could go. But I am enjoying it a lot, which is what counts. My rent gets payed for from what I sell, and in the end I can even cash out a bit. No matter how high the revenue gets, this principle will never change. First Life first.

Marcel

Why would you tell any potential next boss? Are you in SL at the request of your current employer?

If you're referring to your "next boss" in SL, if they have any experience in the game at all, they'll know that the SL economy is flakey and the customer is finicky and deluged with content to choose from.

I joined SL with the understanding that it was a pasttime, and while I have learned quite a few skills here, and even do stuff that consitutes a "RL job" inworld, I still try to keep in mind that it is a pasttime. It's not the borin' place.