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).
NIFTY! I’m going to have to read this more regularly. I was fascinated by the Aaron Swatrz article.
Y’all’s,
Del
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!
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.
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.
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.