RE: Is Steem being held back on purpose?
I started using Steem almost 3 years ago and to be honest, it's only now that I am getting this feeling that people are actually trying to build something valuable instead of just making as much money as possible ASAP. It's kinda depressing.
On the other hand, should I be surprised? We are only mirroring real world behavior here, aren't we? Like, in general, do you consider most people giving up what they could have now to gain more in the future or just be fucking sustainable? I definitely don't.
We are really balancing on the edge here. And I am not talking about Steem only. I am talking about the climate change that is "too expensive to care about". I am talking about waging wars for ridiculous reasons. Destroying rain forests and forests in Russia. And this could go on and on and on endlessly...
Let's plunder this planet, but behave on Steem well, nicely and rationally. I barely think that anything like this is possible unless we get our shit together in general.
Sorry for being in this mood, but the level of absurdness is raising every day. Europe is going nuts. It's starting to be rather difficult to make something reasonable out of what is happening these days.
But why am I even writing this? I guess that we have to be pretty damn sure we are not building any more cloud castles with Steem as we are with other things. We should really ensure that what we are building makes sense, at least theoretically, and brings some value, although it does not always has to mean that it is immediately well-received by the users.
That is actually not so easy, to make something valuable and well-received. Because what is valuable? Is something valuable because someone else will pay you for it? It seems like it these days. But considering the consumerism and where our behavior has got us, it is much more probable that you will build something really valuable that no-one will give a damn about.
I am keeping my fingers crossed not only for Steem, but for the whole mankind actually. I have somehow managed to leave this issue be, but only as much as you can pretend that you don't care while being torn inside.
Posted using Steeve
Humans are notoriously short sighted and rarely think about the end of their lives, let alone the lives that will out live their own. It is depressing. But, we also have a chance to at least personally grow ourselves, find new ways and attempt to change the paths. Unsuccessful we may be but, that is okay.
While everyone is looking to change the numbers to support better behaviour, it will never be enough, it requires personal paradigm shifts that will only ever come through increased understanding of ourselves and the role we play in the nature of all things. Perhaps this experiment wakes a few people up to taking responsibility for their part rather than only encouraging avoidance through entertainment, which is the current monetization model of the world.
The economy is a mess because for the most part, so few people understand even the basics that they become victims of it. I think that those who come onto Steem suffer the programming of centralized control and act out what they know but, they also have more of a chance here to see the mechanics of the process and perhaps learn enough to start to take back control.
I know that for me who I consider not a complete idiot, I have learned a great deal about our world through the steem microcosm and see the processes and behaviours consistent on and off platform.
We can't change the world for the better if we do not understand what influences it, what influences us.
Yeah, sometimes it is so ridiculous it's almost funny. But it really slows down development as well, which is not what people understand. I have seen it many times that people just do things without even stopping for a second and thinking whether it even makes sense. In one of my previous jobs I was taking care of software development procedures and processes. And sometimes you could tell that implementing something will not work for one reason for another. But no, it must have been tried.
I mean, obviously you cannot be really precise with every possible outcome, you will be wrong from time to time with your predictions, but I really wonder whether we really have to behave like stupid monkeys most of the time. There are things that are obviously not going to work. It could be enough to stop, think for a second and evaluate what you are doing.
But I am probably asking too much since statistically speaking most people are simply not able to do that. It is enough to see who was elected the president in the Czech Republic. A pro-Russia drunkard. And the prime minister? A thief and an oligarch that started making his money and connections during communism already, being an StB agent.
¯(°_o)/¯
Posted using Steeve
People ar generally narrow in their view and experience so incapable of understanding the complexities let alone the compounding of factors across systems. I mentioned three groups, investor, contributor and consumer but maybe dev is a fourth. Very few have a clear vision of the other positions even when they try, so act on what they now which could actually be indirectly detrimental to themselves as they influence the positions of others.
A maximizer on steem might not recognize that the value of their token is inextricably tied to usage but, they aren't using their value to improve uptake. They satisfy their immediate goals at the cost of their future needs, the ones they will actually have to live with. This is the same for those who use all of their resources today thinking that is living in the moment. They forget that one moment is tied to the next and that is not the only moment they will experience.
On the other hand, as you have mentioned somewhere, what is happening now is really interesting and I also learned quite a lot by being on Steem and developing Steeve.
For example, people came, and not just once, asking why they should be using Steeve? What is in it for them? Like that we should be paying them for using our system somehow. I have to say, being a complete newbie in this area, I was shocked. You get good content, you get recommendations, what else do you want?
It seems that people got used to being treated as a subject to advertisement and consumerism themselves. They are able to ask you how much you are going to pay them if they sell themselves to your particular system.
I have always been wondering whether these freemium systems actually work. Facebook, Google and many others. I am going to use your system and let others pay for the system to be maintained and developed. And now look, Steemit Inc. is running out of money.
And on Steem it is pretty much the same. Do something and I am going to vote on your post, resteem it, bla bla bla. And others can delegate to me to support the efforts. And see, it is again someone else than the consumer paying for the system to run. And you, as the consumer, get rewarded for your good behavior.
And then we are asking where the value is and it's less and less apparent as more and more complicated freemium systems are established. And nobody is buying Steem because nobody needs to pay for anything.
I am really wondering where this is going to take us and I really have to congratulate Steem Monsters for making something that actually makes sense and is clear and simple. You pay for something you get.
Posted using Steeve
I wonder if it's precisely because they see things getting less attainable that they suddenly start to realise this could be a good thing. When there is plenty, we don't necessarily see it as finite. Then when others come along and see what was possible, they start to think how it could be sustained better.
The exact same goes for our ecosystem. As it disappears people start to realise we need to keep it and build it back up, but while its easy come easy go, nobody thinks that way. They just revel in the luxury of it while it's there.
Posted using Partiko Android
Yeah, nobody cares about the land being dry as long as there is drinking water in the pipes :-)
Posted using Steeve
Oh @void! I know an old chap that exactly does that!! I don't know his name. But I've seen that he basically looks like a handsome Eye flirting with a green bug perched on it. Yeah! there are a few out there who thinks all that sound kinda creepy.