'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
I wonder if it is the same for trying?
Sometimes I wonder what would happen if Steem does well, sometimes I wonder what would happen if it failed. If it does well, potentially millions of people will benefit from the blockchain, if it doesn't, thousands of people will lose their investment of time, money and mental capacity put in - myself included.
Since I can only really speak for myself, I wonder how I would react to the negative outcome and if it would make me better or worse. Does failure have to make someone worse of for failing, or can the value in the failing be worth more than what was lost by it? I believe it is good to consider at least some alternate possibilities of outcomes and pay attention to how the body reacts as an indicator to how one may react.
Don't get me wrong here, I am confident that Steem is going to do well given enough time and energy, but it is unlikely to be an easy path and over a long period of time, it is easy to become negative. This is especially true for those who don't like commitment, don't like being locked into something, don't like risk. Isn't that all of us?
We like to feel free, we like to be safe and these two positions are in opposition of some kind as being free opens up risk exposure, while feeling safe protects us, but can take away that sense of freedom. Finding a balance between these points can be difficult for many of us I believe, some more than others.
When young, I was not a risk taker, I was a kid that played it safe, didn't push my body to the limits, was sensible, ate well-ish and still exercised. I got sick anyway. I don't think taking more risks would have changed that, but the sense of security I might have felt in all of those moments that seemed scary, but actually were safe didn't develop my response to facing my fears, and when my fears were for my health - there wasn't much I could do to deal with them, and instead I was fully exposed.
I am not like that anymore as I have been in enough hairy situations in my life and intentionally taken risks in order to develop that my fears of failure aren't nearly as high as they once were. This has been a pro and a con in some ways as having some level of fear keeps on the toes, too much and it keeps one frozen and flatfooted. Again, it is about balance.
I think becoming a parent has made me bolder in many ways, while for some it makes them more fearful. Yes, I do worry about the well being of my family, but because of that I am more risk taking in some areas, especially financial. I know that the investments I have made into crypto have opened me up to loss exposure, but I also know that the amounts wouldn't do much for my family even if I had them. Not only that, the amounts that I am putting in aren't large enough to do something significant with in the real world, so would likely be lost to a disposable consumption purchase anyway.
So, I try to see if instead of consuming useless with it, I am able to apply it to something that has the potential to outperform other investment options. I do not think that putting the few thousand into basic stocks would do much even in the long-term view, but 5 or 10 years ago with crypto, who knows?
This is a very short time frame for an investment in my opinion and it is in an industry that is going to change significantly over the next decade. Look how far it has come since the Genesis block. Do you think that Satoshi envisaged Steem or Gods Unchained? I don't think so.
The technology itself is going to advance enormously and a lot of the problems that the blockchains face like speed of transaction and scalability will be faced in all kinds of ways that we are yet to think of. What many call impossible is not so at all, it is just that the solution to it is not yet developed, it is an alignment problem.
When will things align?
Perhaps when enough people stop hiding and start seeking.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]