I didn't buy the fucking dip.
Because in order to buy the dip, I would need to have available funds with which to buy, not the same tokens that are getting driven down in price. I am very, very bad at selling, which also makes me pretty bad at buying....
One day I will learn to sell.
But having said that, I know of plenty of people who are very good at selling, but still don't have anything to buy the dip, because they are very bad at holding value. Instead, they sell to finance their life, which seems like it might be necessary at times and I guess it is, but I also think that people get into the habit of living off what could be their investment, so they wouldn't have to constantly sell and could instead build.
"Living Costs" is of course a very valid argument to sell, but it should also be considered, for example in relation to earning on Hive, that without that earning, what would they do? And, this is important to note because in relation to Hive earnings, they are not distributed by a business, they are coming from a collective pool and distributed by stake, with that stake being directly affected by market activities. In general, the accounts that are taking rewards and selling everything they get, are seen as farmers and when they bring nothing of value to the community in any other tangible way other than dropping a post onto the chain, they are likely to lose those rewards through downvotes.
For example, in the last few weeks there have been a lot of accounts farming the 
But, my point is, that seeing Hive rewards as earnings is dangerous, because it starts to make it feel like it is a job, where something is done and there is a salary. This is not the case, it is a reward and that reward is granted by a community of stakeholders, whose direct value is affected by the activities of others. Expecting them to see what they likely see as detrimental to their investment and potential and just let it go on unabated, is folly. It is like watching someone break into your house and steal all of your belongings, and holding the door open for them as they walk out holding it.
And then, this means that the income that someone has chosen to rely upon, can suddenly wither away, leaving no income for living expenses from "earnings", no stake to earn through voting and the like and, nothing to invest either - so when the dips happen, what is left?
But it isn't only the dips, right?
If selling for living costs, it isn't just not buying the dips, it is also not benefiting from the highs. Even looking at the earning on a post where we can see that over the last day or two the values on posts are going down as they adjust from the collapse in the market, the same amount of Hive (less HBD) is being distributed. This means that a dollar earned through a post today, might be 50 cents tomorrow, but it could also be three dollars in the future.
One in the Hand is better than two in the bush though, right?
As said, when a person needs to survive, they will do what they need to survive, but what kind of life is it when all there is are acts of desperation trying to survive? It is stressful, right?
I don't know about everyone, but for me at least, I think that I am someone who will struggle more than I have to now, in the hope that what I do will lead to me not having to struggle as much in the future. There are no guarantees to this of course, but there are no guarantees for anything in this life, but since experience matters, working toward something meaningful, brings purpose.
Hand to mouth.
I have lived hand to mouth before in my life and sometimes, there has been some hard decisions to be made. Currently, I feel I am in that position again, except this time, it is more by choice, as I am choosing to severely restrict my expenditures, using the bare minimum to make ends meet. This has pros and cons to it in many ways, however I also find it somewhat like a gamified experience, where "conserving energy" is the goal.
Today in a session with clients, we were talking about where people pay attention and I think a lot of people put far too much of their attentional resources into entertaining themselves in what are otherwise, non-generative activities. But, if the same people were entertained by generative activities, they would spend their time doing something they enjoy, plus something that adds value to their lives now and for the future.
So much of what we do is "in the moment" as if the future just doesn't exist, which might feel like living up to the "enjoy the moment" philosophy, but when that future comes and times are hard, *you have to enjoy that too. Something most people don't seem to want to acknowledge.
Crypto is a pool of potential filled with diamonds, but in order to really benefit from it, one has to make decisions on how to act today in order to have value tomorrow. At least for me, but I wonder if it is an age thing, where I am "in between" (mid-life crisis), where I am not young enough to live for the moment, and not old enough to have given up on trying to improve my future.
I am still idealistic enough to think that what I do actually matters.
Maybe I will look back on this period of my life and think, what a waste of time and energy when I could have been entertaining myself instead, spending whatever I got on current living, not caring about the future. Or, it might be that I will be glad I have done what I have done, lamenting I didn't do more of it when I had the chance. Either way, when the future arrives, unless it holds a time machine,
there is nothing I can do about what I did today.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]