It's not easy being a Steemian, you know.
For starters, it's this blockchain thing. It's complicated enough in and on itself. And 95% of the people are equaling "blockchain" with "bitcoin". So every time I try to explain to somebody how this thing works, I get this: "Oh, ok, so it's just another Bitcoin, huh?"
No, man, it's different.
And here we go, trying to explain concepts like "rewards pool" (oh, so you print money out of thin air, right? - like the central banks aren't doing this every day...), "witnesses" (oh, like Jehovah witnesses, you are some kind of cult, right?), "steem power" (so, you have two coins called "steem" and "steem power", now that's really fishy...), or "power down" (so I can't take it out all at once?why do I need 13 weeks for that?).
Add to this the intrinsic decentralized nature of the accounts with their public / private key management ("So there's nobody to which I can resort to recover my account? No central authority? Who's running this shit?") and you get a pretty complicated picture.
The learning curve of Steem is steep. And when you thought you finally learned how things are working around here, you wake up in the middle of a whale flag war, and you have no idea what (and why) hit you.
Sometimes, I feel like Steem is a tiny little boat sailing around towards the promised land of a new social order, just like the vessels of the great explorers in the fifteenth century. There's an enormous amount of excitement, but there are also dangers everywhere.
And, if we should continue the parallel with the great explorers, the promised lands weren't discovered by the boldest of them, but by the ones who showed the most resilience and stamina.
To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before
These days we are enjoying a glimpse of what these new promised lands could be: STEEM is trading at $8. For many of us, who stayed around even when it traded at a few cents, this price is huge.
But it may also be just the first line of the horizon, just the beach of a beautiful continent unfolding unprecedented levels of freedom, lack of censorship and wealth.
Alas, getting there is not easy. I see at least 2 main categories of problems that are always simmering, waiting to explode: the "Ponzi scheme" accusations, and the "Speculative currents".
The Ponzi Scheme "Rocks"
A Ponzi scheme works by rewarding the early adopters, to the detriment of the latest newcomers. It's a business without a "business", relying only on attracting more and more people. Steem is often compared with a Ponzi scheme, to such extent that almost every conversation I have about it must carefully handle these accusations, just like a vessel should avoid treacherous rocks near the shore.
And I think I understand why.
Our enthusiasm of sharing this technological jewel can easily be misunderstood. In our genuine effort to attract new people (meetups, ads, campaigns, interviews, etc) we may present ourselves like the evangelists of a new pyramid scheme. Every time we proclaim: "join this amazing community and be amongst the first to enjoy the benefits" we raise at least a few legitimate eyebrows. Yes, by claiming that only the first will benefit, we're generating suspicions.
So I say let's tone down a bit. Let's try to understand ourselves first the difference between early adopters and Ponzi scheme "whales".
An early adopter is somebody using a technology - or joining a trend - when that technology isn't yet mature. When it's rough around the edges and difficult to understand.
And early adopters accept that and try to improve it in every way they can: providing feedback, contributing skills or promoting (attention, not "evangelizing" and not promising anything that's not real).
So let's be early adopters, accept the fact that this is a collective experiment which is run by us, every second. It may fail at some point. But at least we, as early adopters, did our best to make it work.
So now, when somebody asks me what the hell am I doing on this ugly "reddit clone", I say that I'm helping a social experiment.
"Did you get paid for that?", some of my friends are asking me.
"Well, sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on the markets." I answer.
And only those who are still asking questions after this dialogue are getting the whole presentation from me. I leave the rest in peace.
Speculative Hype Currents
The main reason being on Steemit is to be social. That's the basic function of this place. To write. To interact. To support.
But the blood in this body is a currency, namely STEEM. And that currency is freely traded, which means that, more often than not, it's subject to market manipulation. Either upwards, or downwards. To continue our explorers metaphor, these swings will be the "currents".
It's very easy to get swept in this current. It's very easy to lose contact with the basic function of this place, which is to be relevant to other people and start hunting for more and more and more STEEM. Start begging incessantly for votes or go "whales hunting".
Hoping for the value of STEEM to be relevant is one thing, forgetting why we're here in the first place, that's another thing.
So I say let's enjoy the market swings as they happen and for as long as they're unfolding, and keep sharing and interacting even when STEEM goes down.
It's hard to understand how things really work, because this instant gratification skews reality in a very mischievous way.
Truth is, you're not making money on Steemit when you're receiving upvotes. You're making money when you're upvoting other people. Because each upvote allocates a part of the wealth to somebody who's deserving it, and each vote generates ripples that, in the end, are coming back to you.
Onwards And Upwards
So, there you have it: like I told you, it's not easy being a Steemian.
But it really, really pays off.
And you don't have to take my word for it, because, like I said, I'm just helping this experiment.
That's all I do ;)
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me 
You can also vote for me as witness here:
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
If you're new to Steemit, you may find these articles relevant (that's also part of my witness activity to support new members of the platform):