Lately I've been thinking a lot about the experience I'm having on Steemit. The truth is, some days I feel better about it than others. I'm a creative person by nature and by trade, being a musician and a writer, and my perfectionism in both of these fields means that, even on a platform like Steemit, I feel the need to put a lot of effort into my work, even if it's purely for my own satisfaction.
As a professional, I'm also used to seeing my efforts acknowledged and/or rewarded, which is why a lot of dissatisfaction tends to creep in when I'm not. For a while, I was beginning to dislike Steemit for that reason - despite the enthusiasm I have for the platform and the effort I was putting in, a large number of my posts were (and are) still getting buried. I realized from the start that this is the nature of the game, but until recently I still couldn't shake the feeling that I was somehow wasting my time if all that effort was going unrewarded.
Mind games
It wasn't until I began to examine the issue more deeply (as a psychology/philosophy graduate I'm always doing this - it's a bad habit) that I began to understand why Steemit was confusing me in this way. On the one hand, I'm enjoying the writing I’m doing on the platform. I get to choose my own topics and write in my own style. Whenever I've gotten a bit of money as a result, I've been pleasantly surprised. On the other hand, when I don't get money from a post, my mind tries to convince me that I'm not enjoying the writing process in a weird kind of retroactive logic. Clearly some kind of cognitive dissonance is afoot.
A realization struck me recently that has helped to clear a lot of this confusion. The truth is, I'm making a mistake by lumping Steemit into the category of ‘work’ and expecting a reward commensurate with my efforts each and every time. Instead, I should really be judging my work on its merits alone, and avoid writing with money in mind.
It’s not me (or you), it’s the system
The problem, of course, and the reason that a lot of people are frustrated with Steemit as it currently operates, is that payout on a post should be proportional to its quality and the effort it took to produce it - but due to the fact that the vast majority of power is held by a few whales (who can’t effectively curate the thousands of posts written every day) the chance of a worthy post receiving the initial recognition it needs to gain traction comes down to sheer luck a lot of the time. As 
For me, Steemit is not about money, but interaction.
I already have a job. I joined Steemit not because I wanted another one, but because I wanted a new place to share my thoughts and engage in discussion with others. As such, I get more satisfaction from receiving a genuine comment or participating in a good discussion than receiving a good payout.
Unfortunately, the current situation, wherein posts need to make significant money in their first hour in order to gain a wide audience, often defeats the purpose of sharing ideas and inviting discussion, rewarding arbitrarily well-timed posts on the basis of a few heavily-weighted opinions instead of allowing the community to do so in a more democratic way.
It’s similar to the concept of staging ‘free and fair’ elections, but putting the polling stations so far out of reach that only those who happen to be nearby or have expensive transport in order to get there are able to make an impact with their vote. Again, this is not an intentional problem, and it will get better as more voters get access to this kind of power - it’s just something we have to deal with while Steemit is still growing and finding its feet.
True change comes from within
I’m confident that Steemit will improve in such a way that high-quality work is given more of a fair chance to be seen by the community for which it was intended. It’s vital that it does so if it is to avoid discouraging hardworking authors to the point at which they feel their contributions would be of more value elsewhere - even if only in terms of their ability to reach an audience.
However, we as early adopters need to realize that our voices do matter, even if they’re not always heard. Those of us who are here contributing valuable content now are adding to Steemit’s foundational reputation and raising the standard significantly by doing so. Even if a post that you’ve worked on for days is only seen by a handful of people, at least those people will learn from seeing what a high-quality piece of work looks like - and will be inspired to raise their own creative standards accordingly.
In short: we have a responsibility to create as much high-quality content as possible, even in the absence of financial reward, in order to show the Steemit community the standard that’s expected of us all.
This is why it’s important for experienced writers to keep pumping out good content, not let their standards fall, and not be discouraged by small payouts. Rather enjoy the act of writing for its own sake, and look at every post as an investment into the Steemit system; one that will improve the quality of many more to come, encourage others to develop their skills, and promote a community where quality writing is valued by more and more people.
By doing this, instead of focusing on the money, we’ll actually be increasing our chances of getting better payouts in the future with every post we make, while simultaneously laying the best possible foundation for Steemit to build upon.
I leave you with this highly relevant quote:
Go forth and write well!