There is a process going on, in which the least determined and talented writers and creators in Steem are slowly being shaken out. Even the population of whales is gradually changing, and slowly some creators are becoming whale-sized and proving to be more effective curators than the first flush.
Some think that success at writing for Steem is just mainly a matter of luck, and not a viable, or real way of earning a living. I beg to differ. These people who might say such things, already have accomplished something and have established careers.
Their writing is more of a hobby than a serious business.
Others, like me, I think, who are new, and who have not achieved the milestone of establishing their careers, have a different perspective. Especially me, because for me, finding a route towards success as a Steem content creator, is driven by survival instinct. The sense of danger and impending disaster gives you an edge to your work that you cannot get when your survival is already fairly well secured.
If I don't make a success of my work as a Steem content creator, I am back on the street.
For me, finding the path is imperative. In some ways, it is my last chance. I know I am not the only creator in here who is doing this. 
When your life, at least, maintaining the standard you have got, is at stake, and you could end up falling lower if you don't act, you are not just playing anymore.
Especially if that could mean being in very unpleasant situations in the future. Maybe even taking risks that could land you in serious troubles.
Your eyes become very attuned to what is working, and as you bump into glitches in your strategies of engagement and creation, you more quickly amend them. Sometimes even before a post has been up for long, you are tweaking it, and the more you do, and the more you tap into the veins of value that people in the ecosystem are looking for, the more quickly you become able to 'whip something up' that actually manages to get votes.
But it is not easy work. Simply writing is not enough. You have to find relevant topics, you have to gather relevant media. Some people's work is not so much about the writing at all, but presenting and marketing their work. Not all of it is digital media, either.
The posts that have really won me a lot of rewards, have been based on past work, but now, I am doing a lot of current work, my walking and photo shooting, watching and grabbing appropriate stills for a movie review - the recent one took me pretty much all day to put together.
It is also not just about creating, but engaging with the audience, and other creators, bumping ideas off each other, getting feedback, and networking, finding ways to get the audience interested to follow you outside of just actually making the content. Helping others with their own work. Giving people answers to questions they need answered.
It is a life-changing process, and very much worth the effort.
There is one more thing that I just noticed, that I want to point out. The authors themselves, have a critical role in curating the comment feeds under their posts. Vote counts on comments are much lower than articles. The author can help gain more and more appropriate attention by voting up insightful comments, and ones which the answers illuminate further the topic of the post itself.
...and a prediction:
I think eventually, the biggest population of curating whales in here, will be content creators. Curation is a skill that requires talent as well, and a broad knowledge of a great many areas of interest. There will be specialists as well, where their areas are narrower.
With the new reblog (to be renamed resteem) function, another element of curation comes into play... I think it will be abused by people who are what I would call 'weak hands' in this ecosystem, and they'll watch their follower counts drop as they spam their followers with reblogs. But it does open a new opportunity to become a newshound.
I also noted that it appears you can reblog comments. It will be interesting to see how this is used also. Maybe it will stop people making valueless comments. Or, encourage them to write ones that actually engage the topic.
We can't stop here! This is Whale country!
