Now that I'm starting to understand this place a little better, I have a clearer picture of steemit and my place in it. It turns out that it's just what I needed and wanted at this time, nothing more, nothing less. I need a platform to share ideas from my unique perspective while remaining relatively anonymous and at an equal level with others, not above, nor below. I need a way to connect with others based on a desire to make a better world, a desire to find a place where idealism and realism meet, where selfishness and selflessness are one in the same. I want a way to create abundance in my life by just being me and doing what I do. I want to help others achieve abundance the same way. All of these things can be achieved right now, here at steemit.
So that's what Steemit is for me , but there are some things that it is not...
Finding so many seemingly like-minded people on a platform with so much potential leads me to fits of being overly optimistic about the future. On the other hand, realizing that it's a really complicated dynamic with it's fair share of games and deception, that self-interests are still the prime motivation for many peoples actions, that there are still few who can see outside of the present social paradigm also invites pessimism. So I find myself trying to balance the two into a realistic assessment of where this place is headed and where I am headed.
Selfishness vs. Selflessness
To some extent, everyone is here for the money. I sometimes forget this. Not everyone shares the same philosophy of "Just be awesome and good things will come". Since my own experiences writing and connecting with others this month has only served to strengthen this belief, so I need to be careful not to become too naive . I have found many in the community who are willing to accept ideas such as mine. My idealism has been welcomed so warmly that I forget how there are still many for whom substance will always take a backseat. In the end, unless the community is unified behind some specific core beliefs, and unless trust between humans is a central aspect of those beliefs, money interests and power struggles are going to determine the direction of the platform.
Decentralization?
I am new to this word "decentralization", but I know quite a bit about power and human interactions and the concept is not foreign to me. Money, or currency, has power because the trust placed in it. Take away the trust in the currency and the currency is meaningless. As long as we put more faith into currency than we do in humans, power will always be centralized by the currency itself. It's as if trust belongs to humans, but it's trapped within the money, be it paper money or crypto. Without this increased trust in humankind and it's potential, any "decentralization movement" is just going to lead to a new form of centralization.
It's extremely unlikely that we will see a world without a tangible form of currency in the foreseeable future, but we are at a moment where we could significantly weaken the grasp currency has on us. This true decentralization only occurs when we put the trust and focus back where it belongs, into the community, into other human beings.
It takes work.
This is how we create a world that does not promote greed and self-interest. This is how we bridge the gap between selfishness and selflessness, between rich and poor. Anything else, will only make us more deeply entrenched in the backwards logic of forced competition in an age of abundance.
I personally do not see any good coming from a desire to expand at lightning speed and trying to attract as many people as possible to the platform. I think we should be focused on empowering those with sincerity and a sense of community by inviting them to the platform and allowing them to safely grow into whales as more and more users are attracted by word of mouth, and grow first and foremost according to their contribution, meanwhile decentralized advertising can be done by community members. A referral program focused on finding long-term contributors would be very helpful
The currency will remain valuable as long as it can maintain a level of trust. Why not let that trust be one in the same with the trust in the humans who are dealing in it, rather than piggybacking on investors and just being the lesser evil? Old currencies are failing because the trust in the institutions that maintain them is disappearing. Investments based primarily around the desire to profit are unsustainable as we should be learning from the current economic situation. Only quality content, community and sustainability can offer a true alternative from what we have now, and so I believe those should be our main focus. There are so many brilliant and talented people here, if the platform remains loyal to them, they will remain loyal to the platform. If we can maintain those 3 things and protect the platform for attacks, everyone WILL make a lot of money anyway as a matter of course.
Note to self
I need to be ready to accept that not everyone in this community feels the same way, despite the common talk of "changing the world", and that the concept of changing the world looks very different to different people, that I am still considered very idealistic and that perhaps the platform will take a completely different turn. I also need to make sure this doesn't discourage me. By sharing my perspective I could potentially have a tangible or intangible impact on the direction we take as a community and perhaps even the direction we take as a species. Such is the inevitable nature of being alive and connected to others.
I still have a lot to learn about crypto I would very much appreciate it if some like-minded people were to share their wisdom with me. Bite-sized please, I need time to digest.
My first month
I have personally done great for myself in my first month. I set a goal to reach $300 in my second week here, which was 10x more than the $30 I made in my first week. I also vowed to focus on making friends for the sake of making friends and sharing ideas, to write for the sake of sharing my true feelings, not to get caught up in money making tactics. I did well.
In my second month, I'd once again like to multiply my account value x10, $3000 by mid July. I hope I can gain 300 more followers as well. It's funny how easy that sounds to me.
I want to prove that you can focus on just doing what you do and make a substantial amount of money without focusing on money. That has been one of my lifelong goals and I finally feel I have the opportunity!** By August you will call me dolphin ;-)
My work
I am really enjoying this "Optimism at the End of the World" series. They are much more direct and practical than the stories I have been sharing at patreon, which have been more of a thematic exploration of my experiences, blending fiction to create new worlds . I hope that my writing here can also help to create new worlds, to change the reality of those who read it for the better, if only a little. Eventually my writing at the two platforms will begin to cross over.
My first music blog post about an experimental Chinese folk singer was poorly received. It might have just been about timing and not having a big enough following though so I will continue it when I have time for it.
The Japanese blog is turning into a personal project for my own benefit but I enjoy it and see no reason to discontinue making it public so I will continue but at a slower pace. I am brainstorming ideas to help Japanese users of steemit get engaged with the English speakers here. I want to develop my main blog series a little more before I devote myself to such a big project though.