I am now sitting in a bar that looks a little bit surreal:
I don't like it, but I am guessing that someone at some point thought, "hey, this'd be cool!"
They were wrong.
What is cool though is that since the hardfork, the vested stake has grown by about 3.3%, which is pretty great news considering it has been about 2 months the last hardfork and the EIP has been playing a big role in the change in the platform.
Some people see some of the changes as bad like the drop in comments, but I don't see this as necessarily a bad thing at this point in time, especially with SMTs and owned communities just around the corner.I think that once they get up and running, things like engagement on their platforms are much easier to encourage as there is a more focused content approach and for many, that will give them the ability to narrow their content creation. The thing is that most people aren't very good at creating without boundaries and even many artists struggle without guidelines to color within - it is why those "adult coloring in books" became so popular, no thought required.
One of the things I like about Steem is that I am able to create across a whole range of topics that I am interested in without having to worry much about targeting. Some people like to be right, I don't care too much about that because, pretty much all that people think is right turns out to be much less so once time is applied. "Right now" is what most go for and the danger is that not too long later, it becomes increasingly wrong, but because they have believed and maybe even fought for it as right for so long, even if it has turned harmful, they keep supporting, because to change is to admit that what they were right about was actually wrong.
Time makes a difference when applied to what works and what doesn't and just because something didn't work in the past, it doesn't mean that it won't be the "best right now" in the future. Many things in this life suffer from an alignment problem where under other conditions, they would work. The problem is that some people try to apply what would work under different conditions to a world that doesn't have those conditions. It is bound to fail and because of this failure, many will believe it will always be a failure.
A Steem example from recent past is of course the hardfork that many believed would kill the platform, and for many it has. For those that have been "harmed" by the change are of course those who were acting according to the conditions available, even if it wasn't what was best for the ecosystem as a whole. Once the change happened and even now, there are people who keep acting as if there was no change in the conditions at all, and then complain about not being able to do the same thing. It is kind of like putting on a winter coat when it is cold and then complaining about how hot it is come summertime. Conditions change.
It is interesting to watch people struggle because they choose not to acknowledge the changes in the environment and continually bang their heads against the moving walls, because they refuse not to open their eyes. Some people think it is those who believe in Steem's future that have their eyes closed because they believe it will never work,. however, I do not think that is the case. Having enough belief in something's future to work and nurture it the best one can to fulfill its potential isn't blindness, it is the same process in volved for the entrepreneur or the parent. the life of no guarantees.
There aren't many people in this world who are willing to take larger risks than the average and that is just the way the normal distribution curve works. The average person is risk adverse and there are quite a few who are very risk adverse. The greater risk takers are at one side of the distribution and are therefore, scarcer than the risk adverse. It doesn't matter what skillset or specialty one looks at, there is always a minority in the positive extremes.
That means that risk takers being the minority but taking a position where the reward is high means that while quite a few will fail, an even small percentage will succeed in a process of luck and attrition and through this, a successful minority will survive. A successful minority is a problem for the less successful majority and therefore, will always get targeted, regardless of what it took to be successful or if anyone could have done the same if they had chose risk exposure and rolled the dice in the hope at getting lucky.
I think that if Steem succeeds, there are going to be a lot of very lucky people who di nothing more than hold their Steem to benefit while others did the hard yards and did the work and actions to make it a success. In many ways it could be like citizens of a country that is stable and successful without them actually doing anything to create or maintain that position. Unemployed patriots, complaining about foreigners taking the jobs that they are unwilling to do.
Funny how many people fight for things that they played no hand in creating and are born into the position by random selection of life, yet feel that it is theirs. Then they complain about Kinds and Queens of royalty not having earned their position. The only people who earn their citizenship are those who have to actually apply and pass tests for it, the foreigners. everyone else is born into the position by default. For example, my father is a naturalized Australian and in his life, he did a lot more than many default Australians to add value to the country. The idea of patriotism is antithetical to decentralization and freedom as it is the control of a centralized authority over its subjects.
People call themselves by all kinds of labels without thinking much about what they mean. Many subscribe to political affiliations and define their identity to concepts they do not live or act upon and in word only. Identity politics I guess. "I am" statements without recognizing that they are not those things at all, because to "be" is impossible when it is an ideal, a label. What people do matters more, but even that isn't a definitive of identity because actions in one condition set can change drastically under another set of conditions. Who are you when you are constantly under change caused by influences that are outside of your control?
Obviously, this has just been a ramble of thoughts that are written on the fly over a glass of wine while looking at an ugly bar, but some people will find something of value within to think about, others will find something to attack. It doesn't really matter though at the end of the day, we only have to be okay without ourselves. For me, I would rather work toward a world of increasing health and opportunity, and some of those the things that will add to that future are things that failed due to alignment problems in the past.
Have fun, it is time for me to head to bed and anyway, my wine glass is empty.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
