For those about to die, we salute you...... Steem is making you (me) stupid.

Yeah yeah, it's a paraphrase - but it's my post, and I'll paraphrase if i want to....

And I'm not about to go on a shooting rampage, so don't stress.
(that's counts as way too much effort, nowadays).

But I do have a growing hunch that my time on steemit, is coming to an end.
(@drama token anyone?)

...Or should I say, will be highly curtailed. ....(Less drama, and more realistic).

Why?
Because I've realized that I'm 'dumbing myself down', by being on here.

When I first joined steemit, the people here were interesting, intelligent, funny, witty.. you get the idea, but has time has gone on, this place has become dull.
It's nothing like as vital , full of energy, as it once was, which doesn't bode well.

I'm not leaving, it's not a ship to me, sinking or otherwise...
(I've always loved ' rats leaving a sinking ship' idiom).
Although, I could never quite work out why doing something in your own self interest to survive, and seeing the future events unfold, and thus acting upon the information, was seen as a bad thing....?
It's not like the rats own the fucking ship, is it?
Rattus norvegicus is not Rattus stenaline, now is it?

Getting ahead of the curve is not a bad thing....

I digress...

When I first came here, I didn't have enough time in the day to respond to all the interesting posts, not and make some posts myself.

And here's the thing.
I tried to do better. Everyday. Sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing - but always trying.
Because of the company I was keeping .

The quality of my posts has gone down, my humor has become more slapstick, as opposed to cerebral, the good things people that brought this out in me have gone from the platform.

@abigail-dantes - is now the only person I really engage with, nowadays.

One person, ON THE ENTIRE PLATFORM!

I was researching some things last night, and I came across this piece below.
It's was nothing new to me, but it did strike a chord in me, and my own change of position regarding steemit.
And it made me aware of my own slow decent into stupid.
( I was gonna make a cutting remark of 'so i'll be down at your level soon, tarazkp', but I won't. Oh...I already have).

Here's the conundrum that I find myself in....

How much time do I put into this place?
(I'm not doing for the rewards anymore. And I'm definitely not doing for the popularity/approval, either).

So what then, am I really doing it for?
Why am I here anymore?
What's motivating me to stay?
What is my purpose , for being here?

I'm not sure, to be honest.
I know @tarazkp motivates me to stay.
Fallacious realities have been the the bane of my life, and I just won't let anyone get away with it.
(I'm changing my strategy here. btw- You'll see the difference soon enough, if I can still be bothered).

I know @abigail-dantes motivates me to do better, and she is the only person that still makes me want to do better .
To push the gray matter.
One person now, used to be twenty people, two years ago, here on this steem blockchain of ours. (there is still @denmarkguy, to - he's always interesting, and some others. Don't get offended if I haven't mentioned you).

Being competitive by nature, interesting people brought out the competitiveness in me, to do better in my self, and that's pretty much gone away right now.

Which is a bit shit, but that's the way I feel.

As for the future of steem?
I'll leave that to the happy clappers and 'the totally desperate to make it work, gang'. ( it's possibly the only roll of the dice that they'll in the 'life game' to 'make it big', whatever the fuck that means).
Good luck to them.
And I sincerely mean it.

A bit of history...

I was fortunate early on in my life. I took the IQ test (which I had to do, as I'd won a scholarship to some very elite, very snobby, private school).
It didn't matter to me then, (or now), but as I've gotten older, it did make some things clearer to me.
I was aware of how clever (and how stupid) I was.

Not many people have that knowledge to hand. It gave me a sense of knowing my place , in the grand scheme of things. (not in some stupid class hierarchy, context).
It was what it was. Not good, nor bad. Just a factual piece of information.
It wasn't from any elitist perspective, at all - fuck no.
It was from a place being able to orientate myself in the world.
Believe me, I'm as dumb as a bag of rocks in so many things.
But I knew my place.
There is nothing wrong with knowing your fucking place in the world!

You have no idea how much it saddens me when I see the postmodernist perspective (evil, by another name), of the brain washing of the 'not so smart', who are led to believe they are really intelligent.
It's a crime, in my opinion.
And dangerous.
There's nothing clever about being intelligent, trust me.

Everyone gets dealt a hand when they are born, and a lot of it is hereditary, and there's jack shit that we can do about that.
Everyone gets dealt a different hand, but what really pisses me off, is when you're told that your holding a pair of Aces, and 'in position', (optimal), but when, in reality, what you're really holding is 2, 7 off suit, and you're 'under the gun'. ( an incredibly weak hand, and the worst position on the table, if you're playing poker, for those that don't know).

Being the best you can be, is the whole point here.

Telling someone they can be a brain surgeon, when they obviously can't, is just fucking evil.

...Some poor dude, duped into chasing that non existent brain surgeon destination for years, is being set up for failure and abject misery for his entire life.
....That same poor dude, who's been conned by the education system into believing falsehoods about himself, could have been.....

....the best fucking mechanic in the world, and had a life of success and happiness, instead of abject misery!

know thyself, for fucks sake.

Read the excerpt from the post below...
...I left out some parts that didn't fit my point of this post, (relative to myself). Not because they didn't apply, but because they only served to remind me of my own shift - towards the direction of dumbing down.

The full article's here
https://www.quora.com/How-can-you-identify-intelligent-people

This is 80% of the article...

They can read people. Actually, you might feel as if they can see through you.

.... they can easily recognize your cognition style and make you laugh either by jokes, observations, or sarcasm.
So look also for humor.
They are not interested in appearing nice to others just because they want to give a good impression. They will help you when no one is watching. Most times they they couldn´t care less about what others think. They have a good moral compass.
Be ready to hear some off-the-wall ideas about society, religion, politics, etc. They will not be polite when pointing out some truths. They defend truth above all (because truth is logic). They´ll actually like to discuss and hear eccentric perceptions because that way they can confront what they know.
They will hear carefully what you say and will pick your perceptions as puzzle pieces
They recognize truth in all perceptions, so they may quickly change from one opinion to another, because they find one truth and then they move on to another truth - so they aren´t that quick to judge unless they find logic fallacies in arguments.
As part of the truth, they value authenticity. They will not lie because they want to give a good impression. They will not smile in your face and talk bad about you behind close doors.
They have no problem in being straightforward and pointing out your shit (even if you have all the credentials in the world).
Because they value authenticity so much, they´ll have some shills every time they sense inauthenticity.
Either that be in propaganda, hypocrisy, lies, fake people, advertisement, ...you name it.
As a result, they´ll probably pick up on some fallacies in peoples reasoning and theories. Don´t get surprised if they have no pity in doing so.

Truth is more important than feelings.

And that's all I can be bothered writing today.
I might get medieval on @tarazkp 's ass later, if I can be bothered. (see brain surgeon story above).

Am I an arrogant twat? Nah. ....but you might not realize it.

....it all depends on the position from where you are looking at me , doesn't it?

(You can work on understanding your own level of intelligence, from dissecting and forming an opinion, on that statement above, btw...)

Know thyself.

You're welcome.

I'm trying to help.