Where is leading by example leading us at Steemit?

in #philosophy6 years ago (edited)

I wrote a post not so long ago about self-acceptance and advertising as well as the judgement of others and thought I would continue just a touch before I head off to bed.

What advertising does in this respect is set an example of what to aim for, what to achieve, what is desirable and it is only because we place them into a role of authority over our preferences that they have any power at all. Cut the ties of their power over us and they no longer can dictate our decision making. This is easier said than done unfortunately as as much as people would like to claim otherwise, most are still influenced by authority.

This is of course a problem if that trusted authority does not provide an example conducive to success. The picture here is of my daughter and as her parent, it is my job to set an example for her as it is in these early stages of life that she builds the habits that will stick with her and be very hard to break later.

At this point, my wife and I are her authorities and she absorbs and mimics our behaviours. So far, she has not watched television or played with a phone/tablet and her only connection to popular culture is Dr Seuss books, nursery rhymes and the various kinds of music we play. She learns incredibly fast and sings, counts to ten, speaks in short sentences and is starting to control a pencil enough that she can draw a snail and, it is almost recognisable. She is eighteen months old. The example for her isn't what we teach, it is the freedom we give her to explore and learn.

But, she is a child without all of the pre-programmed package of experience to contend with and this is the problem here at the moment. Many people come into the platform and either treat it like other social medias or, realise it is something different and learn. If one wants to be successful, the common practice is to turn to the successful people to learn what they have to teach. What this means is the successful here are much more often than not put into roles of authority.

What dictates success? Well, for many that come here it is about the money so successful people are those who earn a lot, which is not too different to the real world where 'rich and famous' are the core indicators of success these days. Very little has to do with quality or value added to the community and most new people do not even know what that means in regards to Steemit.

This means that the behaviours of many people who come in here are established via the behaviours of those they see as role models for their own desired outcomes, namely money. This results in a copycatting of the role model since they are the leader by example. We can see this in how so many people post similar content to trending and how many get very disillusioned and bitter when the results don't come.

But, there is another side to it because as the new users become established and start to understand the system better, they begin to see all kinds of behaviours that they didn't know existed before. This could be great however, time and time again, so many people that they may have modelled their behaviour on have been caught, behaving badly. Abused delegations, spam posting to take advantage of autovoters, contant power downs, scam shilling, vote-selling, vote-trading, massive upvoting of many alt accounts, self-comment voting, hidden reference links for exchanges, circle-voting, comment spamming for followers and any number of other activities that don't appear in the FAQs and guides.

When the most successful people are engaging in poor behaviours it is seen as an indicator of how to be successful, it is a lead be example situation by the very people who hold the most desirable positions at Steemit. Is there any wonder more people don't engage in community development, long-term approach and quality of content? There is not a great deal of income to be made for behaving well here unless it is through app development and often that ends up with some level of abuse of delegations too. There is also not a lot of cost for behaving poorly here either and the higher the stake, the less risk.

But, here is the question about being financially successful, how far will you go? For some of the most successful here, if this was the real world and they ran actual businesses, many would struggle to keep themselves out of prison for collusion, price fixing, misrepresentation, conning, fraud.

This is of course not fair to those who do act well and still earn a lot but this is the problem, people love a scandal and the big names of Steemit are easy targets, especially when under inspection, so few of them are seemingly behaving well. But, this is a free market and advertised as 'without censorship, behave how you want, the market will decide'.

What has the market decided so far and what example does that set for those watching and learning?

For me, my actions here closely mimic the real world where I take my position as my daughter's role model seriously. I will make mistakes, I will experiment and fail, I will try to balance personal growth and community value and get it wrong sometimes but, the general line will be towards benefitting more people in the long-term. I am not your role model though, I do not want to ever be.

My actions are mine, yours are yours, however, we all have to live with the consequences.

Just some midnight thoughts...

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]

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The truth is always a bitter pill to swallow. So many people here do not want to create a unique content. This is why there are so few new tags; everybody is following the white light, no one is looking about the crountryside.

As you said, most are here for the money. I joined steemit for the money. That was the first thing that caught my attention when I was being introduced to the platform and it still remains the platform's selling point. I see this as one of the reasons why there's this inability to break away from laid down patterns of success here.
In the movie, Three Idiots, the major character said;

Pursue excellence and success will follow you pants down.

I have never forgotten those words. To be excellent means to stand outside the box, be different, be unique. But are we here on steemit?

Everybody writes fascimile of posts that had probably gotten a curation or had been visited by a whale forgetting that whoever wrote the post in the first place wrote it from someone within him or her. We have forgotten that writing like fingerprints are unique and no matter how well we imitate another writer, we can never give the same result as that writer.

What then is the solution to this problem? Do we turn away from those who had made financial success on steemit and find our own heroes? Do we break away from the mould and create our own gods?

What then is the solution to this problem? Do we turn away from those who had made financial success on steemit and find our own heroes? Do we break away from the mould and create our own gods?

This is a larger problem. What has value and what we place our wealth into are too often two very different things.

If there was a god, it cannot save us as it would not be its way. Creating an illusory god from the minds of man may offer comfort but, the help it brings is as illusory as the creation itself.

What has value and what we place our wealth into are too often two very different things.

And that is another problem. Steemit is like a prophet preaching peace with a gun in hand. If not for curation, and certain well meaning individuals who look for quality content to upvote, the quality content that steemit wants to pride itself for will be mainly hidden. After upvotes can be bought for any post, no matter how trashy it may seem. Votes can be exchanged, votes can be bidded for. With all these, what is the motivation to write well?

Value hides behind wealth in the scheme of things and those with the wealth, not those who write well, are valued here. At the end of the day, it is all about making money; The rules are not sacrosanct. They have been bent and no one is bothered. But it's open-source so what the hell?

Not very far on Steemit, that's where :P

I've tried to do things right, and speak up about problems. I've learned that I just get trampled on while I don't have the power to do anything about it, because power comes from SP in this "community".

Leading by example is better in real life. People can pay more attention and think without the appeal of money and appeal to authority/whales :P

I wonder if I will ever learn to keep my mouth shut but I figure it is unlikely. Yes, power does come from SP and I use what I have poorly to get more power. I will never be the largest or most influential and am unlikely to come close but, wherever I do land, my knees won't be dirty.. so to speak.

Well it's tricky. I thought by speaking up about issues nearly a year ago now... that I would get more support for the issues because people would see someone standing against issues... but nope. Just don't take on any whale personally ( or at least not asshole whales), and you can end up being fine talking about things, maybe :) Going up against abusive authority is dangerous. Most of the "herd" just wants to suckle at the teat of getting whale rewards or being allowed to keep them by keeping their mouths shut and not getting involved.

I see you as a successful Steemit user. I've tried to learn all your trade secrets to become a better Steemian myself - more successful as an author.

The only thing which is lacking is your beautiful smile. That might be the reason why I'm not doing as good as you are.

If I should smile to be successful, I will not bend to the smile. The Finn inside me doesn't allow it.

The one issue with new users on Steemit is that they focus too much on the whales and dolphins - assume they are the only reason we should be on Steemit.

Cue movie trailer voice

"In a world where decentralization is prized above all, those who survive must play by a savage set of rules. Every man fends for himself hoping to claim a piece of the days reward pool to keep himself afloat. Factions have formed around "whales," mysterious people who have managed to gain the power to direct large sums of the reward pool to their followers. Some use their powers for good, seeking to build kingdoms of harmony and knowledge. Others just seak to raid the pool for themselves and their comrades. This summer, the these tribes will fight to determine the fate of the world. THIS! IS! STEEMIT!"

Omg, my over active imagination built that whole scene in my head, voice and all... thanks for that.
When did you say the release date was.? Lol

Wisely spoken sir @tarazkp. We have to look towards those who actually make positive impact in the community and set them as models in our course towards relevance and not just looking up to those who earn most because that's a wrong approach or point of view....One should strive to contribute to progress in every way possible......And by the way, you have a very cute daughter... Thanks for sharing.

One should strive to contribute to progress in every way possible.

Positive progress -whatever that means :)

She is very cute I think. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I don't think i have seen you here before.

I've been quietly following your column, Taraz. And this one raises the kind of questions that I'm deeply invested in.

What is content? How does it create a better society? The right (moral) understanding of content karma, dharma even, and the network economy will be fundamental for the future we want to build here on Steemit and elsewhere. Each one of us is responsible for content one creates, and content that we don't because we are always responding to what we see and experience on/off the network. Groups and individuals that don't produce real/original content value for the collective are actually more harmful for our collective mental, intellectual and emotional well-being and growth than we realize.

There are flaws in how incentive or money works. If content authority or influece were based on good moral points rather than neutral points ("Money has no color or religion!"), we would be better off as a society. We can begin to arrive at such a point after universal basic income, or some form of program that eliminates the need to spam or cheat or work for narrow interests or short-term gains at the cost of the collective. I want to believe that it's possible to take care of each one of us--even if/when one has nothing to contribute in form of an original content artifact. There are more ways to be human than one for which there is a reward system.

Groups and individuals that don't produce real/original content value for the collective are actually more harmful for our collective mental, intellectual and emotional well-being and growth than we realize.

I agree yet it is up to the community to decide rewards (not quality)

There are more ways to be human than one for which there is a reward system.

This is true but the step is too large to realise at once, it unfortunately has to be a progression otherwise it requires a majority to immediately change and cause a flood. I don't see that happening.

It is a progression, totally agreed. So I meditate and wait...

I came to Steemit to learn about cryptos...and have learned alot so far...not from earning much here, but by listening, and trying things out.

Most likely I will never earn much here because I cannot bring myself to play the social game, and do not have hours and hours to write long posts everyday...but I make original posts, and have met some really awesome people :)

I would like to believe that Steemit is different than other social platforms, and in many ways it is...however, it can only be a reflection of the world, because the same people out there, are the people here.
Blue paint in a cup, blue paint on a wall...it's still blue paint.

it can only be a reflection of the world, because the same people out there, are the people here.

behaving in the same way even though they need not.

Yes exactly...

The true definition of a man is who he his when he possess power and authority. Authority can come in the form of freedom as we have here on Steemit. This is where people allow the wild animal instinct in them crept over and leads them through life. Steemit seems more like a micro-world experiment and most of the traits we learn and copy from this platform will follow us into the real world. We should therefore define again what really is our model. Great thoughts @tarazkp.

But, here is the question about being financially successful, how far will you go?

That's the only question people have to ask them. Money has it's way of making people blind to the values and norms they esteemed so highly. People suddenly become unethical. Internet does that too... Combine these two and you need a really good and honest person with the right goals and mindset to counteract that.

For me, my actions here closely mimic the real world

And you clearly have no problems with that. I really hope that I can stay true to my words when one day I'll be able to swim together with you in Dolphin-land. I'm pretty sure my norms and values have no pricetag attached to them, but can you ever be certain about that?... We'll see.

Money is not the issue, it is a tool. People perhaps need to start using it as such rather than identifying with it and attaching their self-worth to it. Someone would seem quite ridiculous if they defined themselves by the hammer they own. How you use the hammer is important though.

I'm pretty sure my norms and values have no pricetag attached to them, but can you ever be certain about that?... We'll see.

The more we sort this out before it arrives, the less chance it has to control us if it does. I have worked to get to this point, I am not going to relax anytime soon, there is still too much work to be done.

That's a good point you make, but again that's not how money is viewed anymore by our society. Saying money is purely a tool is saying that people in poverty only suffer from financial problems. It's just not the full picture. Money means power, and power has even more consequences linked to it. It's not like I accept or agree with the way it is right now, but that's the reality. And that's probably not going to change as long as money will be the primary tool to get things done..

The big question is; how can we distribute this wealth/power in an honest, fair way? That's such a logic, important question to which we still haven't found any solid answers. Or maybe we already found answer, but the system doesn't let us form them into actions. That's the real shame of our time... Maybe asking for people to see money as money instead of power is too much to ask for the time we live in?

The big question is; how can we distribute this wealth/power in an honest, fair way?

This is a 'how you use your hammer problem'. Do you use it to build or destroy. Steem has a chance of going a long way toward answering this question yet, people use their hammer as they have been instructed, which leads to the same being built again.

Maybe asking for people to see money as money instead of power is too much to ask for the time we live in?

I think the rise of digital currencies or networks is a proof that people are beginning to seriously consider this question. As technology makes a majority of work/professions obsolete, those in the charge of keeping people away from the streets and overthrowing them (revolution!) will start to accept the change that's coming, and is already here.

No one is perfect, so when i lead by example i show my mistakes and how i try to fix them. Steemit is filled with alot of people and some big guys are big only because they joined steemit earliet when things were way easier and they have made something for themselves. Probably if they joined today they might not be half as powerful

I agree. But that opens up chances for the newcomers to show them the alternative, more constructive way. If enough new people can make their way to the top with quality content, the old guard will fall down from grace. It will take time of course, but I'm hopeful that time will come one day :).

Maybe as the site gets a more mainstream folowing, and ppl looking for content and not only there foutunes we will see just that.

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