The Case for "Enlightened Self-interest" on Steem /Help me fill up the @openmic reward pool this week/
It is hard to start a post like this without taking a look at the current alarming situation the Steem blockchain has found itself in. At this point its like playing an old record on repeat when talking about the current problems, but for the sake of my argument its important to at least acknowledge them. Even @ned himself went out and openly talked about it in mainstream media, which shows that he holds the same concerns as we do.
So what exactly are the problems we are facing now?
The trending page and bots have to be the first thing i talk about. Although i see value in the service bots provide, the underlying fact is, people will almost always overvalue their own content which in turn renders the trending page meaningless. This all stems from bot delegators giving their SP to bot owners without a care in the world of where exactly their upvote will go.
The Steem blockchain has turned into somewhat of a showcase of how some people are willing and more then happy to destroy themselves if it means just a bit more gains in the short run. Dont quote me on this, but ive read somewhere that almost 50% of all SP is delegated to bots. (ill adjust this is someone finds the correct numbers)
What happens if that percentage goes even further?
The trending page was supposed to be a showcase of the value and quality that is created on Steem. And in that aspect it hasnt been very succesful.
When your store front looks uninteresting, unappealing, the costumers wont come in, no matter what gems you might have hidden inside.
"Enlightened self interest"? What exactly is that?
Its a philosophy in ethics that states that an individual, by acting in the interest of the community, a group, or society in general, acts in its own interest.
The complete opposite of that would be the concept of "unenlightened self-interest" , in which it is argued that when most or all persons act according to their own myopic selfishness, the group suffers loss as a result of conflict, decreased efficiency and productivity because of lack of cooperation, and the increased expense each individual pays for the protection of their own interests._
I think its very easy to pinpoint those that act in either of those ways. I also think that an agreement does exist across the board that this continued way of acting will lead Steem to fall even further down the latter of the Crypto market cap regardless of the superior technology it offers in comparison to others.
Regardless of the tech, people will always look first at the goals that were set for Steem and if those goals have been fulfilled successfully.
When talking about these issue Steem users often tend to shift blame from themselves towards others and even those created the platform. That is extremely unhelpful. I have had a few conversations with other users, most recently when i uploaded my Curie promotion post, and i have noticed that users have no problem washing their hands from any responsibility when participating in actions that have a direct negative effect on the platform.
What is always set aside is that Ned and Dan didnt fail us, we failed us.
Their biggest failure is in trusting the community to act in the interests of everyone involved setting aside the self absorbing greed.
There are things of course that need fixing, but Neds response with SMTs (1account-1vote) is not a correction that stems from some kind of mistake in the platform design, but rather a correction because of the flaws in human character.
With SMTS, its basically Ned saving us from ourselves.
I have watched a movie called: "Big short" a few days ago. Most of you have heard about it, but what amazed me most is the clear connection between Wall Street behavior and the behavior of some large stake holders on this platform.
Just like the actions of banks and unscrupulous parasites that created OCD bonds that lead to millions of people losing homes and jobs; actions of some people here might lead to a bust of a similar result in the steem ecosystem. And there wont be anyone to bail us out.
Enlightened self-interest also has implications for long-term benefits as opposed to short-term benefits to oneself. When an individual pursues enlightened self-interest that person may sacrifice short-term interests to maximize long-term interests.
This is more then clear in the case of Steem. By following the positive ideals, by acting ethically and altruistically you are contributing to the growth of this platform. You are contributing to the market value of Steem, you are contributing positively towards the increase in Steems reputation in the crypto world.. All of this in the long run leads to you, yourself benefiting.
There is a tremendous impact generally held views have on value of Steem (shown in the fact that Steem has dropped more then 15 places in market cap)
"Steem is a platform where large stake holders upvote themselves and mediocre content is rewarded"... and the view: "Steem is a platform where the highest of quality content is rewarded and large stake holders act as leaders that uplift the community"... lead to two different outcomes.
The actions of some of the large stake holders here is pure self-destructive behavior.
The analogy i can think of is: Its like burning down your house so you can be warm for a night.
Its very hard for me to understand why exactly its so hard for some to make that shift in approach when its rather clear what the current behavior leads to.
Guys... Dont let everything fall apart. Steem can only be as great as we let it to be.
Anyways. Ive written this post for another purpose besides growling at everything. Hehe.
Openmic is having a bit of trouble, @pfunk, the witness that supports #openmic financially with 200 Steem every week dropped out of Top 20 witnesses so the reward pool will be reduced going forward. The @openmic competition is the lifeblood of many musicians here, one of the things that paints the Steem ecosystem in a positive light, with regularly around 300 entries every week. The quality that can be found there every week in my opinion makes it one of the greatest things Steem has to offer.
I have participated in the competition more times then i can count, won more then 250 STEEM so far and gained many followers and friends from participating in the competition. So i feel i can at least give back a little.
To go back to the core topic of the post. Yes i believe that by supporting amazing community projects like this one, we will all be better off.
The whole payout from this post will be donated towards the @openmic reward pool
so i will do something i havent done before and "Gina" a number of witnesses and large stake holders that so far i have seen stand up for the values i tried talking about here.Maybe some even help support openmic in the longer term.
@kevinwong @donkeypong @drakos @wackou @gtg @blocktrades @fulltimegeek @exyle @shaka @yoo1900 @surpassinggoogle @pharesim @teamsteem @acidyo @meerkat @hendrikdegrote @good-karma @kpine @vortac
I know i probably missed a number of large stake holders, but these are the guys, i personally, noticed contributing the most to the community so far.
Want to help even more? More information on this link
Anyways... Thx for reading my rant. I hope this manages to help @openmic a bit, and hopefully i wont get downvoted for pinging some of these guys. :D
See everyone soon and....
I appreciate you speaking from the heart in this post and agree with many of the points you made. From the very beginning of my journey on Steemit, I have looked for ways to help and build the community and Open Mic is my small way of doing that.
What really inspires me is to see how engaging this community has become as it grows and thrives. You and your attitude about giving to the community are a big part of what makes this whole thing work.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, your music, and articulating this pay-it-forward approach to Steemit.
All rewards collected from people like yourself who have decided to contribute to @openmic will be returned 100% as prizes for those entering.
Here are a couple posts you may find interesting and pertain to the topic of this post. Thanks for your contribution as well.
https://steemit.com/gifteconomy/@stellabelle/the-reason-you-don-t-understand-steemit-it-s-like-a-gift-economy-not-a-commodity-economy
https://steemit.com/steem-help/@luzcypher/the-most-valuable-steemit-post-begins-in-your-head-tips-to-mazimize-your-social-currency-on-steemit
Oh, thx for dropping by. I can only imagine the amount of work you do for Openmic every week. Going through 300 videos, writing the announcements, listing every single entry that week. It really looks like a full time job. And now youre running at a loss. You really shouldnt be.
That is one of those unfair things that i tried to talk about in the post...
Those like you that give themselves every week for the community, for the betterment of the whole platform should not be taking a loss.
You guys helped us build a listener base, you helped us earn Steem, i mean i met an amazing and supremely talented group of people (Helpies) through participating in openmic.
Really, whats a few hours and a couple SBD when considering what openmic has done for me.
And as i write in my post. Its still all in the end in my own interest that Steem and openmic succeeds. :D
(really no need to return anything. I just want @pfunk to leave 1 comment on any of my videos. That will do fine. haha)
Just for the record, I don't usually run at a loss, just every now and then. Steemit and Open Mic have been very good to me too and I'm very grateful for everyone involved in this platform and community.
And yes, it has become a full-time job to run Open Mic, but listening to beautiful music like the stuff you contribute is inspiring and joy.
Great links. Highly inspiring and motivating. EVERYBODY needs to read this. And it's funny, I really feel like this is a great philosophy for life in general. We gotta work together and remember that this world is ours to share. Thanks @luzcypher
One cool side effect of getting involved in Steemit is it has inspired me to conduct my real life in a more giving manner. The gift economy I find here has translated and migrated into my real life more than it would have before. That's a good thing. As you say:
Great post and points, Marica! I thought you might be interested in the conclusion that @dantheman Larimer arrived at in a recent Medium article.
Dan, by the way, built, co-founded, and created Steem, Steemit, and bitshares. He is also the founder and creator of EOS, which is about to launch in June.
To say that he is the most experienced blockchain developer on the planet would be quite fitting. Anyway, I think he shares many of your concerns, and in learning from past mistakes, I sense his new project, EOS, and all of the sites that will be built upon it have the chance to adderss many of these concerns currently burdening Steemit.
I'll link to his full post following his conclusion below:
https://medium.com/@bytemaster/the-limits-of-crypto-economic-governance-9362b8d1d5aa
I have been actually listening to Dan the last few days when i was writing this post... He makes some great points. And he will deliver on his part. Problem is.. Will everyone else? People have a tendency to find cracks in the armor. I could bet you that if you started some kind of a project of feeding the homeless out there somewhere exists a person that would look for a way to profit from it.
You're right! That's where I think the concept of self-policing/composing communities comes into play. Dan alludes to this, and the #openmic is a perfect example of one such community albeit subject to the vote-bots and all the rest.
BTW, you wanna know something personally hilarious about your post? The image you selected for the storefront has my family name emblazoned across its primary signage! Ha-ha-ha... I nearly fell off my chair laughing when I saw it... lol... That alone was well worth the price of admission. :-)
Yes. It seems the best functioning communities have some rule set that works towards a fairer wealth distribution. Dan added a "constitution" to EOS which i support fully.
People tend to forget that you cannot have a functioning society if you do not create a basic set of rules.
That seems to be the case on Steem as well. We all love the money earning possibility here, from the minnows to the whales, but the problem is that when you have no rules to speak of the society starts eating itself from within.
Your goal to increase your short term gains is self destructive behavior if that destroys the community in the end... Its unadulterated stupidity.
If Steem based platforms wither away along with a thousand others coins that will eventually, The price will suffer and you wont have time to pull out your SP before it falls apart.
This massive bot delegation business offers more earning opportunity on Steem then any other blockchain.
Then why arent more investors buying in?
I assume they know that this will lead to disaster.
My price of admission is pretty low. If you read the title, youre free to read and listen. :D
I hope thats not your family store. :D
The only concept within your reply that I cannot connect with is any form of "wealth distribution." In my view, wealth is something that should be earned - not arbitrarily distributed.
How one wishes to classify what one individual or a group of individuals so choose to do with their accumulated wealth is quite another matter.
Agree entirely with everything else stated. :-)
PS... No, there is no relation to my family there... haha...
Yes! Agreed all the way! So awesome, girl.. upvoted, resteemed, loved. I've been pondering about how maybe there could be some way to make an official rewards pool, and each week the reward amounts could be based on how many donations were received. Or it could result in a bump up of the base rewards amounts already in place. Not that I even would know how to begin doing that.
I think it's awesome you've already collected so much for the @openmic account already. I encourage people also to go donate SBD and steem directly to the @openmic account as well, and delegate.. and we could all be following @meno's lead with the #iLovetheOpenMic initiative as well. People tend only to think about themselves, but an outpouring of love helps everyone.
So many people just don't understand that's how life works. You get back what you put in. What you toss out into the world will come back to you eventually.. 3 times over, they say. Triple the rewards when you're kind.. apathy leads to stagnancy.
You're doing great things, hun! Proud to know you!
Cheers to you! Thanks for sharing your big heart with the world!
♥-serena
I love this Serena and yes I believe in this thinking as well.
♥♥♥
Aww thx Serena. We either win together or fail on our own. I know that is kind of sappy to say, but its actually the truth in this case.
And everything can be so easily fixed. If people only wanted to.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Everyone seems to be just going with the whole... well everyone else is doing it and making money, so why shouldn’t I? I’ve been called a bit of an idealist, but what’s the point of steemit if it’s just Facebook with those selfie loving fools now making money.... it’s frustrating and quite frankly is making good individuals leave. Those who want what’s best for a platform are leaving and those that are staying are only concerned with lining their pockets. I mean, let’s be honest.. we are all here to make some money, but I don’t think we have to sell our souls to do so.
I think steemit is whatever we want it to be, we just have to come together and make it happen... because you’re right... it’s no ones fault but our own.
❤️Love what you are doing for openmic
I agree 100% with that statement. For some, Steemit has become a place to bitch and moan about how unhappy they are with the platform or life in general. Why anyone would want to do that in indelible ink that is the internet is beyond understanding. For others, it inspires something good for all involved. I choose the latter thank you very much. Besides, there are enough bitching and moaning in the world. No shortage there. What the internet and social media needs are things that inspire and motivate and Steemit offers that perfectly.
You speak Harsh truths my dear Justine!!!
CLAPS
For what its worth I'm proud of you... I'm proud of @silentscreamer... both of you are examples of what it means to be an ethical hard working steemian.
<3
^^^ What Meno said!
Yeey. Thx Meno. The "futility crusader" strikes again. haha. :D
Thank you. :D @llfarms
The stigma just isnt there. If everybody is doing it, or most of them, "ill sneak up, get a piece of the pie, no one might notice me".
Its just the way of the world. Then their consciences start acting up, they know what they are doing is hurting everyone and excuses start happening, frustration starts showing. "If you cant make it more profitable for me, then shut up. Until then ill be using bots".
Its a complete disregard for the long term implications that kind of thinking has.
I mean you could make a system where you collect food from restaurants and give it to the homeless, and i guarantee you that someone would show up and think of a way how to exploit the system for personal gain.
It is great that you are doing this and applaud you for taking this route. Now I happen to have listened to the witness show last Saturday in the Steemit Ramble and realize how anti-minnow someone I was supporting there with words said in the program that I have a free witness vote I could use and will be campaigning for pfunk as a witness then.
I have tried listing a few of those that i see openly supporting the community. We need more like them. Some of them are witnesses whose work is very respectable.
Not pinging them again but Teamsteam, one of the nicest guys here that gives out more then 2000$ every day. Pharesim similar thing, could be even more. Drakos runs a anti abuse group and supports the community. Gtg supports projects and is very connected to the community. Surpassinggoogle. Acidyo-creator of OCD.
There are some truly amazing witnesses and curators here.
Which is why there is always somewhere to go with your vote when you hear stuff like that on the radio.. ;)
You really are a model Steemian! I agree with everything that you have written here, and I have nothing more to add, apart from the fact that we have to work with the hand we have, and we all continue in our own little way to add real value to the Steem chain, via posting, supporting and building communities. Until the real top level people see the damage that the hands off approach is having...
A bit off topic, but I nominated you as a person (and this post as an example of the person that you are!) that has helped me over my time in Steemit in a curation competition:
https://steemit.com/payitforward/@bengy/pay-it-forward-curation-contest-week-8-entry
I'm a bit embarassed to leave it here, but it is the rules of the contest....
@bengy's entry is how I found this post and must say that you have hit nail on the head. Those who use the "but the system allows it so it must be ok" are justifying their piss poor behavior. Funny thing is those doing this take issue with "reward pool rape" (hate that term) when they are committing the same abuse by monetizing their votes.
I had a vote to spare:
Account Witness Vote | @pfunk | Added22:13
Hope that my vote helps push @pfunk back up into the top 20.
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvote this reply.
Great story and plenty to think about
Thx Sanddrift. :)
A really elegant description and explanation of the current state of Steemit. I guess you are simply an elegant person through and through.
I'm much more simple. It boils down to 'be the change you want to see'.
Thanks for this articulate post. I really do have hope for the future.
As long as we keep pushing everything will turn out ok.
Sometimes i feel like this. :D
But we all have a voice and can act based on our beliefs and values. As you said: "be the change you want to see". :)
I agree with a lot of your sentiment here. I do want to say that your definition of "enlightened self-interest" seems a bit flawed to me. At least, it doesn't coincide with my understanding of the term.
Example: I rob a bank. I do so because, I want money, and therefore it's in my self-interest. However, now I've set myself up to either go to prison, die in the act, or be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life fearing that I'll be caught. So, thinking rationally about it, thinking about it in an enlightened way, this is not in my self-interest at all.
But if I act in accordance with "enlightened self-interest", am I choosing to not rob a bank because it's in the interest of society or the group? No. I'm doing it because prison/death/life-long anxiety is against my self-interest.
Enlightened self-interest is about trying to see past immediate, obvious consequences. It's about sharpening one's self-interest, making more accurate judgments about consequences. It's about being practical. But it's always ultimately about self-interest. (Since all value springs from the "self".)
That being said, supporting and fighting for a peaceful and just society or group is definitely in everyone's enlightened self-interest.
Am I nit-picking? I don't think so. But feel free to say so. :)
I really dont see how your example applies here.
The motivation behind your choices, or non-choices is completely unimportant here.
Its important to stay on topic.
By robbing a bank, you could say you act in your selfish self interest. By acting in such a way you are creating a negative effect on society, if "more or all" (as stated in the post) act in such a way it would lead to societal collapse.
By not robbing a bank on the other hand you arent acting at all.
Your non-choices have no bearing on anything in this example.
Its all always about self interest, but there is a very clear distinction between enlightened self interest and the other.
Motivation is completely unimportant here. The end result is.
Hmm. Now I'm further confused.
We behave due to our motives. That seemed to be what your whole post was about: "enlightened self-interest". However one defines this, it is, conceptually, a question of motivation. No?
And if you say "the end result is what's important", this means that the end result is your motivation. No?
I agree there is often a clear distinction between "enlightened self interest" and "unenlightened self-inerest" (though there may be some overlap between the two). I was simply pointing out that I think it's problematic to define "enlightened self interest" as being motivated by a group's interest rather than the interest of the individual making the value judgment. There are other examples of ethics which hold the group's value as paramount - enlightened self interest is just not one of them.
Well you are kind of nitpicking, but not really. You are arguing semantics.
Arguing the definition of selfishness. If you wanted to go deeper in semantics i could argue that selfless acts dont exist. Even dying for another human being is not a selfless act. I could name you a hundred things why it is "selfish", but the point of this post is not that.
The way i define selfishness is clearly seen in the context of the post.
The point being.... By acting in the the self absorbed, non cooperative way, by placing the maximum short term gains above all else, the results you will get leads to "self destruction".
The motivation is always self interest. Motivation is not a variable here, so its really not important to discuss it.. Thats why its called enlightened self interest, its clear in the title that im not saying: "help others its cool"... Im saying do this to help yourself.
The distinction here being that the end result of one is to your detriment and the result of following enlightened self interest leads to you and everyone else benefiting.
Since the self absorbed short term self interest leads to long term results that are to your detriment, you arent actually acting in your self interest in the long run. You are acting out of stupidity. Yes, people tend to have a way of hurting themselves, which is why i mentioned the housing crisis.
This is why I said I agreed with your overall sentiment. I understood pretty much all that you're saying here in your original post. My issue was with the way you specifically defined "enlightened selfishness", because I think definitions are important.
If you're saying you standby the definition as you wrote it, hey, that's cool. It's your post. :) I'm just disagreeing.
Hehe. Cool. That is not my definition. I pulled it from a more credible source. 😁 I just tweaked it in wording.