Game on: thinking forward

I am on the train for another 45 mins or so and will give a little bit if free-writing a go to wind down a bit and see if it will help order my thoughts. There were many, many conversations and some of the most complex were held after hours on the other side of a few sips. I think that in the last 6 nights I have managed a total of 20 hours sleep and I am tired but also incredibly energized by some of the applications in development and already created on Steem. The possibilities are increasing each day, the ecosystem is growing rapidly.

I have never really hidden my view that I am not overly concerned with retention at this time even though I think we as a community should be doing what we can for those who do arrive on the chain. The basic reason for my lack of concern is that the infrastructure needed to pull in and keep people is not ready, the communities do their best but don't have enough tools and the space itself is not conducive to retain average users. This is okay for me at this stage although I do understand the worries of others.

I am looking more to the future of what it could be and that means to take the stance that there is a future to look forward to. If we as a community want to be able to welcome and keep a large number of people from diverse lives and interests, we are going to have to build a space that can support it, a place where they are able to be part of the greater Steem community while acting at their local level.

In some ways it is really like a family where the Apps are going to be content niches by topic or type that can bring in people and give them a home where they are able to earn, consume or take a hybrid approach and do both. There has to be space for investors and developers also and of course contributors who are valued. All of this takes time to build, time to find the right mix of interactions and transactions that unify all users and encourage community.

Essentially, a community is a group of people who come together with diverse ideas and talents to negotiate and solve common problems of the community. Some of the challenges are going to affect a small group, some large and others all within the community but the goal is to improve the position of all. This doesn't result in equality of result but hopefully we can increase opportunity for all.

What generally ties a community together is a type of narrative, a story that underlays the social fabric of all and ties a common understanding in the foundation itself. What this means is that despite the differing layers that might be above, there is always common ground, a unifying thread. We are tribal animals designed to be in small groups of a hundred or so and under such conditions, the story and reliance on each other is much easier to weave. In a community like Steem, there are challenges.

I am not sure what it is yet but at some point across the Steem layer of the ecosystem (app user base might differ by app community), we could slowly develop this story, build a culture and even though we will disagree on much, the story will bind us. Meeting the people at SteemFest showed me that the current story held is that everyone there wants Steem to do well, and it isn't just a financial consideration.

This is quite a broad thread and allows for many layers to be built upon it and a large amount of conflict as what one thinks will help will be detrimental to what another thinks will help. It is a good starting point though I believe, and as I discussed across all groups of stakeholders, there is a plan.

@ned talked about the next two years is about applications and this is the layer upon the story of Steem doing well as each is a unique view, a vision of an individual, group or community and allows for all to trial their plan and let the greater community decide on the success. There are likely to be many failures of course, but failure is data in a feedback loop and after each, we are always a little more knowledgeable than before the test.

The applications are going to play a vital role across Steem and while some are going to start out independent, I see that there is going to be a great deal of inter-connectivity across the application nodes. This means that each app is able to leverage the success of others, support the growth of new and absorb the communities of the failures.

It is a broad and complex city but the strength lays in the community that backs it and no matter the position, each still holds the story of a future of Steem success. Their belief in that future is one that keeps people here and from now on we have to develop and get small wins across many points of the community, even if there are large holes in some parts of the city.

For me, I am still trying to find my position within the complexity and a role where I myself am able to hold the narrative. I am a patient person when it comes to the future and a person who looks long and acts small at a local level. The reason is that I have my own guiding philosophy that I apply to my actions and that is, A bit at a time you can change the world. People look for large returns but large results are a series of very small steps but, they have to be steps in the right direction which is why a clear vision of the future is needed.

Of course, that vision can change as new information comes to light and no one need attach themselves to a specific long-term result but, having it there and working out what the next small step will be can completely change the process and direction of how and where we are headed. The other part of the discovery and question is the why we want to be in that future too.

It is easy to give money as the why but that is actually not the case as money is a tool only, what it provides though is opportunity to move. The thing is that we can always move toward where we want to be even if we do not have the tool of money to help our journey. We can always invest energy into some activity that steps us a little closer to that future. I believe that this small step process will slowly bring the provisions as they are needed and waiting for the lottery win before action is not an effective plan.

As I write here now, I am slowly pulling o some threads and seeing what part of the neural network fires, see what affects what. Slowly, slowly the story builds, the characters and scenery are coming into focus. Perhaps that is the first step in building a strong Steem narrative, the investigation by the individual to discover what story theirs will be, what role they will play and what kind of future they want to build.

When we look within ourselves, do we see the reflection of the community of which we are a part? How different are we, and how different does the future we want to build look?

The train is at the station.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]