Peer Enabled Creative Mediocrity - Don't Fall For The Steemit Compliment Trap!
The financial and reputational elements of Steemit encourage a generally friendly atmosphere, but is it sincere? And regardless, what are the drawbacks?
Following on from @dan and @ned's recent discussion on transparency, I've been thinking today about how the Steemit paradigm incentivizes certain behaviors, for better or worse...
One such example sprung to mind later today when a friend struggled to accept constructive criticism on their creative efforts. I thought, how odd that this person doesn't realize the immense value in honest constructive feedback. It is my belief that creative people, should they wish to master their craft, should not only be hard on themselves, but actively seek out critique from all quarters, be the critic "qualified" or not.
The opposite doesn't bare thinking about. Delusion. Being enabled, pushed toward mediocrity by well meaning, (or financially incentivized in the case of Steemit) "supporters" who tell you all your creative work is wonderful. I think this is a trap that could potentially stunt your progress if you rely solely on Steemit for critical feedback. I fear the simple concept of hard work is being undermined more and more these days.
Whatever your creative dream, whether you are into photography, music, painting, or something else, the only way you will ever come close to mastery is to continuously seek to better yourself, hone your skills and embrace criticism. It is not enough to simply have talent, or to just "believe in yourself". It is not enough to have faith in some mystical destiny that excuses you from any personal responsibility or hard work. These are cop outs, and cop outs are DISEMPOWERING. The truth will indeed set you free.
Stop believing in yourself, start working your ass off.
I don't think we are going to see this paradigm change any time soon. It's nice to be nice, especially on Steemit, where being nice pays off, quite literally. So if you are a creative person and want to improve your skills, learn to be pragmatic, and seek criticism where you will get politely ripped apart. Over time, you will get a thicker skin, and become naturally more objective, ultimately leading to the shortest route to creative mastery. If you find yourself hating everything you do, you're on the right track.
Good post dude, I'll have to keep this in mind as I'm still a bit clueless about Steemit. Any tips like this are always good to know!!
This could be applied to everyone I knows morning routine, I see more and more people believing the lie or false reality they project in social media. Just because the truth hurts doesn't mean you lie run and hide the truth. It hurts for a reason. All I see are fake people with fake lives too afraid to really hear what they need to hear. The world has become so soft when you poke it your abusive and need to be arrested!
Yes, the truth is important. When you embrace it, you walk a thorny path, but it leads to a great place.
Wise words. You've hit the nail on the head here.
(Seriously, this isn't a false compliment... or is it? And That's the problem online, and especially here on steemit - you just can't tell if someone is being sincere with their praise of your work/post. Reminds me of when I first joined steemit, how surprised I was by how polite everyone was. Didn't take long to realise it's because everyone is (mostly) on their best behaviour because potential dollars are at stake )
Yeah, I've gotten much better at sniffing out sincere comments, like the ones you make. Certainly happy that there is an element of genuine community. It might only make up about 10% of the interaction, but it's easy to separate the wheat from the chaff and build genuine community/relationships. Still, I take all compliments with a large grain of salt! And so should you Jasper, you sexy beast!
"Start working your ass off".. that's the point, YES :) Totally agree
I usually get these kinds of comments within seconds of posting!! They have slowed way down since I stopped promoting every post in to the main Steemit chat groups!! There are a lot of people out there hoping for upvotes from copy/paste comments on hundreds of posts if not thousands of commented on posts!! And I’ll try to stop being my own worst critic and post some of those that I was extra critical about ;)
Yea I agree, everyone on Steemit is always posting nice comments, just in the expectation of receiving a reward for that. That isn’t inherently bad, but like you said, it really isn’t sincere.
I also think there is probably an abundance of people who just spam the comments of any given article with indescript generic comments like ‘nice job’ or ‘great work’ without attaching any other details.
Yeah. Like you say, it's not inherently bad, but certainly worth taking into consideration.
Well it means there’s still time to become the undisputed ‘bad boy’ of Steemit 😉
I love it when people kindly critique my work. Sandwich compliment style....tell me what I'm doing well and what I can improve on.
I agree overall, problem is though they may not quite appreciate the critique and retaliate, thus costing monies... fuck it tho- your photos suck ass.. nah jk that red walkway one was dope
Sometimes people find the truth hurts and I think that is why they rather not listen to it. :-)
A great post, of course like everyone its a good feeling to receive nice comments that makes one feel good
but with Photography being my hobby and way of relaxing receiving constructive comments that gives me something to think about and work on to improve my photography I find very helpful and appreciate receiving them