Someone else's glasses

This is a photo I took last night while laying on the floor - they are my glasses. Ever looked through someone's prescription and found that you can't see clearly or, it hurts your eyes or makes you feel queasy? It is because their eyes see differently to your own which means, they see the world differently to yourself. It is not far different to how experience plays on opinion and understanding.

For those of you who believe that for some reason you have an entitlement to the pool for your content that goes beyond your stake, I have a little task for you. It is pretty easy. Firstly, work out how much disposable income you have -this means anything that isn't required for direct living costs. Next, save it up over the next month. it doesn't matter if it is 50 cents or 10,000 dollars. Finally, buy Steem and power it up.

My point is that Steem is not a closed economy and most people are pretty glad about this because if it was, it would only have utility on Steem itself. Every seller who has cashed out has benefited from Steem and proven that it can be connected to the outer world yet, many do not recognize that the draw on the pool happens through, staked Steem, not Sold Steem. There are people here (including myself) who have bought Steem off exchanges and powered it up so that there is draw on the pool that aids distribution, including distribution to the self.

Sure, there are some people who take this to an extreme and maximize and rape the pool as much as possible but, that is actually a minority, albeit often a very visible and called out minority. But, the expectation that there should be reward on every bit of content is ludicrous.

If you have ever earned a cent of Steem, you have been rewarded. Done. If you have never earned a cent on Steem you best look at what you are offering because when it comes to what gets rewarded, there is a supply and demand metric and if what you supply isn't demanded, you are shit out of luck. You could buy a vote of course but, you are going to have to buy some Steem or SBD to do so. It is a tiresome conversation isn't it?

People expect to earn some reward form the pool of resources without putting much into the pool of resources. They then try to justify it by saying that they are adding content to the pool as if their content alone is that good that it should earn. What they fail to recognize is that there are more factors in the decision making process of demand than content alone with type of content being a major one.

Not all content is under demand nor is it under demand by those who have stake on the platform - remember, stake is your voice - which means, your influence over the pool. If someone loves arts and crafts that much that they are willing to invest a million dollars into Steem and reward handy crafts, they are free to do so. However, this is a crypto platform in an infant industry where many of the largest staked users are crypto enthusiasts. If you want to earn on content, you need to know your audience and it isn't their job to find you, it is your job to find them.

You want to earn out of the pool? Then you are running a business and that means understanding the market and how it operates. If you are unwilling to understand the environment and economies of behavior, you likely aren't going to operate a very successful business. If you don't care about the pool resources at all and just want to post what you want - Steem is fine for you. So is Facebook and YouTube too.

I wonder what kind of experiences people have in the world that they expect some kind of return no matter what they do and whether or not it connects with anyone at all. Of course, someone could also take that disposable income of theirs and put it into Apple or Google stocks and invest that way also but then, do they care who gets helped along the way - does it make the world any better?

When it comes to resources from the pool, I understand that people might use it to eat with or pay their rent but, this platform didn't exist three years ago so, how were they paying their rent then? If they kept doing the same thing then as well as earning here, shouldn't there be some extra disposable income? Seems for the most part, everyone has had bad luck and can't invest into Steem because they Need the income. Of course they want other people to invest into Steem and expect those people to distribute to them consistently.

People have an opportunity on Steem to invest into the platform in various ways and build a foundation for themselves and others in the future but, people sell. That is fine, people can sell as they show utility of the token that eventually will drive prices up. If that guy who paid 10,000 Bitcoin for two pizzas only had 10,000 Bitcoin, does he deserve more because he showed utility? Would you give a gambling addicted relative more money?

There are some people here who are cashing out their stake and using it to build applications, others to buy the latest x-box game. Are both sell use cases created equal? Those that are only cashing out to fiat and purchasing traditional items are supporting the fiat economy aren't they? Rather than adding mass to the blockchain, they are adding volume to fiat.

This is not a closed economy and while you might think those with stake get it easy, you have no idea what has led to owning that stake. And if you believe that they have to distribute to you because they are rich, first go to an Apple or Google investor and convince them that you have rights to some percentage of their stock portfolio because they have a stock portfolio.

The funny thing is that while people complain about the maximizers on the platform for not distributing, the same thing is happening on just about every account that earns but does not stake earning and votes on others with value because, they are maximizing Steem for their fiat life.

This is an economy and it is much more complex than, post > vote > reward. If you are unable to recognize the nuances and mass of variables and only see it through your own simplified framework, you are likely... incorrect. While you might have your experience and perspectives that you consider "righteous", what you are failing to recognize is that this is a decentralized group where there are many experiences and perspectives working for and against each other at all times in multiple ways, across multiple platforms, countries and cultures.

Your understanding or lack there of, or mine, is going to affect our experiences on Steem in the same way it is going to affect all of you experiences in this life time. The interesting thing with knowledge is that you can never know what you don't know until you know it or know that it is not. You might think you are more deserving than others who get higher rewards but, how do you know that?

Perhaps you need a new set of glasses. Maybe I do too.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]