Steemfest 3 brought together an impressively diverse array of people – of many nationalities, ethnicities, ages and genders, but there was one way in which we weren’t particularly diverse: the level of intelligence. There were a lot of freakishly intelligent people at SF3, and then there were the rest of us, who were just very intelligent.
As a sociologist, I specialize in pointing out the bloody obvious: the kind of stuff that’s so obvious, most people don’t even notice, and my ‘bloody obvious’ observation about SF3 is this: the level of intelligence was extremely high. If you were there you may not have noticed this because you would have just spent five days talking to people on your level.
NB – I’m fully expecting a few comments about this observation being inaccurate because (‘actually’) there were ‘plenty of diverse forms of intelligence’ present at SF3 (true!) and questions about how I define and measure intelligence, so just to address both of those – I am using the term very broadly, and this is just an intuitive feeling I’ve got, rather than anything I’ve measured.
By ‘intelligence’ I loosely mean the capacity for critical inquiry (e.g. questioning everything about ‘normality’), analytical reasoning (e.g. problem solving) and innovation (e.g. developing new tools/ adopting alternative ways of life to reach one’s goals). Anyway, however you define it, you know when you see it.
NB – asking questions about how you define a key word in a post/ essay is itself a sign of analytical intelligence, so this supports my point anyway!
On being intelligent, knowing intelligence and talking to smart people at SF3
I know I have a very high degree of analytic intelligence – I passed my 11+ (basically an IQ test) and got into a grammar school (top 20%) in Kent, then got into the top sets for everything and nailed my GCSEs when I was 16, all without any parental assistance or private tuition. Then I fucked up my A-levels because I couldn’t see the point of two of them (English and Economics), recovered, did a degree, master’s degree and went on to start, and then abandon (for financial reasons) a PhD – this puts me in at least the top 1% for intelligence as measured by the narrow standards of qualifications.
After all that, I am extremely well-read, and have an above average critical capacity…. And at SF3 I’d say I was among peers most of the time. Near enough every single person I spoke to (and many of them in their second language) could follow my intellectual ramblings, they ‘got me’, I didn’t have to ‘dumb down’ like I’m so often used to doing!
But more than that, there was an enormous breadth of ‘intelligence’ on display – so many nomads and minimalists who had abandoned ‘ordinary life’, which is IMO just nuts, and so many creatives and app developers establishing innovative businesses: all intelligently rejecting ‘ordinary life’ for a ‘life on the chain’.
Then there are those freakishly intelligent people who do all the heavy deep-end development…. Coding on the blockchain – NB I don’t know anything about coding, but I do know the ability to work with it requires an extremely high level of mathematical intelligence – and in my general experience, if you’re mathematically intelligent you can typically turn your hand to anything else… I lived with a physics PHD once and got to know his mates…. All lovely people, and they generally enjoyed discussing sociological and philosophical issues with me…. But I always got the impression this was a sort of ‘hobby’ for them… an intellectual pass-time, a break away from the heavy business of maths and physics, … and I got the same impression from conversations with some of the more ‘deep-end’ developers at SF3. (Although I never felt any sense of condescending in either case, terrible grammar!)
Intelligence: the hidden variable which explains both the success of SF3 and why steem isn’t attracting more users?
It’s unusual to be amidst 300 people and be able to walk up to pretty much anyone and have a decent, intelligent conversation with them, and I can at least say this about pretty much everyone I met at SF3, even if we didn’t quite ‘click’ in terms of personality.
And the vast majority of SF3 posts, and commentary in @pennsif’s after party mentioned ‘the people’ and ‘the community’ as being the highlight SF3 – which is basically true! And to my mind the ‘most obvious invisible variable’ which explains why this is true, and why the event was such a success is a combination of everyone being on a level in terms of intelligence.
Yes I know that we were all at SF3 because either steem has liberated us, or we believe in the potential of steem to improve our lives further and even to transform the world, but to see this I think takes a certain level of analytical, creative and/ or innovative intelligence (NB I’ve switched to free write mode temporarily, so these are all very loose terms!).
The (rather laboured) point I’m trying to make is that it isn’t just ‘the blockchain’ that brought us together, it’s the chain plus the fact that we’re all intelligent enough to see how sub-optimal ‘mainstream’ ways of working and connecting are, especially where social media platforms such as Facebook are concerned.
I’m also hesitantly say that a high level of intelligence is required to make something work when there is also a lot of diversity and even difference of opinion, which I know there is on the blockchain…. working out differences in a civilised manner is just something smart people do, rather than resorting to (fucking) Brexits or genocides.
Of Course, it might not JUST be intelligence…
It might be that other variables explain why SF3 was such a success… it could simply be the fact that we were a bunch of people with a higher drive to express ourselves in some way and ‘create something’ – whether through blogs/ vlogs/ art or code. Then again, doesn’t it require a certain level of intelligence to be able to independently create such things?
Steem clearly appeals to smart people, but what about the herd?
I know I’m smart, but it’s taken me a good year to really get to grips with ‘how steem works’: I’ve only just about got to the point where I can read posts like these recents from @tarazkp (here) or @meno (here) about ‘how to improve steem’ and just ‘get’ what they’re on about instantly. However, I still must concentrate when reading such things, and frequently the comments (by smarter people!?) bring in factors I’d never considered.
I actually enjoy this process of thinking through the causes of and potential solutions to issues of reward distribution and how to expand steem, and I think that most people on steem like to have at least a minimal idea of the ‘house rules’… but said rules, and the capacity for and potential consequences of changing them do require you to ‘hurt your brain’ every now and again…. And that is maybe something that ‘the herd’ (following Nietzsche - that part of the population which don't really question anything) just don’t want to do… all they want is a platform that works at the click of a few buttons…. And they don’t get that with steem yet.
It’s probably excessive to write a paragraph outlining just how complex steem is, but I’m going to anyway….. open an account, open a bittrex account, buy BTC, buy steem, power the account up (WTF?), look at the trending pages, notice you get paid in SBDs and SP, and what’s the difference between those and steem exactly? Stumble across steemdb….. notice Mvest aren’t the same as SP, neither is your real reputation, realise reputation is meaningless, stumble across some the dapps, delegate…. Read the white paper, puzzle over the ‘crab bucket’, realise that’s out of date… I mean I could go on!
I just don’t think most people are interested in all of this, mainly because it takes a certain level of analytical intelligence for it to be appealing!
Dapps to the rescue?
At this moment in time it still feels like steem is home to freakishly intelligent people who are enjoying the intellectual challenge of blogging etc. on a blockchain: I think most people enjoy all of the above complexities, HOWEVER, the herd isn’t interested: all they want is a platform that allows them to post, game, buy something, and maybe earn a few tokens, they are simply not interested in the fact that it’s a blockchain with X amounts of blocks per minute, and Y inflation rate, and this or that algorithm which determines pay-out – Nah, they just want something that works.
Maybe some of the dapps like @steemmonsters and @actifit and @steemhunt will lead us towards herd adoption – because these apps do just allow people to play games or upload runs or hunts without subjecting them to the background complexities of the blockchain, which up until this point have seemed a bit more in your face, with steemit at least… the same is possibly true of @busy and @partiko of course, they are just much more ‘friendly front ends’ compared to steemit.
And part of the joy of being at SF3 is that all the developers in attendance clearly knew this: they know the importance of keeping the smarts in the background and creating seamless front ends that people can just use.
A final few thoughts on the tragic nature of future mass adoption….
I think there is almost something tragic about our shared moon-goal: we require more users to be using more apps on the chain (if we want to get richer), but this will undoubtedly change the character of steem. It just won’t quite be the same if it 100*s – it’ll lose it’s current radical edge. And imagine a SF4 with 3000 people rather than 300: a measure of success for sure, but it would be completely different in character to SF3.
And that’s something of a tragic irony: I liked hanging out with smart people for five days, I liked the ‘just right’ scale of the event, but the only way it’s ever going to happen again in the same format is if steem spends the next year going nowhere, and I don’t think we want that do we?!
So maybe pause and just revel in the nostalgia of SF3, because hopefully, nothing quite like it will ever happen again.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://revisesociology.co.uk/steem-the-smart-persons-blockchain-but-what-about-the-herd/
The herd has been my big fear ... I can remember early pioneering days of other social media and how it turned into some horrible hybrid of Tonbridge Wells and Clacton ... but last count, there were only 123 Brits on steem, this can't be the sum total of intelligent people in the Isles, can it? (On the other hand, maybe it can) ... by your reckoning of the top 20%, we should be able to rustle up another 13 million. Even 10% of that would do.
True... I think I meant to say that at the end... the 20% still being a lot!
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I feel the same way about mass-adoption, to be honest. I get why we want it, but I don't want it. I can't, you know? Only the other day, I was talking with @eveuncovered about how amazing SF felt, how great it was to instantly be among like-minded, smart people, not to have to sort through the dust to find someone worth talking to because there were so many phenomenal, intelligent people in attendance.
This sounds like a nightmare, to be honest. Part of the charm of SF3 was that we were so few (well, few in regards to broader scales). A small well-knit group where people could relate and understand one another. That will get lost and I definitely don't want that. Seems to me that the whole platform will lose appeal if we "go global". Why? Because the herd doesn't want intelligent conversation, doesn't want to actually think. We like to imagine this mass adoption will be something along the lines of the herd opening their eyes, but I think it might be us growing more sleepy, really. Sad.
Part of me is still lost in the memory of SF3, but now you've given it an extra layer ;) Excellent post.
Amen girl!
Astute observstion. We do tend to look at SMTs and 'March 2019' as the promised land in 'salvationary' tones.
But that is a total assumption.
I think the thing about SF4 when it happens is to just remember the great lesson from Northern England: - whatever its character 'it is what it is'
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Thank you :) I'm rather wary of all this hopefulness for "convincing the masses". I've never wanted to convince the masses, if I know something is good or that at least I like it, I see no point in convincing others of its worth. Same with Steem, but it seems we're headed in that direction whether we like it or not...
Totally agree about SF4. I'll take it in as it is (that is if I am lucky enough to make it) and enjoy what is then. Just like everything else in life, no? ;)
Absolutely... it's a phrase I picked up from some friends from up North a couple of years back - 'it is what it is' - I use it a lot!
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It's a good phrase, I think, teaches you to let go of a lot of shit you can't control, huh?
Absolutely! And there's a lot of shit that's out of your control. It's also the first step to being able to change tjose things you can change: realising things as they really are!
Shame we didn't get a chance to chat more at SF3!
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Very well said. We sometimes get so caught up thinking about all the things we don't like and feeling responsible for a lot of stupid shit that really isn't our fault. I tend to do that quite a bit, feel responsible for others, and lately, I'm seeing the benefits of just saying 'fuck it', you know, of realizing it's not up to me.
It really is, I have a feeling we would've gotten along really well :)
Absolutely! It’s very Zen, which I like.
Are you calling all of us SMART?! :D I like this post ;-)
Anyway - all true - SteemFest3 is over and will never come back. Every SteemFest will have it's own 'theme' and value and talking topics - and every SteemFest will have a different 'feel'.
I heard more Minnows and 'simple' content makers were present this year than before - but still, the filter here is they want to be at the same place as the talks, developers, witnesses - to exchange ideas and information, basically this means most people will have at least an above average insight, interest and knowledge about all the topics.
I'm not afraid of the possible 3000 people next year - they will all be very involved as the 300 this year. It will be harder to find 'your gang', maybe, but maybe different locations will attend to different communities, like 'early SteemFest-goers', and 'Appics users', and 'Steemmonster players'... I'm not sure yet what to think of it because I like a broader diversity and I want to talk with all individuals even if they are not in 'my' community. It can definitely broaden my perspective.
We'll see.
For now I'm still enjoying reading up on all the memories of SteemFest3 and who knows - SteemFest4 might surpass all our wildest imagination...
Well it's hard to go wrong if you complement people!
I'm still not quite adjusted.... I think tomorrow is going to be my forcing myself back into my 'normal routine' day.
I'm going to try and not anticipate SF4 too much.... it will be what it will be. At my age time seems to pass quickly so I'll be there in no time!
Cheers!
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I didn't get to go to SF3, or any before it, but hope to go to the next one. Even though I'm seriously an introvert who avoids large gatherings (and 300 is quite large to me), I would really love to meet some of the people I've been discoursing with here on Steemit this past year. You're reminding me how important it is to take advantage of that before it really does become more mainstream. (I recall being invited to Burning Man many years ago and being told there were 2,000 people there. My reply was that I'd wait until it got smaller, LOL.)
In terms of the complexity of being involved here, yeah, that's a bummer actually. I've tried so hard to get so many people blogging on here who I know have something valuable to contribute, and who could really benefit from being here too. But in the end they all find it to be too much work. I think that you're highlighting that it is varying amount of "work" depending on how quickly one can process all the technical information required.
Sites/blockchains like Minds may actually be easier for a lot of people, though I personally can't stand being on that site. It's a lot like Facebook, complete with paid posts being shoved at you in your feed even if you have no interest whatsoever in those topics.
I look forward to seeing lots more dapps created for steem that hide the complexity without introducing "official spam" being inserted into our feeds.
One other point I thought you were about to develop is that the dominance of more and more dapps with large delegations also means it is going to get harder to earn rewards on here if you aren't getting rewards from dapps. The free agent blogger is going to find it even harder to earn on here, even if they buy Steem and upvote themselves. Active community involvement is going to become vital to success.
You should definitely come to.SF4!
You're right about dapps decreasing the amount of money available to.bloggers I think!
Better enjoy the rewards while they're still significant!
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Perfectly laid out... I've had conversations with different Steemians from time to time, how our "elitism" at times is a hindrance...
Meaning that this blockchain, or to be more accurate, the dapps, can't just cater to nerds (i say this lovingly), but to the grandmas and moms who just want to share pictures.
I think it's also an indication of how early in the game we still are. But then again, the dapps might be the one solution to "fix" this all...
Good thoughts... Steem/it seems so unfocused, but I guess that's organic ... still I wish there was more professionalism, seems like there's always amateurish stuff and failed deadlines occurring... rumors but little visible action
I think that speaks more of the cryptosphere in general... It's very hard to meet deadlines in the world of software development. There are always unpredictable elements that pop up.
Even though there are extremely talented coders working on blockchains, we still have very much a young capital of human resource, thus some of the things you describe become painfully obvious.
I think a lot of the emotional turmoil this causes on us, the early adopters, has more to do with our expectations. I constantly revise my own, and for perspective look at some historic evidence.
How did the .com evolve? Who failed? Who succeeded? Why?
Yes grant you, its not the same, but drawing the parallels is not hard to do.
yes, it's true ... things are 20/20 in the long run, but being present in the development phase is a headache. I can't make heads-or-tails of it most days, but along for the ride.
new follower, take er ez (-: ty
There are a few good posts around which explain various aspects of the chain bit it's not beem easy to save them this last year. Still some new front ends like steempeak and partiko do have faves available so it's better!
It is an effort!
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what exactly are steempeak and partiko anyways? ... not to bother u 2 much ,, ty
Just dapps to allow to access steem, better interfaces than steemit - steempeak is for the PC and Partiko for yr mobile. I use both.
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How did the .com evolve. Actually good question! Bedtime research for me there!
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Yup absolutely fair point... I would've phrased it that way but it just didnt fit tje way the post evolved.
I guess there is a temptation to appeal to the data heads. But I agree, the 80% just have no interest in that!
You can only do so much at a time!
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I managed to have some very good conversations with people much smarter than me and not feel like a complete moron :D
What I liked was that there really are a lot of patient people willing to spend their time to listen and explain various things i ways I can understand. When it comes to the technical details it is important for me to be able to build a working model in my head and that requires it explained in ways I can understand.
A lot of fun to be had at SF.
Yes same.... there's a lot of scope to develop infographs that explain steem simply (rather then yet more videos)... to visualise 'the system'.
And analogies too.
Defo more 'informational art' can do to explain the technical stuff.
NB - on how complex steem is... I think you'd probably lose 80-90% of the popluation as soon you mentioned the word 'algorithm'.... but you can explain what one is quite simply.
Maybe that means it's not that complex... rambling now...need a break!
Cheers.
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The complexity is severely diminished once a clear working model is held of the system.
This covers my last last two years ;)
What can I say re rambling - yr a role model!
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@revisesociology wow thanks for pointing out something so obvious! I had my own thoughts about the commonality that ties Steemians together - I thought it is the willingness to be unconventional.
But they go somewhat hand in hand - the unwillingness to be part of the herd and intelligence.
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I think they do go together.. it's like members of eco-communities - chock full of postgrads.
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Oh wow...I had never quite thought of it that way. From going to the Steem Creators conference this past September and the few meet-ups @freedompoint and I have done, I have definitely noticed a difference with the people. It was like there was something there...a common thread that pulled us all together. Almost like everyone had the same piece of personality, but I think you nailed it with the analytical and creative intelligence. It just makes sense, and explains why so many people don't want to use the blockchain.
Hey thanks.... I was also going to say that you have to be prepared for a steep learning curve/ take risks etc
Different breed atm steemians!
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Good comments,,, I get frustrated because I don't know what the focus of Steem/Steemit is... but like you say it's a double edged sword of having a small buy somewhat savvy community vs. a large popular barf and troll fest. I guess it has to happen very organically. But I'm perturbed as I've heard things about communities and smart media tokens and the flavor of the day but things seem to be somewhat amateur since inception. peace
I personally do not feel we can retain Freedom and our current diversity and appeal to mainstream at the same time.
In Mainstream people are accustomed to not having to confront ideas and people they don't like. Here we expect people to have tolerance and the ability to live and work with those they may not like.
Oh god you've just conjured up the phenomenon of 'twitter (style) trolling' on the chain.
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I love talking to smart people and there were plenty to be found at Steemfest. I think it takes a certain mindset to get what Steem is about and see where it can take us. If the 'herd' stick with Facebook/Twitter/Youtube etc then maybe Steem will never take of, but I hope that the dapps can help widen the audience. They need to simplify things without compromising security. Just having multiple keys is a hurdle for many.
It was great to meet you and I hope we meet again some time.
I'm sure we will - one of the UK meets for sure.
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@revisesociology Some good observation. I've been observing people from steem for second year, and I can only say that Steem helped a lot to take of mask but also as a bunch of people is that Libertarianism in it... As a ambitious filmmaker who is starting up I want to use all my skills to start create great bridge between two worlds starting up with traditional social media, I guess quest and film with great semiotics will be good start, long way to go though.
Btw I'm glad I've had an opportunity to talk to you on the closing party, even I was already after some drinks, after 5 days physically and mentally exhausted I still enjoyed our brief chat about Kant, Marx. It's been pleasure to meet you
I'm sure bridges can be built! Steem seems like a good place to do that.
Great meeting you too, even if after one too many. Maybe say hello when we're a bit less frazzled next year!
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Brilliant post! Dapps to the rescue
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