Scaling back on blockchain to focus on health and family

I can't justify continued heavy involvement in the Blurt-Steem-Hive blockchains. After 7 years of full-time effort, I am changing my strategy to spend more time with my wife and young children, and to manage my ongoing health problems. This notice is to inform anyone interested. I'm not asking for anything, and no action is required by anyone. Thank you.

Background

Back in 2017, I had already been a successful - albeit unpaid - content creator for a decade, and it seemed like blockchain blogging (Steem) was going to be a way to earn a living doing it. After a few years, and the move to Hive, it was clear that wasn't coming to fruition.

But it still seemed like I could make some pocket money by posting what I was already creating (for social media, for YouTube, for myself, etc), so I kept at it nonstop, and reinvested everything I made. When I finally made it big on Hive in 2022, the downvote cabal descended on me and wiped out any chance I had of ever earning money there, so I moved everything to Blurt. Now having lost 90% of that investment (despite full-time grinding for another 28 months), it is clear that my strategy has not worked. I input several thousands dollars worth of crypto, and 7 years of my life, to accumulate 1.1 million BLURTs with a current value of $1750. Just about every other possible investment in the world has done better.

"Money isn't everything!"

True. If there are other benefits of blockchain blogging, it may still be worth the time, effort, risk, and loss of privacy. There is only one such benefit for me - the blockchain provides somewhere to post, edit, and store letters, numbers, and other characters (text). Sure, there are countless other ways to do that now, but the blockchain is one more potential option. Other than that, everything done here is being done (generally better) on other platforms, websites, and programs. Blockchain has been around for 15 years, and has made an impact, but has not lived up to the wild predictions some had for it. Blockchain blog platforms are one example of something that hasn't panned out as promised/hoped.

For a while, I told myself it was still worth doing, because "I'm getting my important message out, and having my voice heard". It has been a tough reality call to admit that what I'm doing on Blurt is not reaching more than a few dozen people. And these are people who have already heard my message. I'm not really reaching anyone with this. Posting on the blockchain at this point is "for the record", and little else. Just reality, not trying to be mean.

Personally, the one tiny upside (somewhere to save text) does not justify the downsides and costs. Especially considering I've got 2 young kids, a crippled wife that is currently also having major health problems, and my own neurological and cardiac conditions. Everybody gets to make their own decisions about how and where they apply their limited time. I've decided I can't put much of mine into these blockchains any longer.

How I'm scaling back:

switching to a semi-manual (lazy) curation strategy
will only make posts when I have content to store (not compelled to create "regular" content)
no new blockchain projects, not pursuing a witness position, less participation in community discussions

Notice that I'm maintaining my investment in BLURTs, and keeping them all powered up. I even just powered up some more. Yes, BLURT is currently making new all-time lows (despite the overall crypto bull market we're in). But having lost everything (except enough for a few trips to the grocery store), I'm just going to leave it where it is for now.

My semi-manual curation strategy is going to be kind of lazy. That means I won't be hunting for new creators as much as I used to. And I won't be spending as much time reading through posts and deciding a vote % based on quality and effort. I'm going to pick a few people that put out solid content on a regular basis, and just vote 100% on everything they create. I'll manually go through my list now and then to be sure I'm not supporting junk. I won't be trying to optimize my curation rewards, despite having done a lot of research and posts about that over the years. I'll just stop by the computer a couple times a day, vote for my people, check my replies, and get back to life.

I'll do a post soon on the details of this new curation strategy, including sharing with you my main picks.

And yeah, I'm going from Blurt's top creator last year, to just one of the top group nowadays, to minimal posts/income going forward. Not feeling pressured to create regular content might actually allow me to put more time into stuff I actually care about, and the results might be better (just less often). But in general, I'll be putting less time into content-creation, something I mentioned in my recent YouTube video about stepping back my involvement. I want to focus on my upcoming heart surgery, trying to stay out of the ER in the meantime, and my young family.

I don't have support from relatives, and we haven't managed to find any friends in this remote Northern-Canadian town, so I have to step up and take care of everything myself. That means I've got less to give the world. I'm sorry, but at the same time, I realize I've given much more than I should have, for many years. Perhaps this change is overdue.

I doubt anyone cares, but this is here for the record. My best to everybody still grinding hard, any contacts I've made, and anyone who has supported me.

How to contact me

You can email me - drutter at protonmail is best. If you don't hear back, try again, because many attempts mysteriously disappear without a trace on their way to my inboxes.

Or leave a comment on my blockchain posts. I see all comments (unless you're on my ignore list of course), and respond to appropriate questions. Note: I can't respond on Hive, as it will be auto-downvoted by the cabal, sending my reputation toward 0, retroactively graying out all the work I've done for years.

I don't have any social media profiles. I'm banned for life on all Meta platforms, and I don't have access to "apps" because I won't use smart devices. That means I can't get popular chat programs like Facetime, Telegram, etc. I have been cancelled and shadowbanned by Google since about 2012, but continue to maintain my YouTube account (although my comments usually can't be seen by others).

If you have any suggestions for how somebody on a desktop PC can stay in touch with other people on the internet, after being censored and deplatformed, please (try to) let me know!

Now, to add a little colour (mostly green!) to this post, here are my latest garden photos...

My scarlet runner beans are growing well despite attacks from bugs. I heard there's a cutworm epidemic in the region. Apparently they're larva that live in the soil and feast on leaves during the night. I'm hoping their lifecycle finishes up before they do much more damage to my bean leaves! This is one that doesn't have any holes, but you can see plenty on the other photos, taken over the past few days:

Reaching for the staircase for support!

First contact!

Establishing a connection.

Here's the latest apple update:

More wildflowers appearing in the back of the yard:

Interesting patterns made by leaf miners in the trees:

I grow calla lilies each year in memory of my grandmother. They're coming up now and will bloom soon.

The pumpkins that looked so green and strong when I put them in are still small, and have become quite yellow. Looks like I'm not growing any pumpkins this year! My squash failed here last year too, so I'm thinking the weather isn't right this far North, or maybe I need to modify the soil for them?

Right next to the pumpkins are some sunflowers, which are looking healthier, but still not very big:

Here are the latest daily yard update photos:

As a reminder, here's what it looked like in April 2023:

Real progress

Every day, I'm eating a big bowl of fresh organic lettuce and a handful of green peas from the garden. Over the next few months, I intend to be eating at least one full meal from the garden, every day. That's groceries I wont have to buy. In other words, my backyard garden is putting $20 to $50 into my pocket every week. For less than an hour of work per day, my garden "pays" me $100 to $250 per month, something no blogging blockchain has ever been able to do. And gardening comes with few costs, but many other benefits.

Thank you for visiting my garden, and my post. Please, take a pea before you leave! Enjoy.

And as always, grow in peace.
DRutter