Nearly two decades ago, I was fortunate to graduate from journalism school directly into a dot-com startup, after discovering the web in 1996 and teaching myself to code.
The growth of the consumer internet was exhilarating—it was full of possibility. And while the startup I joined hit a wall after the dot-com bubble burst, I emerged with even greater passion for technology’s potential to transform the world.
Fast forward to 2017, and I’ve made a career of scaling innovative solutions to meaningful problems. In so doing, I’ve been fortunate to work hands-on with emerging technologies such as wearable devices and virtual reality. Today, I head growth for a startup applying artificial intelligence to scientific research.
But as I look to the future, I see two issues that I’m hoping Steemit can help me address: lack of experience with cryptocurrencies, and lack of rewarding outlets for which to cultivate and apply my journalistic roots and love of writing.
I want to learn about cryptocurrency and find a rewarding outlet for my writing
Let’s start with cryptocurrency. While I understand it in theory, I did not own any until I joined Steemit. Unfortunately, a friend talked me out of buying $10,000 worth of Bitcoin when it was priced at $8! (I’m not really upset. It could have gone either way, and I probably don’t remember instances where people talked me out of doing something that would have lost me money.) I want to get more experience with blockchain-based services because I believe the future is far more decentralized, and that combining blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and smart contracts with artificial intelligence (see, for example, Numerai) will be massively transformative. Steemit helps me gain needed real-world experience.
As for writing, in reviewing my options out there, none beside Steemit is particularly appealing. Sure, I could write on my blog, then struggle to drive people there. Or I could write on Medium, with no hope of remuneration unless I apply to become a “partner.” Or I could write for a mainstream publication (which I have, and sometimes do), and earn little or nothing while they retain reprint rights. Or I could post on Facebook or LinkedIn, and get a few likes, before my post disappears deep into people’s newsfeed.
On Steemit, I hope to write about topics of deep interest to me, including artificial intelligence, automation, basic income (and related economic issues), life extension, and personal effectiveness. I hope that people here appreciate my contributions. And I hope to better understand the mechanics of decentralized organizations and business models. I’ll be writing about my experience for others who aren’t on Steemit to learn from.
Any advice for a newbie?
And with that, please tell me what you think I need to know in the comments. I’ve read the FAQ and etiquette guide, but would love some further guidance—especially to find quality Steemit contributions and contributors on topics of interest as outlined above. How do you all sift through everything? What’s your search strategy?
Wellcome to the community!
Thanks!
Welcome to the community!
Goodlock in steemit.com
Welcome to steemit, @simonsmith!
A great intro. I think i can help you a little bit here.
My profile is @flashfiction and i would like to present you some links i found really useful when i first signed up here. They will make you start with the right foot on Steemit!
These links will all open on the SAME TAB (Yeah, i know...), so i recommend opening them with "right click->open in a new tab".
Anything i cand help you with, i'm at your service!
See you around!
Super useful. Thank you.
Welcome to steemit. Nice to meet you.
You can check my post that may help you to get success. keep steem.
Thanks. Do you have a link to the post?
https://steemit.com/steemit/@babuplrk/success-guideline-on-steemit
Welcome to Steemit dude!
Appreciated!
Hi Simon,
Welcome to SteemIt.
I am Krishna, a trip leader from India.
Nice to meet you, Krishna.
welcome to steemit world . Always Remember 5 points..
1)Never copy paste content from any where ..
2)It can take some time but if you work hard , God will definitely give you success..
3)Never abuse anyone or post haterade content on steemit..
4)Daily post will increase your REPUTATION SCORE (number by the side of your name)
Reputation score is mainly based on upvotes and comments .
No matter what you post ,if it gets upvotes and comments then reputation score will increase
Don't let anyone flag you or downvote you..
5)Your first post should be your introduction..
You can follow me @be4u
Thanks. I read through the etiquette guide and FAQ, but appreciate the guidance. How do you find people and topics to follow? I do find the navigation a bit challenging right now. I would love to see a curated list of which people write about which topics, if that exists.
don't worry my frnd it is very easy .
You are here only 37mins ago
it will take some time
if you want to search anyone for example if you want to search me then before be4u apply @
like @be4u
This is helpful, though not perfect: https://www.asksteem.com. I wish I could do "user: artificial intelligence" to search people's bios.
to find topics... go to search box and type your "word". EVERY post or member that has that particular word will show up in the feed. Once you have the "word" searched, click on the first link that shows something like... steemit/"wordsearched" and it will take you to the trending posts. Now you can also click on the "new" tab (upper left of screen) and see all members that have posted new posts on that topic.
Friends? Start within the same search... follow the authors of favorite posts. Make sure to comment (insert smile here)- keeps the interaction going
Thanks. I did this, but it's not as user-friendly as it could be. I wish someone would create a Steemit bio search to start, and maybe a user-by-topic tool that analyzes posts to evaluate which users post on which topics most. Maybe I'll be that someone in future, if I have some time to hack it.
Keep in mind steemit is still in the beta phase right now. We have all written posts about how we would improve steemit. We all have ideas... every so often steemit changes something and we all express our happiness, or scowl with grunts because we don't care for it... lol
Welcome to Steemit. I hope it is good for you. Invite some friends and build the community
Working on it :)
Hi sir @simonsmith. This is Anidel from the Philippines. Like you I am a student of cryptocurrencies. I am facinated by cryptocurrencies not because of their technical aspects but what they could bring to humanity. I think cryptocurrency is the emancipation of money from those who seek to control it for themselves.
I believe the Internet and cryptocurrencies are two of the most important technological breakthroughs. in recent times Internet liberated information now cryptocurrencies is liberating money. They say money and information is power it is like taking the power back from the oligarchs that has far too long lorded over those who lack power the ordinary people.
Anyway welcome to steemit and I hope you can share your expertise with us and share original and excellent content. See you around sir and nice meeting you here :)
Thanks! I'm looking forward to writing about such social and economic issues. And I'm glad to know there's an audience for this.
Aside from plagiarism,you should be good to go. Your formatting is great!
Appreciated. I will check out Discord because I've seen others mention that too.
Discord has really been a positive game changer for me on steemit
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STOPwelcome aboard, hope you have a nice time here
Thanks, glad to be here!
Welcome! We already had a very good conversation in my comments. Your career has had some interesting twists and turns. I'm looking forward to more interesting exchanges!
Thanks. You've been on here a long time, it seems, so I could probably learn a few things from you! Curious to know if you're working directly in AI, or if it's just a side interest for you.
Just a side interest among a plethora of them. I'd like to learn more about deep learning. In addition to traditional statistics, it seems to be an increasingly tool used in data analysis.