Most excellent post @luzcypher... these kinds of posts should be "required reading" for all newcomers here. And I'm glad to see @stellabelle's great post about Steemit as a gift economy still having legs to run on!
I remember a couple of my very early posts-- that I worked on for a couple of hours-- earning a bit fat zero! And I remember writing and powering up through 10c Steem, and 9c Steem and then 8c Steem and thinking "this is NUTS, this place is going to go TU any moment."
Which, of course, it didn't. I like the whole hotel metaphor, too...