Tesla was a genius. He is my favorite scientist / inventor / visionary. He was well before his time and it is so painfully obvious that he didn't / couldn't fit into the system. He was thinking not out of the box but out of the system completely.
Is Steemit such an out of the system invention? It just might be. It certainly attracts people who are, I get the impression, somehow above or out of the system. With the system being the social networking / financial / authoring / reputation / whatever conglomerate.
I don't know. My thoughts are very fuzzy. I can't express them properly - yet :)