I've heard about this peripherally in my feed, and now I just got a huge serving of humble pie reading this post and your replies. I'm just barely holding on here trying to keep it simple and just contribute content that isn't pointless drivel, yet there is this whole underbelly of the mechanical beast to contend with. Thanks for the informative reality check.
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If it's any comfort, you'll notice that I keep putting out content on a regular basis that I think is an pointless drivel. I certainly allow for the idea that it might be pointless drivel, and I would certainly accept if someone said to me, "Lex, this crap you write – all the stuff about games, screenplays, and reviews of fast food restaurants? It's crap. It's garbage. It's complete pointless drivel."
But I keep writing it.
Because in a real sense you don't have to deal or even care about the underbelly of the mechanical beast. It doesn't really matter to you. You have a Reputation of 52, which means that you've been around for long enough and have produced enough content that people with higher Reputations have voted you up a fair number of times. Somebody likes what you do. Somebody likes what you say. You're doing it right.
Don't let all of this get blown out of proportion in your mind. The people who farm outrage are up in arms about H-dude possibly reaping 7% of a given day's reward pool. For people like you and me, who write on a regular basis and feel good about getting four or five steem on a post, and feel great if we hit the lotto and get the magic whale vote that gives us the big payout once in a while? Even the entire power of @steemcleaners and all that they do on a day-to-day basis barely makes 7% of a difference to a given reward pool. Maybe it's a few cents either way to you and I.
We will never live long enough or earn long enough for that to add up to anything significant. It's not worth worrying about.
If there's a reality check you take away from this, that's the one you should take. We are talking about cents on a good day for either you or I. The needle does not budge. This tempest in a teapot? In fiscal terms? It means nothing to us.
In philosophical terms – maybe. If you care about social movements on this platform and possibly understanding them in the context of being a subset of the attitudes and beliefs that people bring in from outside of the sphere of experience, something here might be educational and worth paying attention to. Maybe.
But don't think of it as important.
Keep it simple. Hold it down. Do what you do. Keep writing. Keep creating. Keep using the platform, smartly, to create what you like and reward what you like. Don't let anybody tell you to do things any differently than that; you know what is in your best interest.
Do it.
Anybody tells you anything else, they're selling something.
Thanks for saying that, I keep beating the drum that creativity is the highest currency and I'd like to just stick to that because it's too easy to give in to the conditioning that it isn't, and then nothing happens so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of inaction. If nothing else, I prefer to act against that tide of naysayers.
We have to be honest with ourselves in order to make decisions which are reflective of reality.
Creativity is definitely not the highest currency. It never has been.
Currency is the highest currency.
Which follows hot on the heels of the highest commodity.
Time is the highest commodity. Everything that you do is trading off on some amount of time. Your time, someone else's time – time.
Now, it just so happens, some people have an affinity for trading time for creative output. They're good at it or they're efficient at it or they get a rush of pleasure from doing it. For whatever reason, they are very good at converting time into creative output, which is itself another commodity.
That commodity can sit on a shelf. It can be posted publicly for free. It can be posted publicly for passerby reward (like on Steemit). Or it can be burnt.
But it is a commodity, it can be traded for things, and only an individual can decide if it is an efficient trade for them to convert time into creative output and further exchange creative output for other commodities.
Once we put things into context, we can make decisions which specifically speak to what we gain from them.