Steemit Is Like the Oriental Game of Go

The oriental game of go is not well-known in the west. One might hear it referred to as the chess of the far east. The comparison is reasonable enough: both are games of pure strategy played on a simple, symmetric board with a set of white and black pieces. Furthermore, both are staggeringly complex with the number of possible variations exceeding the number of atoms in the universe (technically, the number for go is even higher than for chess because there are 361 points on a go board compared to 64 on a chessboard.)

To those who immerse themselves in such pastimes, however, there is one fundamental difference between the two games: chess is foremost a game of tactics, while go is foremost a game of strategy. Here, tactics refers to the idea of dealing with short-term, local situations, while strategy refers to long-term, whole-board conceptualization.

So, what does any of this have to do with Steemit? The answer is that success at Steemit (IMHO) depends much more on long-term thinking than on any attempts to "game" the system with tactics aimed at garnering upvotes and followers at any cost, be it click-bait, over-posting, over-following, phony promotions, etc.

I do not say these things to impugn anyone's efforts here, nor to wish bad luck on anyone, but merely to suggest that there is a simple and effective strategy for success at Steemit: quality content coupled with genuine engagement with your fellow Steemers via your attention to their posts, your upvotes, and your thoughtful comments. While a platform built in this manner may take a little longer to construct, it will be far more enduring once it is up and running. As they say in go, "Big dragons never die."

I will leave you with one final thought along these lines. In chess, white moves first, while in go, black moves first. This puts me in mind of the difference between yang (associated with white) and yin (associated with black). These colors reflect the notion that yang is about that which is manifest or on the surface (white), while yin is about that which is hidden (black). Yang reveals itself immediately, while yin builds up its power underground, to burst forth at a later time with unexpected vigor.

May all of your actions at Steemit have the tactical sharpness of a good chess move and the strategic depth of a good go move!!!

Image Credits

• "Go in Shanghai" @ Wikimedia Commons