Me: "I Should Write My Best Post Ever!" Inner Me: "No One Will Read It."

in #steemit8 years ago

I have just finished up my first month on steemit and I have to say the psychological impact of the site was not expected.

I have been in crypto for some time and do my best not to promote the latest and greatest to friends and family. This was a lesson learned from Blackcoin, you may not have heard of it but it was the next big thing at one time. I did some research and invested under 2 cents and watched my money multiply by a factor of 100x.

Moon was the chant and I shouted it from the mountain tops, even got my dad to invest $300. After making him a paper wallet and sending the funds to it we waited for the profit. Then pop, everything that goes up must come down and Blackcoin was no exception. Reading through the forums I learned about things like FOMO (fear of missing out) and FUD (fear uncertainty doubt). These lessons were pricey but valuable nonetheless, little did I know my very concepts of "money" were changing.

After Blackcoin I was not much interested in crypto until I came across the Ethereum whitepaper. I was blown away and ready to shout from the mountain tops again. I watched its development and initial launch, even invested a bit under the $2 mark. Again my money multiplied, this time by a factor of 10x. I was back to promotion but with a little more hesitation than before. Ethereum also provided me an epiphany when a smart contract pyramid scheme automatically paid me out after the next tier filled in. To this day that is still amazing, smart contracts are pretty cool.

Unless you invested in the DAO, hands down one of the best and worst moments in crypto to date. The DAO was set to be the first decentralized autonomous organization and the first killer app of Ethereum. That is until a loophole in the code was exploited and $64,000,000 in tokens was stolen.

To be honest I was happy to be apart of this event and it will be a legend to tell one day. The community ended up coming together and recovering the funds via an emergency hard fork. This killed the project however and jeopardized the very foundation of what crypto was meant to be. @alexandermay put it well once saying the attack vector of Ethereum is just too large compared to other currencies. Not a death sentence, just means a lot of time is needed for testing.

This brings us up to current day and my recent cheer leading of Steemit. As some of you may know I have recruited several family members and friends against my typical crypto protocol. I cannot help but shake the feeling that Steemit is different and it has nothing to do with profitability.

I was very passionate in my twenties and blogged a lot about current events. My motivation was not for upvotes and comments but to document where I stood on current events so that later on I could have my told you so moment. Unfortunately I was working under the assumption people would figure out how much they were being screwed and do something about it. I kept these posts up for a few years until Rupert Murdoch admittedly broke Myspace and they got deleted.

At some point you grow up and stop living in an idealistic future, I think this evolution is a creativity killer and more time is spent trying to pay bills. Society works under the assumption that without that fear of death people would not be productive. This is not the case and if you told anyone their family would be fed and a roof put over their head, they would not simply sit there content. Everyone has a drive and passion, just typically don't have the means and resources to pursue it.

Luckily I was able to recover my old blog and the insights were priceless. It was exciting to see how events in my life shaped the way I thought and how some of it was still the case today. Though not my initial intent for writing it still had great value.

I signed up for steemit after the CEO of Reddit admitted to changing comments at the database level. Regardless of your political affiliations you have the right to your opinion. Its up to others whether or not they want to follow or unfollow you. No one should be able to edit you out of existence because they do not agree with your philosophies. It also impedes the progress of the collective, if people cannot express their feelings how are they going to be addressed?

My initial motivation to start blogging here on steemit after joining was purely monetary at first. I did ok on my intro and some other posts but started to notice some real world improvement in my cognitive abilities. Emails at work started to flow a lot better, be more relevant to the subject matter, and require less editing. I became more engaged in conversations and ability to comprehend and respond.

After a while I started to build a following and started to follow a few people myself. I noticed a theme of individuals either being spiritually progressive, technologically progressive, or some mixture of both. Those that were not, quickly got links and insights to get them up to speed. There is no shortage of advice or love on this site and that is a fact.

I realized that there were individuals of like mind in my real life that would jive well in the community. This in the end is what caused my break from protocol. I am glad that it was broken and the recruits have done very well, especially my mom @mojojo. If you have not read her intro post grab a box of tissues and give it a read.

That post is the reason for steemit, at least in my opinion. I learned things about my mother in that post that I did not know from being her son for more than 30 years. She now had a sounding board to deal with some personal issues that had been bottled up for a long time. Along with a whole community of individuals to comment and provide their support and insights.

Luckily this site is not a complete echo chamber and as more users join the diversity will grow. Hopefully the steem will be distributed better in time also, this is a delicate process and the current situation is understandable. I am excited for the future of steemit and intellectual growth of my recruits and myself.

Justify daily blogging however you need to and find the motivation. In time you will find your voice and place in the world and behind you will be a clear path as to how you got there. There is no way of predicting the future or knowing what value the words you are typing might hold in the future.

Let me know your thoughts and favorite steemit moments in the comments below, thanks!

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Awesome post. I am going to resteem this one. This is the only crypto I've tried to get other family members involved in. Several of then have done so to a limited degree, but I believe there is something important in steemit, and more importantly in the blockchain behind it and what other things can be built out of that.

Thank you, it is much appreciated! I would agree with your comment wholeheartedly. I get frustrated when people complain about the UI of steemit as it stands now. It's like, "build your own or stop complaining". The way this whole system is setup is that anyone can build their own site to access the steemit blockchain and display it however they see fit. I actually plan to integrate a feed of my own into my personal site that has all the content of my recruits in it. I sometimes miss one or two of their posts in the chaos and it would be nice to have something with just their stuff.

Oh I also checked out and followed your mom. I'm still wiping the tears from my eyes after reading her posts.

Yea man, happened to me during proof reading and I wasnt ready for it. I am a part of that ideology that crying is for pussies or that is at least what I heard as a kid (not from my mom obviously). I felt justified in my efforts when helping with that though. It is funny how you can go through a process not knowing the end results but having a good feeling about the potential. Then all of a sudden the ah ha moment and it all comes together.

I come from the crying is for pussies background too. Though it seems to have worn off as I age. People performing great works of music, dance, etc can move me to tears. Honest openness like your mom's posts can as well.

Nice to hear, I am constantly working on "opening my heart". It has been a very difficult long process for me.

Crying is courageous. Displaying raw authentic feelings despite social pressure to "hold it in" is brave. Next time instead of saying don't cry, say it's brave to cry. Who made up these social rules anyhow? Great post, BTW!

Not sure any one made them up, seems to be concensus. I have theories about how natural disasters have eroded man's trust in nature leading to the rise of the ego.

I really enjoyed this post, Cody. Especially the beginning photo and the Einstein quote.A very true and enlightening read.

No one should be able to edit you out of existence

A lot of people have this fear

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Do you feel that this is a struggle with mortality or something else?

Wow, followed you and will be checking out your blog. That quote hit me hard and is what I needed I think. Lately I have just been doing me and trying not to put as much thought into it as I would have in the past. Caring what others think is a major issue and holds me back in a lot of areas. I have always thought if you do something for someone with the expectation of a return than you are actually doing something for yourself. This is something I will need to apply to steemit.

Maybe that's just it, issues with one's mortality.

Perhaps it relates to the idea that each should have an impact, a legacy.

The desire to do good things is noble, the desire for people to see
good in you may also be noble, but I don't know about the desire to be
recognized for doing good things.

Change is the one thing we can count on, but I can see how some would want to escape this reality by trying to create something stable, immutable, incorruptible, something that they can feel safe in being associated to.

Excellent post! Like you, I came first to Steemit attracted by the curiosity and the factthatwe can make money with blogging. And then I have met people around. And now I stay for the fun I have with the people I met :)

And finally, I have met some of them in real life in some unexpected place. That' the funniest part of Steemit in my opinion.

I have yet to run into any one in real life, aside from the people I signed up. I have had a bunch of encounters through Facebook though so I can see it being a thing at some point.

I did read this whole blog post, and the title is what got to me, -- things I have said recently.

It is cool your mom opened up on here and has some support and you even learned things about her you did not know -- very neat.

I think title and thumbnail account for 85% of the success of a post. It ended up being a bit more crypto heavy than intended but my point gets made at the bottom. I wanted to express the importance to keep writing and work the craft. Everything else will sort itself out around that. Thank you for taking the time to read and comment, it does mean a lot.

Trust me I know. I see the low open/view numbers etc and I feel for you. I relate.

Fantastic post. So many things I could pluck out as real truths but this particular one stood out to me first: "There is no shortage of advice or love on this site and that is a fact." - It caught my attention because I too have been saying more or less the same thing to many people recently - about the Steemit platform. And, just as wrote that sentence containing your feeling of the truth of it, is the very reason why I think you are right to put your trust in Steem. Out of all the crypto currencies you have tried and have let you down in some way, this time your are right on the money.
Steemit is based on something that we have all accidentally forgotten and now all accidentally re-discovered. Our humanity. For decades we have all been coerced by the money power elites that the pursuit of money is all there is and they are happy to look down and watch us stab each other in the back for every last nickel and dime.
But I see that you too have discovered the same as I have discovered here on Steemit. Money is not the main motivation in our souls. In the beginning perhaps, if we are truthful with ourselves, we are enticed by the idea of earning money on the platform. But then something happens, something changes within us, and we almost ddidnt notice it was happening. It gradually dawns upon us that Steemit is much more than about the money. It is about integrity. And on the internet, sadly, that is something we are not used to. Personally I think what happens is this....We start to look around, and we begin to notice that we are surrounded by good honest decent folk. Instead of the egocentric famous, the greedy super rich, or the political elites with their own agendas, we find the people next to us are down to earth, they are real, like your own mother. And this affects us in that it essentially puts us back in touch with the one thing our psychopathic leaders have stolen from our society. The thing that makes us decent. Integrity.
Steemit has integrity and demands that of its members. This is its strength and is why it can not fail. The more people like your mother and other "real" people join, the stronger that demand for integrity will grow and become its back bone. It will drive out the scammers and the greedy sharks and be a place worthy of being a part of. A sensation I have not felt for a long long time.
Sorry to have written so long, but your post moved and inspired me to reply.
Brilliant post @codydeeds. Both moving and educational

Hey man, dont ever apologize for being long winded. It is why you are one of my favorite people on here and once they roll out that update that puts comments on their own payment system and dedicates 38% of funds to it you will see your account value increase exponentially. You my friend are the reason for that update and I am glad for you it is happening. This comment deserves a post of its own to be honest. One that would stand along side this one. Thank you again, your words mean a lot and are right on the "money"...see what i did there? :)

Thanks for the kind words my friend but I meant what I said, it was an inspiring post.
I had not heard about any update. Well that´s not strictly true, I heard something was going on with regards to comments but I did not know what it was all about so I decided not go into it. I just figured it would not make any difference to how I use Steemit anyway. I mean, if I am genuinely inspired to respond, as I was with your post, then I will. If not then I dont. Simple as that really. And even knowing now what you have just told me, I dont think it will alter my pattern. I want to keep my integrity.
Cheers again. Look forward to your next post @codydeeds

Very inspirational post Cody! Thank you for sharing this with us.

So many things I like about this. ....and the first pic is crazy! Great post!

Thank you for telling your story :)

Thank you for reading it!

That first photo though.

Right!!! No post would ever live up to that thumbnail, I feel like I should have spent a week working on this one. Especially now that it has been resteemed five times.