Whydo you believe in steemit? (I think steemit is hard)

I got into Steemit because it appeared to be an honest avenue to earn spare income. I'm not totally sure if I believe or undersatnd the vision or the networking effect behind it. When you purely gamify content, won't this place eventually become a crossroads of the side effect of signature campaigns and reddit posts? A mix of funny content which serves to act as a noise or a distraction. The virtue of removing gamificaiton allows that we find satisfaction first in the ability to add insight and/or knowledge into other strangers lives as a means of paying it forward for the next chance at gaining some similar insight from someone else. Sometimes, when the community is small enough, the potential for reaping those rewards is great. However, as knowlege of the community becomes widespread that value seems to paradoxically diminish as more users join in. That lack of quality as the community grows, seems to drive away the original participants, thus slowly eroding the quality of the contributions in aggregate.

So when I first learned of Steemit I was amazed with the community and the rush to bootstrap as many participants as possible. As an /r/bitcoin moderator I've not really put the efforts into being here nor there much (nor on honey badger of money) either just based on the lack of time I have available in my day. I've decided that I no longer wished to spend through crypocurrency to live so thus I've resorted to securing work like everyone else. I don't quite know that I'd stay retired if I could - why bother when there are a plethora of ideas to be attempted, code to be reviewed, software to poke fun at post deployment, and of course, scams to be detected, avoided, and reported.

If you use this site often, I ask, do you spend more time reading or writing? Do you abuse the internet looking for answers to questions that can only be answered by your own judgement (not someone else's). Why? Well, it's easy to fell overwhelmed with what you should be doing with your time. If you're looking for some answer from me based on my experiences I can tell you this: we all seem to gaze and idolize at the successes and pursuits of others when in fact we should just enjoy our own. Don't compare - mark twain will tell you that it is the death of joy. Someone else I once heard (in what I think was a ted talk) also claimed that this term, to compare also leads to the birth of Misery. Live your life for enjoying all the moments.

I bet you're here because you're broke and wish to earn some money by reaching the front page. That is the wrong mantra to have. I say as such because imagine that if you did reach such success, you now gear yourself into a reward cycle. If you happened to have gotten lucky then you'll feel crushed or worse compelled to chase by whatever means to obtain that quick gain yet again. Hopfully, intead, perhaps you find a formula that works for you and decide to roll with it and it yeilds net gains for you for a while. That can work, but only for as long as you can keep it enjoyable. To avoid the pitfall of compare, I implore you to expand beyond your comfort and to continue growing. Keep evolving, and keep producing.

Steemit really pulled me in initally because I was hoping that I could monetize in my spare time a bit more than the efforts of hbom would find a plethora of different content that could be discovered and enjoyed or that could be used as a good point of reference but ultimately found that in steemit land too all that glitters isnt gold by way of the rampant bitconnect fuckery which is essentially a ressurected MMM Global and THAT was simpy the nail in the coffin. What seemed awesome at first but then gradually boring after a while was the content regarding lifestyle and advice from Charlatains.

I do accept Steemit for wares on my sites but have not yet seen interest nor sales - Are many of you turning your steem rewards into fiat or into Bitcoin? Is anyone here doing this as a living and actually suceeding as a full time steamian? We'd love to hear how you spend your schedule in the comments below! Did you have a period of transition from there this went from being a thing to do for fun to an actual endeavor that you treaded with the dedication of a craft?

If you're still feeling like a relative newcommer like me (despite having an account on here for over a year), do you see this system as feasible in any shape or form based on the inflationary model? I cannot see the token achieving greater value without having other mechanisms, goods, and services availble to use with the coin - and a means to spread where those aforementioned articles can be acquired.

Thanks for reading, do me a solid by actually sharing some feedback as well. Here's a bitcoin song from 2014 for your thoughts: