The (not so) Hidden Value of Steemit

" 

This is not a financial post. I don't understand well enough how crypto currency works to claim any insight, advice or wisdom in the matter. I suspect very few people do. I do know that crypto currency tends to benefit most those who create the sites that use it. That seems obvious and fair on the surface, and it probably is fair to a large extent, but the imbalance of financial benefit can seem dubious and disheartening to us simpler users. Like going to a casino where the rules are constantly being altered as you play the games and not even the eye in the sky knows precisely why. 

And as the price exchange goes up and down like a dingy in the stormy seas of block-chain currencies, it is understandable to wonder just what the hell you're doing on this damn voyage anyway. 

Is it worth the time to write a decent post, only to have it disappear in the constant flow of posts, judged not on actual content but by whale votes and basic layout? Well, of course it is. 

It's worth it just to do it. It's worth it just for the practice of writing, of communicating complicated ideas clearly, of honing arguments and structuring beliefs, be they business memos or long-form poems.  It seems self evident, but it bears repeating. 

We come here to add monetary value to the things we would do anyway. Artists know this concept well, and any businessman with an honest bone in his body will admit they are here for more than just networking or to raise a few kopeks on the side. 

But the real value, of course, is found in the human side. The comments and the replies, the follows and the followers, the acknowledgement of your effort with a nod of the head and a drop of a half-cent coin into your digital guitar case. 

plink!

As it is with Facebook 'likes', the endorphin rush is powerful and inescapable. Like the most modest of Oscar-nominees, it is nice just to be noticed. 

I began posting a year ago (about) and every post that didn't make a certain amount cut me to the bone. A bitter disappointment. A lost child and a waste of my time.  But now I am most let down by the lack of replies. My envy swells not at the dollars other posts get, but the endless pages of comments and replies. 

Upvotes are nice, but what do you think of it? It is easier to be poor when you're developing yourself, like a Shaolin monk, eating dirt and kicking ass. 

If one must toil, here is as good a place as any. Better than most. 

And who knows, maybe one day someones twenty page poem will make the news and the virtual and the real will connect for an instant and we'll all suddenly be rich.