I Wish Things Could Have Been Simpler Here

I think one of the reasons that we might forever just be a niche based community is due to overwhelming number of new apps and tokens and unfriendly user interface, well that's apart from the big kids here and the drama they create for attention. And the possibility of being ostracized, trolled, and kicked out just because you are being yourself in a supposedly decentralized, anarchistic, and open community (it does not matter whether you're selfie obsessed or intellectual or woke). There's also the risk that a few a$$holes might take all your personal stuff against you especially if you speak your mind and at times diabolical. This the main reason I can't openly talk about my business, it's something I have to protect and separate from my personal blogging life. I guess I just can't trust the collective here just yet. And their power to ruin someone.

Over the years, this community has become better in kicking out users who don't seem to align to certain political beliefs and impeach those who attempt to rule and crash fragile egos of certain cliques. If you've stayed here to this day, then you must be a beast or you're just like me, you just learned to simply mind your own business. So given all that I've said, I think mass adoption is still far-fetched and we can only dream. Let's accept that we're just an internet subculture.

Remember back in the day when we used to make all those damn excuses for the unfriendly UI of Steemit to new users? Oh Steemit is still in beta that's why! Now years have passed and we are no longer in beta. Things could have been better. When I say better, it means not more complex. And yet here I am still ranting about stuff. Well, we certainly do not want to attract simpletons but we don't have to complicate this platform too much.

I'm a reporting/data analyst in real life, so surprise I shouldn't rant about changes right? I even despise those who refuse change at work. I should be well-versed in tech. But no, my job is to actually make a bunch of data simpler for average users. My job is to simplify complicated stuff. Managers or decision-makers don't have time for all this big data that's why they hire people like me. So they can focus on more important things. They just need to see the data visualizations and make decisions straight away.

I'm pro AI/evil robots domination, technological advancements and reaching humans' highest potential. And yet I'm a fan of minimalism and everything simple. I get easily anxious if there are too many choices. I get trapped in this decision paralysis or something. How can we make things modern yet simple? I guess that is the challenge and that should be the goal. Perhaps we can reduce our choices because we don't have such mental capacity for too many complex things.

To be honest, Cryptocurrency/Hive blockchain idea is mentally taxing enough. Explaining Hive and HBD to average users is complicated enough. And now we have HE tokens, second layer apps, and tribes on top of everything. Hive designer, inputting too many passwords, and signing in over and over seem like a pain in the back. I know we want to protect our stakes/tokens and all but geez, I feel like I'm in a loop. We have too many choices around here. It's just too much.

If you ask around about how to do things here like as simple as undelegating HP, people will direct you to sign in to other apps to make it simple, which in reality is just complicating what could have already been made simple/transparent on Hive. Okay I'm not a luddite but I do get easily overwhelmed. And yes, I find all these changes overwhelming so far.

This is why average users find cryptocurrency off-putting. Having power over your own wealth is a revolutionary thing, but people are put off mostly due to this so-called ease of transaction (with high costs even!). I mean seriously where is this ease really? Whether you admit it or not, fiat transactions are still way easier in the real world unless something will be done in the crypto space in next few years to come.

As much as I want to recruit new people here, I actually don't know where to start. Apart from the too many other apps here, I still have to make up a reason why their posts won't get upvoted and why whales are too snobby around here. The type of people I have in real life won't really go out of their way to please people or beg for attention from big finance guys. They are just like me that's why they are my people. Sure that's marketing but some people are just not like that. Some people just want to get rewarded for their effort naturally but I don't think that's happening here. I can feel this very well to this day. It's still politics and a$$-kissing just like in real life.

Is this the price of decentralization? I feel like we're kind of in a chaos here. Too many people wanting to rule by creating too many things. Too much freedom. There's a reason why you cannot bestow power to too many people. Not everyone is capable. And we cannot just simply invert the pyramid.

^{animal farm img: @unsplash}