The Bigger Steem Picture: The Fake Sound Of Progress - Biting The Bullet(s)

Steem is home for many of us and we should treat it that way.

Below are down-to-earth thought-provoking concepts to help people snap out of it to see bigger picture they've clearly lost sight of.

A nice song to play as you read:

Real Talk:

• If people care about Steem so much, why do they spend inordinate amounts time tearing it and Steemians down? If you're going to bring something down, you better f'in know how to build or inspire something better. Stop being abusive. There are some bright people here, as well as some not-to-bight people here, but we're all on the same team and need to work together to survive.

• Hope is NOT a strategy. SMTs, tribes, tokens, or a new killer app will never save Steem when greed, collusion, and divisive behavior hold us back. Hope will not deliver a single result. Actions and effort = results.

• We have some nice apps and some lame ones, but should we be happy with this modest progress after 3 years? Recruiting more devs is an absolute must. Forget global adoption, we need to get dozens of new devs to adopt or else we'll go extinct as other chains catch up. Guess what? Devs know devs, and they'll recruit more for us.

• We've got 99 problems, but price shouldn't be one. You only incur a loss when you sell, and paper profit is a waste of time to be concerned with. All of crypto is down, so equating Steem price with its success is amateur at best. If Steem was $10, most of our issues would still exist, and probably plenty of new ones.

• Kickin' it and bitchin' on Discord/Slack all day is spinning our wheels for virtually no value. Temporary therapy and morale helps, but reallocating 95% of that time back on chain could do us all a world of wonders for countless reasons. These crutches might very well be hurting Steem more than helping. Break the dependency on third party platforms and develop something to get massive amounts of attention/traffic back on chain.

• Instead of fighting with and taunting bad actors, BE a good actor. Leave your ego at the door because it doesn't do much good when you try to flex it on a blog or chat room (the nerdy immature way to do it). When you stand tall, they grow small. For God's sake, it's in the Bible: "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him." Regardless, many can't resist and end up compounding the negative energy by stimulating trolls.

• Getting your nose in everything isn't scalable, sustainable, or productive. Laser focus on a few quality initiatives is the will yield quality tangible results that can truly improve our system. Will tribes help this or will they park themselves off-chain on Discord and sling mud at the wall as well?

• If Steem goes to $0 and fades away, the relationships we made will be our greatest return. With this in mind, why not build, respect, and enjoy those relationships while we're all here together. Let your guard down with those who have earned it to let the collaboration/building on and off Steem begin.

People religiously take good people for granted and it makes me sick. We're all human... even the bot owners, and maybe Gina in 5 years.

• Read Neil Young's lyrics and think about what Steem could be if we stop being so negative with our thoughts and impulsive judgment to see that we're all on the same team here.

"Hate was just a legend
And war was never known
The people worked together
And they lifted many stones.
And they carried them
To the flatlands
But they died along the way
And they built up
With their bare hands
What we still can't do today."

I could go on and on, but you get the gist.

We have endless opportunity at our fingertips, just a few strategic conversations or developments away. Find your strengths and bring them to the table in a collaborate/leadership fashion. Help people grow and learn. Help Steemit grow and learn. Don't fault others for what you don't like, as that's the one of the greatest signs of weakness I can imagine.

We all need to put our differences aside to come together while we can, before we're divided too much to seal our fate.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Thanks for reading. These are my humble opinions. I'm on no high horse. I just want to spark some good discussion and offer some insight for people who may have lost their way.

Two other recent thought-provoking posts:

Real Talk About Friends On Steem... Or Lack Thereof - ~100 comments!

Karma Police... 1 BTC = 59,300 Steem Today... A Wake Up Call To Steem Whales

Thank you,
@steemmatt