Why Steemit will Dissapoint you – Survivorship Bias

in #psychology8 years ago

Jup, congratulations! 

You finally got me into Steemit - and oh boy - this might last forever.

Hello Peep´s, my name is Tramp - theTramp!

Alrighty, to be honest, my Name isn´t theTramp, not even Tramp. The Problem here is, that I decided to stay anonymous. 

Why?

I just wanted to have the freedom of writing when I want, how I want and what I want. I don't want to hold back my Opinions, just because they might harm my Image. 

I want my total freedom of Speech.

I hope that is understandable. I know that Steemit has to deal with a lot of fake Profiles and Plagiarism, so I want to proof to you that I´m an existing being. 

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I hope this is enough. If it isn´t, just let me know about other ways of providing a solid prove. 


Anyways – let's get straight down to the nitty- gritty and Why Steemit will Disappoint you!

My big concern with Steemit is, that its Community and Interface are consistently confronting every User with the opportunity of making a sweet sum of money.

Whether it´s through an Add,



Or by just opening the Page and seeing all those Blog Posts that are making up to 40.000 $.



Because of all these confrontations, people tend to hope they might make an equal amount of Money. They start dreaming of going on a Vacation, buying a Car or to financially Support their Parents - all this by Posting on Steemit.

In the end, because Steemit is advertising it so intensely, most of the People are joining Steemit for making money. 

This motivation might hold potential for huge disappointment- resulting in hate and disbelieve against the Steemitplatform.

You can already see people, questioning the power of the Wales and accusing Steemit of beeing a Ponzi scheme.


Let me explain...

The Psychology behind it – The Survivorship Bias

The Survivorship Bias is the logical error of  concentrating on the people or things that "survived" some process and inadvertently overlooking those that did not because of their lack of visibility.         -Wikipedia

Great explanation Video:


Ok, let's paint a Picture here:

You meet up with your good old friend - Ned. He tells you about this new great Platform that will pay you for creating Content. He even shows you Screenshots of his earnings.

You go home as fast as possible, still totally pumped by Ned´s story. You hastily grab your Laptop and Open Steemit.com. 

The first thing popping up are 5, 6, 10 Posts making thousands of Dollars. You´re not shilly-shallying, and Start writing your first Post. You Spend hours researching, writing and staging. 

BAAMMM... Your first Post is up!    Let´s make some money!

Fiddlesticks – two day´s later you made 0,30$.

That Sucks – am I right?


__________________________________________________________________________

I bet the majority of People join Steemit just to make Money.

I also bet that most of those People – that aren't making any Money, will be highly Disappointed and might even quit or hate against Steemit.


I see this kind of disappointment quite often on Steemit. Simply because they and maybe even yourself got tricked by the Survivorship Bias.

The Survivorship bias lets you systematically overestimate your success chances.


Steemit will disappoint you because you have wrong expectations and verify those by falling for the Survivorship Bias.

__________________________________________________________________________

How to Protect yourself from Disappointment

  • Find out about your core motivations and the reasons why you have started with Steemit. Of course, money can be a Motivational factor, but as many already mentioned before me – Don´t only do it for the Money. Be honest with yourself and I promise you, you´ll become more successful. – This applies to pretty much everything in life. 


  • Visit the Cemetery. Scroll down, on the Steemit Page and click through all of the failed Blog Posts. Win awareness about how high your chances are to end up on the Popular Page. I know this might be a really sad   project, but it will safe you from disappointment.    

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Question of the Post: Why have you started with Steemit?  

Let us exchange in the Comments ;)!

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I really hope this Post was helpful for you guys. To be honest this is my first time writing for an Audience and I still need to learn a lot. If you have any recommendations or tips, please ... seriously ... let me know in the Comment section.

All the best,

Tramp 


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wellcome

Exactly! I've been saying for a while that the trending page shouldn't be the landing page. I think a lot of new users will do exactly what you said: show up, see the trending page, see dollar signs, write something, not make the same amount of money, get disappointed and start trash-talking the platform.

I admit, I ended up here (in the beginning of June) because of the possibility of making money, but I'm not here because of that any more. I'm now here because I fell in love with the vision of a crypto-backed platform where people can share and discuss ideas and art. Getting paid for some of that is just an awesome extra.

Hi robsteady,
Thank you for reading my Post!

To the Point !
"show up, see the trending page, see dollar signs, write something, not make the same amount of money, get disappointed and start trash-talking the platform"

You know what...
I think close to everyone came for the money, but stayed for the Values. ;)!

Thank you for your UpVote and your great Comment.
I Wish you well, Brother!

This post is very spot-on. The dollar signs are a serious trigger to sign up for an account, but they're a terrible reason to stay. People need to stay for the content. For that to happen content needs to improve significantly. I believe ita on the way. Once we get a better look at retention we'll have a better idea on how to evolve as a community.

Thank you Sharper!
You said it! "People need to stay for the Content"

I´m just happy to see that more and more "real content" - Posts are emerging on the trending Page.
It will be really exciting to see what path Steemit will go - in the near future :)
Thank you for reading my Post, Sharper.
Hope to hear from you again!

Hi! This post has a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 5.0 and reading ease of 87%. This puts the writing level on par with Jane Austen and JK Rowling.

I have to thank you :) !