Back in the university my college teacher asked us to explain vapor pressure like we would a five-year-old. Some drew cylinders and little circles that represented containers and molecules of gas, respectively. Some had pondering looks on their faces as they thought of the right words a kid would understand. That was the time I'd realized that simplifying things wasn't a simple task, contrary to what one might first think.
Explain like I'm five (ELi5) is a popular forum on Reddit that explains things in a way that even a layperson would understand. This was created some 9 years ago and up to now the forum archives lots of questions relating to technology, biology, economics and other interesting stuff with easy-to-understand answers. I visit the forum and take a peek from time-to-time if I wanted to grasp a hard topic.
These were in my head when I read the ongoing Hive PH contest about "What is Hive for You?" I wanted to see if I could relate what the platform is for me through a simple illustration. I've been told a few times that I explained things complicatedly. Contrary to what other people perceive, I want to explain things simply! When I speak, I always set my intention and that is to be understood. Why would people think my explanation was complex? Must be my delivery? Could it be my choice of words? Whatever the reason is, here is my attempt to explain what Hive is for me as I would a five-year old.
Let's begin with a one-liner definition of what this platform is...
Hive is a social platform that rewards its users for content creation and curation.
This encapsulates the main feature of Hive, but it doesn't tell you the whole story. Let me add a simple analogy.
It's also like a mirror. It mirrors society, a person's mind, my growth and the future.
When I say it mirrors society, here's what I mean. Counting the number of years I've been in the other platform up to now, this would be my third year in the blockchain. Over those years, I've seen real life scenarios come true in both platforms. Being a social platform - engagement is the name of the game. In real life, you can get by with living life on your own terms, own effort, own time. But if you plan to make it big and do things far greater than yourself, you have to engage with other people. Things become easier for you too when you have the right network. These ring true here on Hive too. You can create awesome content and get recognition for one or two of your posts but you will inevitably hit a roadblock when you expect a post to do well and it doesn't. You'd wonder why. You wouldn't blame yourself of course because you worked hard for your post and you see that it's fairly good quality over the others. You'd place the blame on Hive. You won't post anymore and you'd stay in the place where you left off. It's not sustainable.
When you regularly engage, you meet like-minded people and staying in the platform would be something that you enjoy. When you're with the right network, you'd have a support system that will lift you up when you feel bad about a post that didn't go as well as you thought it would be. Of course, it's not always about you. You have to lift others up too. It's the same thing with your friends, you won't be as much of a good friend to them if you always talk about yourself. Friendship and Hive engagement is a two-way street.
Our mentor @ybanezkim26 mentioned in his post that Hive is a protest. In real life, when people experience an injustice, they wouldn't turn a blind eye to it. When people come together collectively to fight for a common good, a protest will come alive. Hive became the answer to the selfishness that transpired in the other platform. It was the fruit of the people's stand against unjust actions.
I don't fully understand what happened but from what I gather, it can be related to the Tragedy of Commons . Commons here refer to a shared resource of a community. When an individual acts on extreme self-interest, he neglects the common good. It's like sharing a lake with fishes and getting more than your fair share of the good, in this case, the fish. When you take more than your fair share of it, you're making it hard for the other person to get his. People see you doing it would also do the same and therefore, you are contributing to the depletion of the shared resource at everybody's expense. In real life and in Hive, there are things that we can do to solve this problem. In Hive, systems are in place to discourage this from happening. But being fallible humans, we should remain vigilant.
I'm going to end this part by mentioning cooperation and Philanthropy in this platform. It's not all bad things, of course. Like in real life, there is a good to every bad. One of the philanthropists I look up to is Bill Gates and I like how he thinks about philanthropy. He believes that the society can benefit more from people who are educated and well-fed. By helping people get equal access to opportunities, there'd be less crimes and therefore less harm to the community. It's like acting for the good of one to effect the good of many. I think that's what the WATP (Who Are They PH) are all about as well.
For me, what we let out to the world tells of who we are. We are who we share in our social media. In mainstream social media like FB, IG and Twitter, we let other people see what we like them to see. That tells me that you are someone who likes to be seen as that to your followers. It's easy to just share and post whatever we find would increase other people's likability for us. In Hive, that's harder to do.
Why? Because it's not easy to conjure up 1000+ words that's not lifted from your own mind, consistently at that! Quality content here is a product of your own mind, your vision, your idea of how a blogpost should be. You can't write 1000+ words and not inject a bit of your true self into it.
In Hive, we see people who are into philanthropy, science, finance, art, travel, stories, communities and those who are just after the rewards. We see people who can pen 3000 words as if they have a huge thesaurus in their heads. You'd be able to distinguish an introvert from an extrovert in between the lines of the words they write and the pictures they share. You can tell what a person truly cares about, what a person hates, how a person is and how a person would like to be perceived.
In here, I'd found how great minds organize ideas. I'd also seen how one's mind perceives beauty and wonder. I'd also seen how the mind perceives itself. In Hive, you will see a person's motivations. If a person persists, he is up for something even greater than the rewards.
I won't deny it, I joined because I wanted to earn through blogging. I started out in Steemit because I wanted to take on a risk. I even skipped work just so I could learn how to make money through it.
Fast forward to now and looking at how my work has evolved, I'm glad that I have the blockchain as witness to my growth. Right now, I am here because...
I have something to say.
It wasn't always like this. My fear of judgment gets the better of me and I'd rather not post or say something that I think will get people to judge me. My friend @kayceeports2020 knows this about me. Now, I can say that I've managed that fear of mine. I will continue to share value here because I know that my voice matters.
For me, Hive welcomes you as you are...
as long as you don't tire of giving it value.
Hive will probably outlive me. Perhaps it will tell my grandchildren what kind of person their gramdma was. But before the day of my death comes, I thank Hive for being an outlet for my self-discovery. I am learning that I work better when I am with like-minded people. I like how we've already established a team. It just inspires me everyday to make content alongside them.
Hive is seeing a lot of new users everyday. New users mean new ideas that will be passed on from generation to generation.
Hive also gives us a look into how content creation is going to be in the future. It's a progressive platform that enables equity to everyone. You get what you give out. You give a huge investment to Hive in terms of money, time and talent, Hive rewards you the same. If it doesn't, that could mean you need some tweaking in other aspects. Keep in mind that engagement is the name of the game.
So there you have it, Hiveans! That was my attempt of explaining what Hive is to me as simply as I could.
Albert Einstein said that you don't really know something unless you've explained it simply. So if my blogpost made sense to you, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'll let me know in the comments below. Drop your entries to the contests too, I'll give them some love.
References:
Chappelow, J. (2020). Tragedy of The Commons. Retrieved September 18, 2020, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tragedy-of-the-commons
Guggenheim, D (Director). (2019). Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates. Retrieved from https://www.netflix.com/
Pictures:
Taken and edited in Canva.
She is on a mission to become better than who she was yesterday. A chemical engineer and a financial advisor, she hopes to give value to this space as a motivated individual. She found the perfect marriage of what she wants to do in life and her mission in financial advising. She balances her work and life at the comforts of her home. She loves to meet like-minded people and watch Ghost Fighter in her free time. Watch this space for tales of self-improvement and self-acceptance, per Mark Manson, "the philosophical tightrope."
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