Imagine the following scenario:
We time travel to early 2013. Bitcoin price is ~10$. We tell bitcoiners that we come from the future (providing proof of our claims) and that Bitcoin will be 600$ by 2016. Their excitement is off the charts (pun intended).
We now give them a twist: We reveal to them that bitcoiners in 2016 are ...disappointed with the 600$ price.
Obviously, the 2013 bitcoiners are dumbfounded.
How could this be possible? Our 2016 behavior seems irrational to them.
And it is. Why do we behave like that?
Attention span and "sentiment"
It seems that the problem can be pinpointed in our focus: We seem to be geared in the very short term price direction.
Case in point: If someone told us 3 years ago that Bitcoin would go 10$ ->100$ (2014)-> 200$ (2015) -> 600$ (2016) we would be extremely happy.
But if it went 10->1200->600, we suddenly have an "issue" because it seems like "it's dropping" from 1200 to 600 by focusing exclusively on the last part / the shorter term view. Some say it is "failing"... Some are trolling, some are saying "it's dead", etc etc. In other words a negative "sentiment".
Yet, we see that the price in both scenarios would be exactly the same.
And that same price produces different results in terms of sentiment and perception (one would be the air of invincibility and cheering, the other something between "meh" and doom-and-gloom). So our sentiment and perception of success and failure are not only provably subjective but also erratic.
Steem
We see a similar irrational behavior regarding Steem. People seem to forget that Steem's marketcap went from 0 to the 130mn USD that it is right now, in just a few months. The fact that it used to be 300mn+ marketcap cannot be used as an indication of failure and it is, likewise, completely irrational to claim so.
If you asked anyone 5 months ago and told them that in these short 5 months we'll go from 0 to over 100mn USD and claim a top-altcoin position in coinmarketcap, they'd objectively consider this a success. Actually they'd consider that a mind-blowing success.
I just wanted you to remember how subjective all these labels are and how our minds play these tricks on us.