The popular mythology in life is that "the way to get ahead is to work hard and keep your nose to the grindstone!"

At least that's what they say, even though I'm not sure who "they" are!

This cat is always online, learning things!

As I look out across our Hive ecosystem, I see that an awful lot of people come and go. They arrive here with a great deal of enthusiasm, start a blog and start building their social media presence, and then all of a sudden they just kind of disappear, one day.

But it also seems like we have our own version of "Grind Culture" here.

We have our Hive evangelists who show up every single day and are constantly doing something and they seem to be in a perpetually optimistic mood regardless of whether things are going well or things are going badly.

Whereas I definitely believe in the future of this community, I have been in a bit of a creative slump myself, recently. I guess it is a reflection of the fact that I get tired of putting energy in some of my very limited funds into things that almost immediately lose 80% or more of their value.

When Things Go Badly...

Which is where it occurred to me that there are many situations in which it doesn't matter how hard you work, if you're part of a one-way trip down the drain you're going to lose no matter what. In crypto, you either will lose with a few tokens worth zero, with a lot of tokens worth zero. But the end result is the same! Zero = zero.

Unlike many — who just bail out and leave — I tend to hang around for a while, even when it seems like the project I am supporting is suffering a bit.

I also tend to make a sincere effort to start a conversation with the ostensible Community Founders or Community Drivers to see what is going on in their minds.

The thing I find to be somewhat alarming is that — just like the types I described up at the top who come and go — some of these people seem to be in the middle of running a project quite actively, and then one day they just simply don't show up. And they never show up again.

And it's not like they leave because they are unscrupulous and just initiated some great big "rug pull" on anybody. Nor is it because they sold all their tokens and are secretly walking out the back door.

Usually, things are actually working relatively smoothly but maybe going sideways or slightly down and then they vanish one day, after having been super active every day up until the very day they disappear. These are things that are a mystery to me, especially as somebody who has built communities for almost as long as I have been online. Which is closing on 30 years!

Perhaps we're just dealing with an "easy come, easy go" mindset. After all, much of crypto wealth was created in a very short time, not as a result of grinding away at things over a long period of time. People expect their gains to come easily and when it turns out that you actually need to do a lot of work to get your gains they lose interest and decide they want to do something else or — as it were — try their hand at winning a different lottery!

Of course, that's not much fun for those of us left holding the bag.

Anyway, now that several more of the Hive-Engine projects I have been poking around in are gone, I'm cautiously casting about for other things I might get involved with.

The more I look, the more I feel inclined to support things that already have a proven track record, as opposed to anything that is just arriving on the scene with lots of promises but... very little to back them up.

I guess it behooves us to find those projects run by individuals who are prepared to grind things out in the long run, and to show up and put in the effort, every day, even when it seems very bleak out there.

Meanwhile, I'm also going to just keep plodding away at it!

Thanks for coming to visit, and do leave a comment if you feel so inclined!

=^..^=

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Posted with proof of brain