How to catch a monkey…. let’s not be monkeys on Steemit

Growing up on a farm in Africa you learn a few skills that most people in general don’t.

One I learned was how to catch a monkey.

1 You take a pumpkin or other large suitable fruit with seeds
2 Make a hole in it that will fit the monkey’s hand
3 Make sure the pumpkin seeds inside are visible
4 Place it in an area frequented by monkeys
5 Watch and wait

The monkeys will come down from the trees, insert their hand into the pumpkin to grab the seeds.
Once their hand has a fist full of seeds it’s too big to extract from the smaller hole.

The monkey is not “bright” enough or too greedy to let go of the prized seeds and refuses to open its fist.
You can then approach and capture the monkey alive and uninjured.

They will not let go even to escape.

I put up a post about the split personality of steemit and it featured greed as the arch nemesis of steemit.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@gavvet/the-split-personality-of-steemit
Greed on steemit has the potential to trap us just like monkeys.

We see many manifestations of greed in many forms on steemit and that is to be expected. There is money involved. Its one of the value propositions of the platform. Greed is what brings many people here in the first place and then they discover all the other great elements of the platform.

We simply need to channel and manage our own greed and make it work for everyone.

Last week, I noticed my post earnings shot through the roof… all told about $10 000 for the week. In my book that’s excessive for just a couple of posts… not enough balance of value in my opinion.

My first response was the natural, greedy response….

I should post more often… I’m going to make a killing.

Then with a little sobering reflection I realized this attitude would likely hurt others while I benefitted. Everything I receive would be at the expense of someone else.

And so a new plan…

The fact that I have a large bot following and that minnows continue to upvote my posts way beyond their realistic value... even when I ask them not too (see link) can be utilized for good.
https://steemit.com/voting/@gavvet/minnow-voting-power-from-the-record-usd30-000-makeup-post-perspective

I have always looked at the stats for the number of users of steemit by continent and have been saddened by how Africa and Oceania lag behind.

So my plan is to assist good authors from the lesser represented areas of the world starting with Africa.

So I'm experimenting with a new method of growing the author community diversity.
I am hoping to promote/feature authors from my continent in order to help them get a following and become Tuna's and Dolphins.
Once they have a following, they, I'm sure, will do the same.

The plan is to promote a couple of authors for a couple of weeks and then to repeat the cycle with new authors.

All the liquid rewards for the post will go to them to buy STEEM and power up their accounts. Then I move on to the next authors I feel are producing good, diverse content that will expand the diversity of topics and content on STEEM.

The STEEM power from the post will remain in my account, to help improve the strength of my voting finger. That way I will be able to reward even more diverse content and "up and coming" authors that otherwise might be missed with vote love.

I’m in STEEM for the long run and shortsighted, selfishness and greed from myself and other high earning authors could hurt the platform in the short term and even ourselves in the long run.

Let’s be creative…

Let’s find ways to spread the rewards so that all may benefit in the short and long term.

Let’s not be monkey’s