Threading the needle

Another Monday, another fun day... Well, "fun" is not quite the word for it according to most people but, I quite enjoyed it. Today I spent sometime talking about distributed development networks and didn't even mention a blockchain. I am trying to keep blockchain conversation to a minimum at the moment as after running some tests with people who should be relatively open, most are not ready to make the connection to what they do. The technology suffers various public perception issues, let alone how something like Steem works.

It is changing though and with each bull run and each new application that leverages a blockchain to pull its data from, a new user here gets drawn in and once in, hooked upon the blockchain and the possibilities they hold. What is interesting on Steem is that while there are a lot of users who are negative on the way it works, for those who start to actually learn how it works it becomes very sticky.

The difference on Steem from most other ways to learn about blockchain and crypto is that there is a community that spends a great deal of time not talking about blockchain and crypto also. It is possible to come onto Steem, learn and participate in all sorts of ways without having to focus only on the tech or the currency. Sure, many people spend a lot of their time there also but, it is broken up by real people living real lives and, a view of their lives in various ways.

What this does is not only makes the learning process much more personal, it builds the relationships that both are valuable to an individual and, valuable to the network itself. The connections between is what holds the greatest value on Steem and those who are able to build trust and social capital in various ways are the ones who are creating a base that eventually through growth, will be relatively antifragile.

This morning I was talking with my boss about what I have to do to be able to do what I want to do and that is, build up a reputation within the company that gives me credibility with those I need to engage to get what I want to do done. She predicts that this will generally take between a year or three of consistent excelling to build the trust required to get my voice heard. She even used, get my voice heard. I understand this well, but it is quite ridiculous.

Just think if on Steem every application you wanted to use came with requiring to rebuild a reputation and following from scratch. Thankfully, this is not the case in a community, especially one where reputation precedes, wallet follows and one is able to share content from various platforms straight into the eye line of people who already trust. In a company, there is a process of proving oneself before anyone listens to anything. The exception is in the highest reaches of CEOs where their name precedes them, either by known public facing or, assumed rank.

This process of proving oneself continually at every position change actually slows down the ability to get things done quickly as there can be such a long initiation and trust building process. Imagine if working for a company was more like working across applications on Steem where if a new employee came in, their track record came with them and was essentially public record. It would be interesting to see how quickly various people would be able to leverage their past to engage and activate ideas in a new position.

I do see that this is where it is heading though, most aren't actually ready for it as mostly at the moment it is on platforms like LinkedIn that is essentially all network marketing without much actual proof of skill involved. It is about appearance of skill, not possession of skill.

What is going to happen later on though is that a traceable and verifiable work history is going to cover all kinds of aspects that could be used to both evaluate employees and, as bargaining chips by employees to prove capabilities and negotiate terms. While the power of blockchains is commonly seen as a trustless network, the power of Steem is that social trust can be built and verified in a trustless ecosystem.

This means that while anyone is able to act upon the blockchain, the ones who are able to create the strongest positions will be the ones who actually build a social network of people who trust them. What happens over time is a digital social fabric is knitted between all the various conversations and transactions and, they are provable, immutable and can be relied upon for all kinds of real world interactions, from ratings of services to ability to work well in a community or team.

What is going to obviously be very interesting is that with all of this open and immutable data that can be used to understand how we as individuals could act in various situations, what happens to those who have not been able to build a strong social fabric? What happens in any community to those who are unable to build connections with others or are unwilling to support the growth of others but instead maximize? Currently there are many support networks that make a blind between them and much of our visibility of them but, that opaque curtain will finally become much more transparent and, most aren't ready to see what will be shown, and even less ready to show what will be seen of themselves.

It is going to get very messy in time as so many aspects come to a head that conflicts our various ideas, ideals and egocentric impressions of ourselves and judgments of others. We all want transparency of what others do, we just do not want the light shone on our own behaviors.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]