Random Spiel: Linear Inputs on Hive

Linear input mindset is expecting that the more you publish posts here, the more you earn. There is some truth to this because that’s what everyone is doing and that’s proven to work. However, if you view your Hive experience from the lens of purely just getting involved with the system to earn, this linear mindset has several variables to make it work.

Let’s put content curation on the spotlight. More often than not, it’s less about the content and more along the person who made the content and who actually patronizes that person. I’m not saying content discovery on Hive is dead, there are curators that go out of their way to look for new content creators or content to vote for. But most promoted posts can be traced back to having an established social network and their social capital pays off.

No matter how good the content is, if the curator hates the author’s guts, it’s unlikely they would go out of their way to promote the author. This is disillusionment 101 on Hive content creation, it doesn’t happen all the time but it does happen more than half the time. Just as you wouldn’t want your stake supporting a scammer as an automatic reflex, it’s the same automatic reflex that makes vote for names you’re already familiar with as good.

To get to the point where people have to unconditionally support you in the platform, you have to invest some of your time and resources building up your network and it’s not a linear input = output scenario. Some bonds can take up weeks to years to get converted into votes and the vote values vary between accounts. I know this is a disappointing way to look at social bonds as monetary consequences for the social efforts but there’s really no other objective measure to validate effort other than the people you’re interacting with here often now becomes your patron and vice versa.

Most people aren’t built to socialize online or learn there’s a need to socialize to make it anywhere here but that’s social capital being built and some people have a knack for these things. If you notice, the once that have consistent earnings are those people that have a consistent active comment section (but that’s no guarantee of any big earnings, just consistent earnings) and these benefits are built over the course of weeks to years in reputation building.

The linear input mindset is where everyone is at by default. It’s not even a linear graph but an upward steady slope as you put more effort into building your network and name. It’s the easiest method to get anywhere is earning something from the platform is what you’re after. Content creation and community curator relationships are symbiotic in nature. Curators need posts to vote on, and creators provide those posts to vote on that gets included in the curation compilations. Everyone wins and everyone gets paid.

What most users who are missing out because they are stuck with post to earn model is accessing Hive community projects with their respective Hive Engine Tokens. I’ve yet to update this list to accommodate some new projects launched since this was posted but the gist is other than relying on your hard work to get your something from posting, these hive projects are there to amplify your potential earnings in the platform. Some of the tokens mentioned there have upvote perks and liquid Hive rewards for simply just holding on your wallet. This means on days when you don’t feel like socializing or shitposting, you get some daily rewards on top of your account raking in curation rewards automatically. They have their risks but that’s best expounded in another future post, maybe (if I get motivated to do it).

So let’s say your earning strategy on Hive includes taking advantage of Hive Engine token projects, it’s no longer a linear input = output mindset as you get to have rewards earned from these projects passively. Less effort produced and more output expected (theoretically).

I don’t think of a conscious strategy to maximize efficiency for the tiniest details but my overall guideline in doing things here is trying to put in the least amount of effort for the most returns possible without violating any taboos (cause you’re not going to be a cool kid if you do stupid shit). What I learned from this post Top Hive Earners by Category August 2024 is that the names listed employ a combination of strategies to make it into the list. They are socially active, reinvest their stake on the platform, and are compounding their gains steadily on top of having a phat stake that may not even require them to post daily to get on the list.

From the lens of just wanting to earn more from the platform, it helps to be in touch with reality that to make it to the top, you got to do a lot of team building and have a huge stack of Hive as high valued users will eventually attract other high valued users to their network. I don’t think this is unfair since this is what happens even on real life where building social capital pays off and it gets you networking with other influential people in the community. That while building your social capital makes sense here, it helps to also have and stack of money to print more money to hit your goals, from a money making perspective at least.

One life lesson I still follow is to always seek role models to learn from and figure out what makes these people so good at what they do. Then figure out which parts of their craft you can apply and personalize that works for you. And this mindset got me out of the linear input = output mindset. At some point, the amount of time you spend shitposting content will yield you less results for your time and it’s your precious time being traded off for this value.

Thanks for your time.