As I'm getting familiar with the Steemit platform and its clever reward system I have been reading a few posts opining on how one should best behave.

Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject.

Selfishness & Altruism

Some believe humans are inherently selfish and some that altruism is the essence of our being.

I stand somewhere in between. The self actualized individual displays a mix of self motivation and selflessness in their actions, speech, and thoughts.

Society as a group benefits from fostering a healthy balance between these two polar opposites in all its individuals.

Hands-off Government

In real life governments use hands-on and hands-off methods to influence its citizens.

Laws forbid certain behaviors and their enforcement punish infractions.

There are very few hard rules in Steemit and I'm really glad about that.

The hands-off approach consists in subsidizing behavior that society wants to encourage and penalizing behavior which is deemed negative.

This is why, for example, in order to help fight climate change oil-derived products and big oil companies are heavily taxed while emission-free vehicles such as bicycles are subsidized by the government so that they can be purchased for close to nothing.

Just kidding. Our political systems are corrupted by special interests to the point that rewards and punishments are not so much based on pragmatic considerations but rather by a multitude of factors and historic elements.

Steemit

I've been very impressed by the quality of the posts and comments on Steemit as opposed to other social networks I have been using over the years.

While nothing is perfect the reward system works.

This is to say that the expected ethical behavior of Steemians is embedded in the code.

When I first joined I was surprised that one could upvote one's own posts and comments. It seemed wrong on some level but thus is the system and there is nothing wrong in following it.

Adding Value

I think the overarching principle is to encourage each and everyone to add value to the platform and the Steem currency as well as discouraging any behavior that subtract value.