Hello Steem Community, I'm Jay!

Hi!

My name is Jay Grissom and I'm brand new to the Steem community.

Before we begin I promise that my future posts will not be all about me... But, seeing how this is an intro of me to you I feel it is only fair to warn you of the completely reckless use of "I'm" and "I" in what follows.

As someone new to the community, here is a brief novel of things I think you might be interested to know about me.

How did I hear about Steem?

In the past I've explored content creation. I've posted a few things on YouTube and Facebook. The problem is... I've never liked the centralized/corporate nature of sites like YouTube and Facebook. Posting anything there has left me with the feeling that I need to be cautious about what I have to say lest "the powers that be" squelch my content.

I've always enjoyed the idea of a meritocratic approach to just about everything so Steemit.com just makes a lot of sense to me.

Where am I at secularly?

Is this TMI? I'm not sure, but knowing this may shed light on some of the more contradictory things I'm sharing about myself below.

Let's just get this out of the way quickly.

1. I'm a stable and happily married man in my mid 40's.
2. I have a great son in his very early 20's.
3. I live in an affluent area of San Diego, CA. USA.
4. I drive a BMW M240xi (and could easily drive anything else I would want to drive).
5. I'm financially very stable and am in the highest income tax bracket.

Do I invest in Steem outside of Steemit.com?

Yes, I've invested a reasonable amount of USD into STEEM. And, I have a dollar cost averaging plan to investing more.

Are there any pictures of me?

Here's one of me being nerdy!

Here is one of me with my awesome wife!

Here is one of me and my son just moments before getting hustled for $40 by Elmo and Cookie Monster in Manhattan!

What are some of my notable core beliefs?

I think my views on how an individual should be treated by the government could be viewed as contradictory (though, in some circles they might be viewed as "balanced").

The first half of my personal contradictions:

On the one hand, I firmly agree that the basic necessities of life should be taken care of for you by the government you live under (or whatever "gang" you chose to affiliate yourself with).

By basic I mean food, shelter, clothing, clean water, communications, transportation, and to a certain degree the use of force. With these basics in mind, I think that a "Universal Basic Income" is a better approach than the so-called "solutions" we currently have in place.

Why would I think this? I'm so glad you had that thought!

How I think the "scaling of the middleman" will increase the need for "UBI".

With the kind of work I do for a living I'm more of a believer in the need for "UBI" than ever before in my life. I've spent my entire career implementing solutions that eliminate the need for employers to hire people that do "low value work". I do integration work that usually displaces the employees doing the work of "middlemen".

It's my opinion that automation will displace the vast majority of people from their job because I've worked on many automation projects that have done exactly that. Middlemen don't just exist between buyers and seller. They exist all over the business landscape.

1. The person at the counter of your local fast food joint is a middleman that facilitates the transaction between the customer, the accounting system, and the kitchen.
2. That tech support guy you have to talk to when your computer is broken is a middleman who facilitates the brokering of answers between an engineering team and you.
3. The meter reader who peaks over your fence to look at your power meter is a middleman who facilitates the gathering of data between your house and the power company.
4. The accountant who reviews the books is a middleman that facilitates "confidence in profitability" between a business owner and his business operations.
5. These are all real examples of the kinds of projects I've worked on that have displaced people and the list goes on and on...

Between "distributed ledger technology", "cognitive computing" and "automation" the value of a "middleman as an individual" is diminished profoundly while the value of a "middleman as a service" increases exponentially.

As an example of this shift, think of services like Lyft or Uber. The job of "match making and dispatching" that thousands of middlemen used to do for taxi services is a prime example. If it can be performed by a single "Service Middleman" instead of thousands of individual people where does that leave the population? Because of this clear reality (and there are many other examples), more than ever I believe a powerful need for some kind of "UBI" is coming in a big way.

I really enjoy CGP Grays explanation of the automation transition I've been living for my entire adult life.

In my head "UBI" is not welfare. It's just something that makes sense.

The basics to operate in our society should be "built into" the society not foisted as a burden upon those who live in it. The government has the legal ability to print as much currency as it needs to cover the basics for its people and keep an economy moving. The current world governments have just chosen to enslave their people to bankers with schemes like central banking.

I don't think "UBI" is about "entitlement" or "welfare". In my head it just seems to makes sense for everyone. It covers every kind of person.

1. While the strongest of us likely won't need to use our "UBI", even the strongest of us have ups and downs (especially if we are really living to the limit of our ability). Also, who starts off strong? I would argue nobody does... Would a start like this for our young people be amazing? I think it would be.
2. The weakest of us have the ability to grow if they are not fettered with a desperate struggle to survive.
3. Those who chose to remain week (or don't have the ability to grow beyond their current capacity) can live with a reasonable level of dignity.

To make the contradiction complete let's talk about Meritocracy and Ayn Rand.

On the other hand, I firmly believe that a person's rewards (beyond the basics) should be based on the value they bring to others in the world.

I think that people who do more of the work should get more of the rewards. That is in stark contrast the places I've worked during my career. The approach I've seen is a twisted egalitarian methodology that increases the work for the strong by giving them the portion of the work that the weak aren't completing. This not only seems remarkably unfair, it creates resentment in those who are forced to shoulder the load of others.

My hope for the kind of work that I do for a living is simple.

I would rather a person not have to do mundane "life-sapping" work that destroys the spirit. Rather, I think the world would be a better place if people are empowered by tools that allow them to think about solving "high value" problems rather than struggling with "low value minutiae".

I agree with Steve Wozniak's TEDx Talk where he says, "Engineers are going to make products that make life easier". I build stuff that empower people to do more with less cognitive load, lower costs, and lower physical effort.

I'm a fan of Ayn Rand. I think anyone who isn't a fan probably hasn't really spent time looking into what the implications of her philosophy mean for them personally.

I enjoy stoicism so guys like Ryan Holiday and Tim Ferris are high on my reading list.

I imagine that my collision of meritocracy, stoicism, Ayn Rand, engineering and UBI likely won't go over well with some who read this but, I'll take my chances and leave it all in here.

Goodies like "Distributed Ledger Technology", "Distributed Computing", and generally any kind of technology that redistributes power to individuals makes me happy.

Of course I do realize that distributing power to individuals can lead to the creation of monopolistic tyrants but hey... I'd rather live in a world where everyone could become a monopolistic tyrant (which would mean nobody is one) rather than a world where only a chosen few get to be... even tyrants should be on an even playing field IMHO (maybe especially tyrants).

What kind of stuff will be sharing?

Likely a lot more content just like this... XD

For the most part I'll be sharing my ideas and experiments for creating things that I think people will find useful.

Some topics will include things like...

1. Integration of things like technology or ideas.
2. DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology).
3. AI (Artificial Intelligence).
4. BUI (Basic Universal Income).
5. My thoughts on how tech could be used to help humanity.

Holly crap! You're still here?

If you're not sound asleep or surfing r/funny by now, please leave a comment and tell me what you think of my first share. Anything related to making the world a better place, meritocracy, UBI, DLT, or AI are definitely welcomed!