Today is technically the start of my new job contract, though I won't be back in the office until the 10th of January. It is actually going to be a little strange, as I am pretty sure it will be announced officially on Monday and I won't be there t field questions or respond to messages. Well, I could log in, but who wants to do that on their holiday. I already have a mountain of reading to do in part of my ramp-up and I noticed that I have also been assigned another mountain of learning courses - I think I will take a break while I can.
Well, there isn't going to be that much "break" involved over the next week, as I have a lot of tasks to do in preparation for the new year, including building a new PC (still undecided what) and contacting my personal business clients to get sessions started as soon as possible. It isn't easy running my business concurrently as working a fulltime job at the best of times, so it is going to be interesting to see how I can manage what is to comes, as well as keep on my Hive schedule.
I still haven't missed a day posting (unless forced at the blockchain level due to a hardfork or two) since mid-2017, and I don't plan on missing a day anytime soon either. While a lot of people might find this silly and say " take a break", for me it is actually part of my daily process and allows me more time for other things, as strange as that sounds. The reason is that because my "spare time" goes to Hive, I don't end up wasting much time on other consumer activities.
This means that besides the time I spend with my family and the little amount of time I spend sleeping, the majority of my hours are spent generatively, earning something like at work, or doing something that I value (as well as earning a bit) like on Hive. I think that it is pretty rare to have a hobby that has earning potential, but I see it as a growing industry as "side-gigs" become the norm.
However, there is going to be a lot of competition in most areas, especially those that have a low-barrier to entry cost-wise, as well as skill wise. It is because of this that I think that the gaming industry over the last 30 years has expanded so rapidly, as it is a "low-skill" (meaning that anyone can get involved at some level) area, but to really earn, it takes a high degree of skill and there is very fierce competition. Because of this, places like Twitch require more than skill to get attention - a good presentation or boobs and a bikini do wonders.
But, this model changes again once people are able to buy into the game and earn in various ways on the assets they own, because it means that it narrows the competition by favoring those who have a little cash to splash. Because there are so many ways to gamify the earning model, this doesn't necessarily cut out decent players either, it just means that there are more able to compete, even if they aren't that good.
This is interesting, as it takes some of the "skill" out of earning, but a person still has to have enough skill to earn to purchase and, also be able to compete somewhat at the game. However, I do think that more people are going to be investing into the games and not playing, which means they are investing into the gaming experience of others as spectators. This makes them like "team owners" who earn on the players they pay.
Again, this makes things interesting as it is like those "manager" games except people are going to be playing in real-life, with their real value. This means that with skin in the game and the ability to for example, take part in the governance of the game itself, investors are going to feel much like they are working, than playing - especially since they will have the ability to affect their earnings directly. I reckon there are quite a few Splinterlands investors who see it far more like a job than a game and, I suspect they feel a high degree of ownership and agency in what they are doing there daily, trying to affect the outcomes.
But, while all of this is happening across thousands of games and many different gamification models for investing and earning, there are also going to be all of the layers of economy being injected in, so people will very quickly get accustomed to the complexity (at the level they choose) but more importantly, the understanding through experience of how all kinds of different economic models work. This means that through the various applications they use, they are going to be learning the lessons of why this economy has a chance to work, and the one they have known the majority of their lives, is set to collapse.
Through incentives and game theory, this puts a lot of pressure on many people to concurrently start shifting their attention and behavior toward supporting what they believe is going to be the best for them, and for most, that is almost going to be invariably the new blockchained economies.
For those who wonder why I am so keen on Hive (as well as other blockchain experiences in general), it is because I know that while I can work and earn in the current economy, I am "salary capped" based on a whole range of factors. However, as an owner, I have more opportunity to work longer hours, but affect my overall income to the point, that I am able to work sorter hours again.
A lot of people see working too much as a negative, but "too much" is relative and I believe that if a person has passion and reason, the problem isn't working too much, it is the sense that it is never going to be enough - I want to keep going.
Some people think that if you do something you love, you will never work a day in your life, but as I have said before - I call bullshit on that. In my opinion,
find something you love, and you will never stop working for it.
I love what I do, which is probably why I can keep doing it without burning out, but I know that it isn't for everyone. At least, I have a bit of a competitive advantage in this area, but for how long is it going to last before I just can't keep up? This is the thing with the coming hustle economy, it is going to get flooded with talent of all kinds - but one saving grace is, it is also going to be tempered with far more local consumption in many ways, meaning that the audiences might be smaller, but the connection stronger.
New jobs are always on the horizon, but it still is going to take different kinds of resources to fill them. Some will need monetary resources too - which is already in limited supply.
Can you borrow skill?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]