I'm glad you realized that you wanted to work for yourself at a young age! I didn't realize it until about a year after graduating college lol now I would say I think college is overhyped. I've learned more through books and self-educating than in college.
Anyway, my bro is a huge gamer/redditor and he heard about bitcoin way back in the day and he's the one who actually explained it to me.
He seems similar to you in a lot of ways. Very intelligent. I wish, like you, though that it took him the "shortest amount of time to see Steem as the next big thing."
I still can't convince him to get on steemit and that makes me sad.
Anyway, maybe the dumb money will stop once they get burned because they didn't do their research. I researched hardcore b/c a lot of ICOs just fade out. A lot of projects won't be around later, but I definitely think Steem is the opposite.
It's totally undervalued (which is okay for now because that means I can buy a little more haha)