I agree with many aspects of @dobartim's post, but I have to challenge the idea that Steemit is a full on meritocracy. I think for many Steemians even if they were to put in the same amount of efforts or even 10x the effort of a whale to get to the very top, they would still likely fail.
Because as much as i hate to admit it, Steemit is not about what kind of good content you can generate, but how much money it can generate, so that curated can be rewarded handsomely. Whales didn't become whales by posting lots of good content (though I'll concede a select few did). They got that way by investing in SP early in the game, which gave them the ammunition to create instant "curator friendly" posts - which attract the most upvotes.
The small fraction of new, original, and good content we see in the "hot" section is a reminder that the system is not perfect. As it stands, the "hot" section is an area dominated by "whale incumbents" who post they same kind of things every day. You'll often times notice too, that the number of upvotes on a post exceeds the number of views the post has. This shows that content of successful posts isn't even read when being upvoted, rather voted because the post has been identified to generate good rewards.
Overall this is an issue for the growth and longevity of the Steem platform as a whole. On a personal note, I've gotten a bit bored of what I read on Steemit. There isn't enough content diversity to keep me fascinated each day, unlike on Reddit. The "good" content here is dominated by random TA's, coins to buy, hell... pictures of flowers. The "bad" content is a random daily price of BTC.... or random industry reports that are clearly plagiarized. I guess the point I'm trying to make, is that if meritocracy was bona fide, we would see content from all topics, all users, minnows, whales, and dolphins alike - rise to the top. But we don't.
Exactly my point. I was even writing about this problem and there was no glimpse of course. I think steemit needs some algorithm for hot and trending section. But wait. Now we are earlier users, so there are still some chances, that some whale will find you. When this will be a few million users platform here will be just 20 hajeins and adsatclys, velimirs and slowwalkers. Now tell me how can be this platform interesting for new users, when they will see same faces and that is it. And the biggest problen is quality of steemit. Some old players will be always on display with their shity yes that is right shity content. On the other side some like me are puting a lot of effort in posts, making A class photos not potato picture with fingers on lena and they can't be heard. Well yes I will insist. Well at least till when my savings are alive. Some other good content writer will give up and their good content will go for nothing. I think there should be even some whale police you know. :) it is nonsense that one whale push someone up with bad content. Only beacuse of post introduce yourself and good looking girl on it. No! They should wait and see if those are good for steemit community and not just daily traders. Well this is mine opinion. Nice post btw. I think there will be needed a lot more posts like this to encourage minnows. Beacuse system itself doesn't do it.
Every success depends on the universal rules. My way of looking at things is a little different. I am a person who likes to support those people who think in a decent way, who have creative strength and the right value in their posts. Another question arises: how did the whales become rich before they invested money in Steem Power?
The success from us requires universal knowledge, I am 42 years old and I made many mistakes, I did not become successful at Steemit because I had the money, I became successful because I learned the principles that brought me to the top. The most important thing to succeed is to build the habits that lead us to the top, I want to learn new things every day. I want to explain to the new people that there is no ideal world, there is a world that depends on our moves.
I am interested in the knowledge of whales, it is normal for those who invested now to earn money, Steemit is a business. It is also great that new users who do not have money can learn a lot of new business stuff, but new users can also earn a good amount of money on their posts, and especially on good comments.
Hidup memang membutuhkan uang... Tapi tidak selamanya untuk hidup kita butuh uang... Karena itu berdoa dan berusaha lah.. Agar uang yang kita dapatkan agar berguna untuk hidup dan kehidupan kita...