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The little leaf in the image doesn't look it, but is around 57 years old. I know this as I pulled it out from behind ceiling panels this afternoon, panels that haven't been seen since the house was built in 1963. It was quite a cute leaf, but when I showed my wife, she wasn't as impressed as I was - which I put down to her not being the one doing the work surrounding the discovery. When work gets done, there is a cost involved in gaining the experience and as a result, the surrounding conditions are also brought into the fold of value - the entire experience means more than the actual value of individual components.

![IMG_20200507_191553 1.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/88ZVSDQ8-IMG_20200507_191553201.jpg)

Many years ago and what seems like yesterday, my wife and I were in Bakken, Denmark - an out of the way theme park that is very popular with locals - while the tourists go to Tivoli. It is an old style kind of park, with sideshows and simple rides and isn't overly large, but the atmosphere is warm and friendly.

Whilst there, I tried to win a prize for my then girlfriend who had goaded me into it, but try (and pay) as I might, I failed to shoot out the star, sink enough hoops or score high enough to win something on anything - *except one.*

>Everyone gets a prize!

There was a kids blow up pool with rubber ducks floating in it and all I had to do was pluck one out and win whatever prize was linked to the number underneath. I was hoping for a massive bear like in the movies - I won a yellow, scratchy, scruffy dog. It fit into the palm of her hand. 

While she had imagined herself walking around with a big fluffy bear (that would have been a disaster to travel with anyway), she *still has* the little dog and every time she sees it, she smiles. 

The dog is worth nothing and if I had brought it home to her as a gift, she would have thought me a nut. However, the fact that she was there for the experience of getting it means that it holds sentimental value well above and beyond what it *should* hold. She was there to earn it, the stupid dog was hers, so she would have to care for it - *sentiment.*

Sentimental value is what we treasure, what we hold dear in our hearts, but it isn't about the item worth at all, even though they themselves could be highly valuable. We place sentiment on our experience with the item or, what the item reminds us off - better times or harder times - *meaningful* times. 

We overvalue what holds sentimental value for perhaps to reasons, firstly we think that because it holds significance for us, it should be considered special by others - but perhaps it is also that we don't actually want to sell it, so we overvalue it to the point we won't have to sell. 

For me, I think this is where I have been with my crypto holdings as I haven't sold, no matter how much I might have needed that little extra at the time. This is sentimental inaction, as I value my holdings for more than what they are currently worth or have been worth - because I know what it took for me to earn them. The position might seem silly for traders, but I believe that if I wasn't experienced in the earning through the community, perhaps I wouldn't be here at all - sunk costs. 

It came up in a discussion the other day about people who have sold and how for the most part, they haven't bought back, no matter how high they sold or how low the price got. Once out, not many opt back in. Steem is a good example, where if someone sold 1000 Steem at *half* the ATH they would have got 4000 dollars for it. At the subsequent low, that 4000 dollars would have bought 40,000 Steem - but those same people didn't even buy the 1000 back - which would have cost them 100 dollars. 

This is generally how people operate though - and it is a good thing as eventually, those who are disconnected from the community will have no stake and those who hold some sentimental value in it, will. To have that sentiment though, just like the valueless toy dog, the community needs to be experienced, including the negatives. An acceptance of the ups and downs needs to be established, otherwise at the downs, the ties are broken and the person ghosts. 

The experience with the community is for most not through the rewards, although that is often the framework perspective, it is through the relationships formed and when the work done is met by some kind of feedback, which is why engagement is such an important component and keeps getting mentioned. 

In my opinion, rather than looking at what we want out of Hive, we should be thinking more about what kind of relationship do we want to develop with Hive. Relationships are a two-way street, give and take and if you have ever been in a relationship where there is only one side of the equation, they generally don't last long and eventually, one side walks as it just isn't *worth* their effort. 

Understanding our desired relationship with the community is to start the discovery of what we need to do to have a healthy relationship with it, to find our place, find balance. What that means for you is likely different to what it means for me, in the same way that what you consider interesting might not be what I consider interesting. But this could be like the leaf I found above, not interesting for you as you were not part of the discovery, but interesting to me because I live in the house in which it was found and did the work to find it by chance. 

>What you value is always going to be different to what I value

At least by degrees, as we each hold different sentiments about things, different perspectives, different *experiences* that lead us to judge something higher or lower, more or less. Some see useless rocks, others see diamonds - it is about understanding and people will nearly always value what they don't understand less than what they do, due to the relationship they have with it. It is likely why people will invest a great deal more time and money into watching a sport or movie than to support scientific investigation into new forms of energy production or - *into their own well-being.*

I think that I have found it hard to find a balance on Hive in the past as I feel like I have let people down, even if they do not feel like I have at all. Even things like answering comments I feel like I need to get to them fast enough as I know that I don't like waiting too long for replies as my thoughts will have moved on - but this is the internet, we are spread throughout the world and most of my writing is done before I go to bed - writing for a couple hours and then waiting for a couple more to answer comments is not always the healthiest approach for my life - but it is what I have done for years because, sentiment.

I value the community and relationships created past and future and therefore, don't want to let it go, don't want people to feel as if they don't have value in the community or to me - because they do. But at the same time, where should the limit be, what is acceptable for me to postpone or skip and what should I attend to?

This is the relationship with Hive, the finding the balance where give and take at least feels somewhat fair for me as an individual. People look at the rewards and think that it is all it takes - but I don't know many who would trade for the rewards if they had to also do the work and spend the time. But that is the same for just about any position that comes with desired incentive - people want the result, but they don't necessarily want to or possibly can't fulfill the process requirements. I want the salary of a specialist doctor, *unfortunately I am far from smart enough to have gone to medical school.* 

One of the "tricks" is, to enjoy the experience of what is done, as then it is not a job, even though it is work - like the work done for a hobby. The hobby may or may not give a financial return, but the work done holds value outside of finance - a foreign concept in crypto perhaps. 

Hive however is a foreign concept, even though it is a crypto project, as it actually ties investors of many kinds to a community that leverages the one technology. Crypto traders aren't part of communities like this, they are only interested in the upside, what they can get out of it all for the least they have to put in. The value of Hive is the *sentimental* community that overvalues and sticks it through long-term, not the ones who are always looking for the closest exit. 

But then, that is my perspective, and others will think differently on the matter. But then, quite a lot of those people wouldn't mind having what I have, even though they have sold out of their stake in the past and made a lot more out of it all than me, since i am still hodling. I find it a strange paradox that people are jealous of those who have gained less than them - but again, that comes through the experience and most people make their judgments on what they see, and many only look at the dollar value alone. Well, it is what it is and thankfully, no one *has to* to be here or stay here on Hive. It is all opt-in and someone can logout at anytime and never need return. 

I am glad I "won" the toy for my wife, I am glad I found the little leaf in the walls, I am glad I have put the effort into being what I consider part of a community I care about. Without experience and effort, very little in this world holds value. And then, the type of experience and where that effort gets applied matters also - but that can wait, as you have read enough for tonight and it is time I headed off to bed. 

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

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