> I’m now doing other shit like…er.., curating and playing SteemMonsters. Some washing the dishes, ironing, gardening and DIY might prove a better bet

Ha ha, I used to have a flat that looked like something the wombles would live in about a year ago when I was writing long fiction pieces most days and editing vlogs occasionally. Certainly curation has become more lucrative.

As to the circle jerk question. Unfortunately what we've got now is the majority of the whales and orcas all piling in on the same 10 -15 people. Many of whom are decent content creators, but no better than a lot of other talented content creators. As you've pointed out in this post, it's an auto curation game they're playing. But if the problem isn't addressed, we will end up perpetuating the same old behaviour as before.

People will leave.

I'm very close to taking a break myself, but it's partly due to other family issues rather than anything to do with steem politics... but it makes me sad to see the same mistakes being made over and over again.

I do think that newsteem had the right idea, but honestly, whales need to wake the fck up and realize that if they basically vote exclusively the newsteem cheerleaders, and steem-centric content, they will drive what is left of a wide variety of talent away. As to new users, people aren't stupid. If they see that all that is rewarded here is brown-nosing and writing about a very specific niche content type, they'll laugh and leave before they're here long enough to even consider throwing a few hundred dollars into the system to really function.

Anyway, thems my 10 cents. Good post dude, it's through conversation like this that peoples attitudes change. Don't know I'll be around much to engage in these convos anymore but we'll see.

P.s. what curation guilds are you training for? I know curie are currently seeking new curators. I've been submitting the odd post each week myself for the first time in a while.