Today has been a particularly challenging day in the churning and MS world, so I thought I’d write up a quick mini post to comment on it.
It’s no secret that there’s been a difficult conversation brewing for awhile now about how best to thread the needle between being open and keeping things alive. Everybody has a different opinion, which is to be expected in a diverse community with varied levels of experience and risk tolerance.
Things hit a head this week with the death of a longstanding community stalwart, and it’s continued to spill over from other sources. I understand why people are on edge, and spelling things out step by step on public YouTube videos aren’t exactly contributing to the solution.
This is a tricky hobby, because there is often a mismatch in potential incentives when it comes to sharing things with others.
The play that died this week had been around for a decade, so it’s not crazy to assume it is safe to share everywhere.
But that old assumption clearly isn’t safe as a blanket statement anymore. Everything is fine until it’s not – just look back to the conversations we were having a year ago, give or take a couple weeks.
However, as I’ve done my best to stress lately, this does not mean there’s not room for beginners to join now. Some of the heaviest hitters and smartest people I know have been doing this for a fraction of the time I have – where would they be if the community had slammed the door in their face?
The problem isn’t new people in a vacuum – it’s the way in which they’re being given access to sensitive information without the context and knowledge to hit it in a responsible way.
I welcome new people to the community – we need their fresh ideas and perspectives. But as I’ve stressed, handing out a spoonfed .pdf in return for a huge fee and throwing them to the wolves is a major reason we’re in this mess.
What isn’t talked about enough, especially to beginners, is taking responsibility for your choices and the linked outcomes. There’s a lot of things that can go wrong in MS, and not preparing people for some of them leads to panicked scenarios where something explodes.
I try to use this framework when writing a new post. If I have even the faintest .01% of doubt that I shouldn’t include a reference in a post, I remove it. I’ll always sleep better knowing I didn’t kill anything off for anyone, even if the post loses a little bite. I don’t want to deal with the consequences of that choice if it goes sideways, no matter how minute the chances are.
It’s the same thing with MS in general. You’ll have the opportunity to do some really profitable things, but generally with consummate risk. We’re all adults here, and you need to be honest with yourself that losing the play, the financial institution, or even the play for the entire community is possible.
Sure, you could spend $250k a day in perpetuity on at category that isn’t very justifiable, outside of an old cartoon. Just be sure to consider what the potential consequences of that action are – for both you and the community at large.
To sandwich this post with great Hunter S. Thompson quotes – “The edge…there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”
Shoh hood!