Book Review: The Unfair Advantage by Ash Ali

I recently finished an audiobook of The Unfair Advantage: How You Already Have What It Takes to Succeed and it was a pleasant background sound while trying to multitask. I need to disclose this study habit of mine where I listen to audiobooks, lectures, or podcasts while doing chores that don't require full attention. Instead of songs from spotify, I figured this was more productive use of my time. I'm still fun at parties as long as the conversation doesn't involve the latest music trends.

Anyway, the title Unfair Advantage is already a giveaway that this book challenges our preexisting ideas of fairness in the world. The world is fair? No it isn't. It doesn't take a genius to realize this early but it does take some effort to better articulate the observable phenomenon that goes on in daily living. But for this post, I'll just insert my own Hive insights.

Why I Think Everyone Needs to Read this Book?

There is nothing in this world that is fair and everyone has an unfair advantage that could propel them to success over others in life. The difference between making that success come true is knowing what one's unfair advantages are and how to use them. While it's intuitive to know the things that work against us, this book can give some insights on our personal resources that we can take advantage of ahead of others. Use it or lose, if you want to play fair, then you have no reason to complain if the competitor puts you on a disadvantage.

Self Awareness through the MILES framework:

Money, Intellect and Insight, Location and Luck, Education and Expertise, and Status make up this framework. If you do an inventory on where you excel at where others don't and vice versa, you've already won half the battle since it's all part of knowing yourself and the enemy thing.

The Book expounds the obvious but frames it in a way where it doesn't necessarily discourages but lets you reflect on the things you can build on with yourself. While you may find yourself at a disadvantage over something, you still have other dimensions that gives you an unfair advanatage over the others.

I read the post about Top Hive Earners by Category June 2024 and it sets a good example on determining how some accounts fully maximize their unfair advantages. We know the top curators are ranked based on their earned curation rewards but it follows that to even get high curation rewards, you need to have a large amount of HP staked for curation. Naturally, accounts that aren't within the Whale or Orca status have no chance of being at the top of the list.

Some of the top earners listed are users there possess specific skillsets (Intellect and Expertise) they can capitalize to earn more by posting niche content, dApp development, and etc.

While not really shown on the list, an unfair advantage for users that have been around since the legacy chain enjoying the benefits of the autovotes on their accounts especially when these are given by large stakeholders that are no longer active. This has something to do with being at the right place and lucky to be in the right time for large accounts to set your account to get autovoted during the early days (Location and Luck).

And lastly, there's the Status aspect in the MILES framework applied on Hive where reputation is king. No matter how great your content is, if people hate your guts, they will ignore you and worse, antagonize you. I firmly believe that even if your content sucks balls, you can still get votes as long as people like you enough. While proof of brain and meritocracy should have directed the wealth distribution to those that do contribute to the value of the blockchain, there's no need to rationalize why you're voting for specific people and they happen to be your friends on the blockchain, we're human and our social networks are also part of our unfair advantages.

Obviously, it would be great if one can cover all dimensions of the framework and translate it to growing value on one's Hive account but that's just a pipe dream and nobody here is going to be a Hive whale through shitposting in 1 lifetime using ordinary means. What one can control is creating a realistic mindset about their own personal growth on Hive using the unfair advantage they have. Focus on what unfair advantage one already has that they can further develop.

Even with the benefit of not having to do with an in person meeting and conversation, some people are still socially awkward at starting conversations with strangers. On the other hand, people who can manage their fear of social rejection and enjoy the social company of strangers online can go far in terms of building their social network here. If your expertises can provide value to the community like something along the lines of coding, building a useful dApp can get you ahead over regular shitposting. If you're already near the end game, you can finally invest in quality shin guards for some DHF proposal funding. I'm so glad Hbdstabilizer is doing its thing because while the Hive price plummets down, those that benefit from receiving a steady income of DHF HBD daily don't have to fret. Nobody is going to read this part of the blog so I'm just sneaking in some intrusive thoughts. And this sentence here is inserted to make the paragraph look longer.

If you want to be fair, you have to understand that some unfair advantages you have would have to be rebalanced in order to even the playing field, to the point that it may look like self sabotage. If you want to compete for economic opportunities with the less fortunate, try giving yourself a handicap by decreasing your assets. It's absurd because why would any rational person would do that? but it's exactly how the world works, everyone is using an unfair advantage unique to their own circumstances to get ahead of everyone else. It's an exaggerated example but that is necessary to get some balance on the competition, one of your competitors will have an excess or lacking of something. There is no even playing field.

Thank you for your time.