Shiny Object Syndrome - the infamous menace of the world. When you look up the term, there are thousands of articles explaining how to get rid of it or keep it under control, or how you're destined to fail in life because of it. Well, I'm not here to do that today, I'm not here to tell you we're all doomed because of it, or that we should just pretend it never existed to begin with.
This is a term you might've come across before, especially considering in crypto there are thousands of coins and more coming out all the time. The focus is on keeping up with what to buy at what time, when to sell, what's the new hot coin, and so on, you know the drill. But if you haven't heard the term, that's okay too. Let's get to it then.
Shiny Object Syndrome is simply put a tendency to constantly go after new things, ideas and projects because they're 'more exciting' aka. shinier than the current thing they're involved in. The grass looks greener on the other side, so to speak. The issue with this is, the person will never be happy with what they've got, they're always looking for the next thing to jump on. This leads to never really finishing what they've started, giving up on 'the boring things' too quickly, constantly looking for the bigger fish. Maybe they've even lost a bunch of money over time because of impulsive investment choices.
Quickly, in crypto terms, they find out that their portfolio of 50 coins isn't growing in value at all, and despair takes over. "Why don't they just chop up their portfolio, throw out the $hitcoins and serve a nice platter of 3 well-established coins instead?", you may ask. Well, it's not an option. Often people that identify with SOS don't really want to wait around for 1 or 2 coins to patiently gain more value in upcoming years, or even in a few months, and kind of just hope one of their many coins takes off and carries them to the glorious early retirement we all desire and hope for.
If anything I've written so far sounds familiar to you, the thing I've found to help is, you just need to be aware of your SOS tendencies and embrace them. Just by acknowledging what you're working with, it's easier to make better decisions for yourself. Despite what many lifestyle gurus might say, there is no magical cure to suddenly make you wake up tomorrow as another person, and trying to suppress it will just make you more miserable over time. So, a counteroffer to all these lifestyle magicians who seem to know how to suddenly become a complete opposite of your own self in a matter of moments "if you just control it better", how about we try another way and just accept it, try to make it an asset instead of trying to get rid of it. Please bear in mind I'm not speaking about extreme cases. Of course, there's a limit to everything and I'm not saying you should quit your job, sell off everything you have, and move to an island in the middle of an ocean because you feel like it in the spur of a moment, I'm just talking about crypto here.
I think especially in crypto, having the mindset of "grass is greener on the other side" might actually be more beneficial than just gathering 1 coin all day. What do I mean? I mean, have some fun. I personally get through the day by considering crypto not as a job, but as a way to have fun. Collect BTC, ETH, altcoins, whatever, try things out, discover new ways to earn online. Of course, dumping all your savings in hopes of a coin ranked in the 4000s suddenly becoming the new bitcoin is against every financial advice anyone can give, so I guess more specifically I mean, have fun but be smart.
I strongly believe faucets are the perfect way to utilize SOS, because there are thousands of faucets out there, with all kinds of different ways to claim crypto without investing. You got bored of a faucet? Move on to the next! There's plenty to choose from, with minimal risk of losing more than gaining. Also, having 10 or even more coins is a beautiful way to give yourself a way to switch things up and keep the game interesting. This is something I do on a weekly basis if I feel like it, because it's refreshing to return to your old coins in a few weeks. Download some apps that pay in crypto, join Splinterlands, Rollercoin, Rising Star, whichever project piques your interest. Don't spend your $ before you know which one you like, don't dump all your $ in one go, and don't blindly follow anyone's lead without testing the waters for yourself first. I can say for sure though from my own experience, don't keep 50 coins, keep half of it, because trust me, you want to keep at least a part of your sanity intact. I think the best thing about SOS in crypto is, you've already tried out a lot of coins so you might have a better idea of which coins you like, which coins you don't like, and which coins are not worth your time.
Long story shorter, I have some SOS tendencies and it shows in my portfolio and my behavior. One of the things that really shows this is the fact that I'm constantly looking for new sites/apps to try out. It's not really because I want to drop everything I have going on right now and move to the next thing, but because I don't want to get bored or stuck, and I'm curious by nature & want to find those hidden gems. It doesn't mean I'm failing, in fact, I think I'm doing great progress despite having a ~20 coin portfolio. Now, I know this is 100% individual stuff, so if you have a portfolio with only the top 2 coins (BTC & ETH) and you can manage it well, that's really great and I admire your discipline. I'm just not like that, and not everyone can do it. Or if you don't have anything but altcoins, that's fine too, I'm not here to tell you what to do.
What motivated me to write this? I've seen all around the place articles & posts about how BTC is the only true way to go about crypto, or tips on growing my portfolio, one of them which is how diversifying past 3 or 5 or 10 coins is spreading too thin and causes more harm to your portfolio than good so you shouldn't go beyond that, and more. I don't believe this way of thinking is wrong by any means, I just don't think the same because everyone's wired differently; what works for me likely won't work for you. But, don't take me wrong here, I love to see different perspectives so I can learn more and adjust mine if I feel there's a need for it.
Due to the unpredictable nature of crypto, it might be tomorrow when bitcoin crashes and burns. Maybe tomorrow SHIB will be the next bitcoin, who knows. That's an unlikely scenario, but not impossible because we don't know what will happen. We don't know, we can't know and we will never know until it happens, so all we can do is make predictions and think about the most likely outcomes. The fact is, speaking about where coin X will be in 5 years is beyond me, because I don't even know how the crypto market will look next week. I guess the real takeaway from this 'rant' of mine is, let's make the best with what we have, whether it be 1 BTC or 150k RVN, 500 ATOM & 35 million BCN. In the end, it really doesn't matter which coin is on the label, as long as you're there even after 5 years; giving up and quitting is the only guaranteed way to lose the race. I believe we're still in the early stages of the crypto era and everything is still setting in, so right now there's no right or wrong way to go about crypto, the important part is to persevere.
Surprisingly enough, this is my opinion based on nothing but my thoughts and beliefs.
Thank you for reading this far! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this matter, do you agree? Is keeping to 1-2 coins the way to go or do you think having many coins will do the trick?
