Help People For FreeMost humans operate on a rational perspective. We do things that make sense when all factors are considered.
Most humans operate on a rational perspective. We do things that make sense when all factors are considered.
The hard part is the latter half — considering the entire picture.
There are a number of reasons that we fail in our observations — a few being:
1) The future changes quickly. We do not always know what the picture will look like.
2) Our bias blinds us from seeing everything. We want the picture to look a certain way. Sometimes when it doesn’t, we are blind to it.
One act that would not be considered rational by many is helping others for free, whenever you can. It does not generally make sense from an “input-output” perspective — especially when your time == money. It can be “rational” to think that you should only work/do things that give you a return.
Most people are stuck in this mindset. They do things that they see the results of quickly. We are conditioned, in modern society, to think and act that way. We want things, and we want them now.
Uncertainty of expectations is the biggest reason we are often uncomfortable/reluctant to start doing something that won’t give us quick returns. We are not internally prepared for a long run effort — so we never start.
I think helping people for free is one of the best things you can do to optimize for the long run and help other people get there with you.
Originally published at gonen.blog.
By jordangonen on May 8, 2017.
Exported from Medium on February 17, 2018.