::  Posts  ::  RSS  ::  ◂◂RSS  ::  Contact

Abstracting Compassion

 December 5th, 2010
giving  [html]
Passing a panhandler on the street, I feel a wave of compassion. I want to help them, I tell myself not to, and then walking by I feel guilty. My inner push to help the people around me doesn't understand the logic that leads me to give instead to international development, helping people far away. It doesn't understand that however much I can give, I must allocate it to do the most good. The impulse to help just knows: there's someone in front of me that could use some money, and I have more money than I need. How do I learn how to abstract compassion away from individuals who happen to live near me and towards the people who need help most?

Comment via: facebook

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Transfers from Infrequent to Frequent Vehicles

Imagine yourself taking a train somewhere, and imagine the train is big and infrequent. Let’s say it’s the commuter train from New York down the Northeast Corridor to Newark Airport, or perhaps a low-cost OuiGo TGV from Lyon to Paris. Now imagine that you…

via Pedestrian Observations January 20, 2020

Veganism and restrictive eating

I’m reading the book Intuitive Eating, which I highly recommend. I was looking for something like it that could get me back to trusting my biological hunger without worrying that I need to control myself or my weight. It’s raised my consciousness to the w…

via Holly Elmore January 17, 2020

Algorithms interviews: theory vs. practice

When I ask people at trendy big tech companies why algorithms quizzes are mandatory, the most common answer I get is something like "we have so much scale, we can't afford to have someone accidentally write an O(n^2) algorithm and bring the site d…

via Posts on Dan Luu January 5, 2020

more     (via openring)

More Posts:

  ::  Posts  ::  RSS  ::  ◂◂RSS  ::  Contact