Talking about values and virtue signaling is easy. But sacrifice is hard and often unobserved. We don’t get as much credit from others for living up to our values, as we do for merely proclaiming them on social media or t-shirts.
Scott Berkun is an inspirational writer. He worked on the Internet Explorer team between versions 1 and 5. He also lead a team at Automattic, an experience he documented in the book The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work.
I keep writing about kindness and using every opportunity to treat people well. His post resonated a lot with me because it challenges a thing I value highly. Kindness usually costs little, requires no sacrifice, and can be visible. Scott Berkun says this is not a real value. Even worse, promoting kindness as a public statement could be like wearing a patriotic t-shirt.
This is not a new idea but a new point of view that hasn’t crossed my mind before. The Bible has lots of quotes that give a definition of good, and the lack of publicity is a common requirement.
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.
— Matthew 6:3
For example, is it a good thing when you hand free iPhones to strangers for views on YouTube? It costs something so it checks the first requirement but is done in public so it doesn’t check the second. Same with pretty much any act of kindness that’s done for views or shared on social media.
I need to think more about this.
Veselin.blog 
That sounds like an effort to have people tell others about the phones a follow him. I don’t see this as a kind jesture. To me a kind is when you give from the heart and expect nothing in return. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The iPhone givaway was something MrBeast did. One of my kids used to watch him. I banned MrBeast after I learned that his giveaways are possibly fake.
LikeLiked by 1 person
All the more reason. To many fake people out their.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ohhhh! I didn’t know gods giveaways are fake! TIL.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, some are likely real. I saw some investigation particularly about MrBeast. I’m no moral police and have no clue what % of his work was real and what was fake. Just banned my kids from watching him on a matter of principle.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gotcha! That’s even worse because they can selectively cite genuine giveaways, hiding the fake ones! Thanks for enlightening me to this perspective. Our family thought he was always genuinely giving away things like cars!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think the idea is to be genuine with your emotions if you want to get the most out of them. If you’re performing an action to get others to notice or to earn money, that’s fake. If you’re doing something because you really care about it, that’s real, and that’s what the quote is advocating. There’s a difference. In that case, the benefits aren’t dependent on what others think, they’re internal, and it doesn’t matter who’s watching.
Social media, including WordPress, throw a wrench into the works for me and many others. On the one hand, I’m stimulated to do what I love, which is tell stories for the fun of it. On the other, I now check to see how many people are reading them, and I certainly enjoy the endorphin hit that comes with likes. But I’m trying to minimize that and remember why I came here in the first place: to tell the stories.
LikeLiked by 1 person
> I think the idea is to be genuine with your emotions if you want to get the most out of them. If you’re performing an action to get others to notice or to earn money, that’s fake. If you’re doing something because you really care about it, that’s real, and that’s what the quote is advocating
Yes, I agree, and thanks for your comment. It’s the type of comment that deserves its own blog post.
I think social media and blogs allow commitment-type messages, like one I did awhile back. I’m going to do 10K steps per day this year. Of course, I may do them or not do them. Saying something is just air moving, electrons here and there. But the message is, here’s who I want to be.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You attract great readers (not that I mean myself included) 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for stopping by and reminding me about this post. Reading it and the comments felt well!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The simplicity of your sincere “I love WP” piqued my curiosity.. most people really do not hear what they say or type or comment as you have mentioned in your latest post – blink and you miss it.. kind words are not as easy as kind acts unseen. it makes me sad.. but hey, both your words and your readers response have given me that bit of light. Cheers 🙂
LikeLike