For Free
August 9, 2020•217 words
447
There is this very common belief that nothing is free. Unfortunately, in the business sense, I have to agree with it. Products marketed as "free" are never truly free. Either somebody else is paying for it, or your paying with something other than money; data, time, attention.
Quite a few people unfortunately also translate that belief to personal relationships. They believe that whatever they do has to be later paid back in some way. You do me a favor, I do you a favor. Nothing we do is done for free.
In all honesty, I'm just sick of this approach. I find this expectation of a payback so poisoned, in a way. I mean, sure, if both sides totally agree on it, and feel perfectly fine conducting things this way, then who am I to tell them they're wrong?
But, what if somebody enjoys doing things just for the sake of doing them? Or for a higher value, like respect, or love? Not for the sake of virtue signalling, of course. It just annoys me terribly when people can't accept the fact that I'm doing something for them. Or, when I can't accept that somebody is doing something for me.
Not everything has to be a transaction; some things can be a simple act of virtue.