I've always thought that the people who gave a damn were the ones who instinctively understood that energy given is not energy given away. It's energy given and kept.
Those who appear to not give a damn are the ones who think that if you expend energy on your customers, you lose that energy and become weaker. Ironically, they become weaker by not expending that energy.
A programmer going the extra mile by writing great customer facing software is like lighting a candle lighting another candle. At the moment they touch, both become brighter and then you have twice the light.
Thanks for the great examples. I love Zappos and hipmunk, too.
I appreciate your remarks – I've enjoyed your comments since I joined HN.
I hadn't thought of it in this way but you're absolutely right. I especially see the application in leadership. People who think they don't have time to spend on leading effectively end up with apathetic, frustrated or downright rebellious teams. The best that can possibly happen is that the people they lead operate at some fraction of full capacity, instead of pushing the limits of what they can do.
Whereas, just finding the energy to give a damn about leading well, they'd reap benefits in many multiples of what they initially put in.
> I've always thought that the people who gave a damn were the ones who instinctively understood that energy given is not energy given away. It's energy given and kept.
To keep this somewhat in line with conservation of energy, energy given is indeed given away. However, you may receive energy back from whomever you gave it.
It feels like there is something pressing against me when I give a damn. I mean, the result is appreciated, but I feel like the culture around me hates me for being willing to make the sacrifice necessary to get there.
There is something pressing against you. The apathy of everyone else around you. Few things are more painful than being around people whose give a damn isn't aligned with your own. You'll spend a lot of time advocating things that seem alien at worst and wasteful and best.
It may be. I can only speak for my experience. For me, being around people who don't share my values is utterly draining. Time you could be spending making magic happen gets spent on convincing other people that magic is worth something. It can be exhausting.
You absorb the energy of the people around you. And if the people around you fail to give a damn about the things you care about, you run the risk of losing own energy for it, too.
I don't, in the end, know the best solution for your case. But whatever you do, protect that spark that makes everyone look at you like an ear is growing out of your forehead.
I challenged myself to write this without touching Apple but I agree entirely.
Apple gives a damn about the user experience from the very moment you walk into an Apple Store, and it continues through opening the box and first-run of your hardware, all the way to your day-to-day usage.
They do and always have. But the problem with them giving a damn is that they have a certain type of user in mind. And to give a good user experience to that user, they need the control.
If you happen to be the type of user who wants maximum control in your hands, and not in Apple's, then Apple's giving a damn has a negative impact on you.
It's why I stopped using Apple after growing up using their stuff and switched to running linux on PC hardware. I wanted my control back from Apple.
And since Linux is open source, I get the benefit of having control and having a product (software at least) made by people who give a damn!
Nice post, but I wish hipmunk gave a damn about graphic design and had an excellent designer touch-up that eyesore of vector illustration and the poorly anti-aliased text of "flight search", or maybe it's an intentional statement - we care so much about good search that we don't care about design.
Total agree, giving a damn is probably the best filter ever. Of course, the converse can be applied effectively too; not giving a damn to things that you're not willing to invest wholehearted in, streamlining your productivity instead of trying to give a damn with everything.
Right now I'm learning Rails, along with Ruby, to work on a web app I've been imagining. I spent a decent chunk of time on iPhone development but always felt the gap in not knowing how to do server-side stuff.
I love making things for other people to use. That's the thing I have, since childhood, given a damn about, and why I learned how to program. I'm a product manager at Aurora Feint these days, but I often miss being more hands-on.
I also consult on mobile UX when I've got time – and will consider writing iOS code for the right clients.
I'll be at Startup School – if you're attending, it'd be great to meet up. (That goes for anyone else going, too!)
I've always thought that the people who gave a damn were the ones who instinctively understood that energy given is not energy given away. It's energy given and kept.
Those who appear to not give a damn are the ones who think that if you expend energy on your customers, you lose that energy and become weaker. Ironically, they become weaker by not expending that energy.
A programmer going the extra mile by writing great customer facing software is like lighting a candle lighting another candle. At the moment they touch, both become brighter and then you have twice the light.
Thanks for the great examples. I love Zappos and hipmunk, too.