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Oct. 25th, 2009
Selfish altruism
Oct. 25th, 2009 11:55 pmI had an interesting experience today.
I went out to lunch with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chirik, tarathene, and kitlet at Joey Basil's. They were seriously understaffed, and we were there for a long time, but the waitress really seemed to be trying to do her best to get things out and handled. And in the end, even though it took forever, the food was great.
Anyways, our waitress seemed really stressed when she was trying to handle our payment for the bill, and I went up to the front counter to save her a trip back to the table to get my signature. She couldn't get the machine to work because she needed a manager override, and the manager was nowhere to be found. While I stood there, one customer, unhappy with the service, told the waitress that the service was so bad that they've lost a customer. A few moments later, another person walked past behind me and told the waitress to cancel their order as they had been waiting too long and were now going to leave.
She was really upset and stressed and near tears. She couldn't get the computer to work. She had terribly irate customers. And frankly, her service for us had been a bit poor. She just kept apologizing and apologizing, despite me telling her that everything was fine. I gave her a 40% tip to try to cheer her up, and as we walked out, she yelped when she saw the tip and said, "Really?! Thank you!"
It made me think about doing things like this: Helping people out and doing good things for other people.
Frankly, I gave her that tip because I wanted to see her smile. Because when I make people smile, that makes me really happy. I don't know that I cared about her or her situation one bit. But I do like that rush I get when I do something that makes someone else smile or laugh or something like that. When I can brighten someone's day.
I was thinking about this. Doing this sort of thing might make some people think that I'm some sort of altruisitic good person or something. But honestly, I feel completely selfish in these sorts of actions. I'm not doing it for them. I'm doing it for that rush I get, which is entirely for me.
I think it's a fascinating concept. Is it really good of me to do things for other people that I am completely selfishly motivated to do? Is this simply how all people are? Is true altruism merely an illusion?
I went out to lunch with
chirik, tarathene, and kitlet at Joey Basil's. They were seriously understaffed, and we were there for a long time, but the waitress really seemed to be trying to do her best to get things out and handled. And in the end, even though it took forever, the food was great.Anyways, our waitress seemed really stressed when she was trying to handle our payment for the bill, and I went up to the front counter to save her a trip back to the table to get my signature. She couldn't get the machine to work because she needed a manager override, and the manager was nowhere to be found. While I stood there, one customer, unhappy with the service, told the waitress that the service was so bad that they've lost a customer. A few moments later, another person walked past behind me and told the waitress to cancel their order as they had been waiting too long and were now going to leave.
She was really upset and stressed and near tears. She couldn't get the computer to work. She had terribly irate customers. And frankly, her service for us had been a bit poor. She just kept apologizing and apologizing, despite me telling her that everything was fine. I gave her a 40% tip to try to cheer her up, and as we walked out, she yelped when she saw the tip and said, "Really?! Thank you!"
It made me think about doing things like this: Helping people out and doing good things for other people.
Frankly, I gave her that tip because I wanted to see her smile. Because when I make people smile, that makes me really happy. I don't know that I cared about her or her situation one bit. But I do like that rush I get when I do something that makes someone else smile or laugh or something like that. When I can brighten someone's day.
I was thinking about this. Doing this sort of thing might make some people think that I'm some sort of altruisitic good person or something. But honestly, I feel completely selfish in these sorts of actions. I'm not doing it for them. I'm doing it for that rush I get, which is entirely for me.
I think it's a fascinating concept. Is it really good of me to do things for other people that I am completely selfishly motivated to do? Is this simply how all people are? Is true altruism merely an illusion?