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Comment by edw519 | Hacker News Reader

Nice post.

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.

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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.

This sounds like the story of my life. The best way to deal with it is to...leave?

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.

Perhaps this article on today's HN was meant for you! :)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1755334

Yes, and giving a damn is not restricted to a nice UI. You can give a damn about clean code. Or performance. Or extensibility. etc.

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