Every time you fulfill a need for others, you fulfill one for yourself, the need to feel important, loved, helpful, useful, or maybe gratuitous. The more you focus on others, the fewer needs you have; less greed and pride in your life. Sometimes, helping one, no matter if it yourself or another is not just fulfilling ONE need, sometimes that solves compounded needs. If I see a child on the playground fall down and get hurt, and I give him a bandaid and help him find his mommy, I’ve not only helped him, but also relieved his frantic mother who thought he was missing. For me, I feel proud of myself, and happy, which may color my whole day. So it’s not just one. Need. It’s compounded. Needs.

Interesting, thought-provoking discourse – the fact it drew a response from Elsha shows that it had the power not only to make the reader ‘listen’, but to encourage them to respond also.

I’m not sure about the overuse of colons, but at least in content this was something to mentally chew on for a while mid-afternoon – MH :)

I’m not a fan of the format of this, but you know me; I’m starting as a hostile critic. At least the message is good, although I disagree with one part, in this world that we live in it’s not a zero-sum game. Ok, and an academic point, cost-benefit calculations aren’t simple single statistics (they are a kind of weighing of at least 2 different possibilities therefore they are at their most simple: Weight 1 x Probability 1 versus Weight 2 x Probability 2… and there is a lot of valuation hidden in that ‘versus’)

4/5 Pencils for the good message.

Spageti spouting game theory?!? You never fail to amaze me with your depth. This was an interesting mash-up of Nash Equilibrium, Oprah’s Pay It Forward Challenge , and a little bit of ST:Wrath of Khan (“the needs of the many…”)

KHAAAAAAAAN!

Loved how you put this. 5 out ot 5