stand to see takers get ahead by taking advantage of other people. The data on this suggests that matchers will often go around trying to punish them, often by gossiping and spreading negative reputational information. Just as matchers hate seeing takers get away with exploitation, they also hate to see people act really generously and not get rewarded for it. Matchers will often go out of their way to promote and help and support givers, to make sure they actually do get rewarded for their generosity. That's one of the most powerful dynamics behind the rise of givers. Knowledge@Wharton: One of the things I found most fascinating about your book is the combination of very rig... posted on Apr 24 2013 (46,907 reads)

community, have no idea that by choosing to pay for services, they are indirectly contributing to someone else’s care. Aravind deliberately steers clear of advertising this pay-it-forward angle to its high-end customers. Touting charitable services can work against your reputation in a world where quality and charity are not necessarily linked, and Aravind leadership believes that when it comes to personal health, value for money and quality of care, are priorities that tend to outweigh generosity. “I would very much like to come to Aravind Eye Hospital to spend some time learning and to seek your advice” is a sentiment that Thulsi encounters in his inbox with incr... posted on Jun 10 2013 (48,681 reads)

restoration of India’s sacred Arunachala mountain. It dawned on me that there were groups all over the world creating organic models of rural development to turn barren land green again, and we could help weave them together. The campaign was becoming an interface for direct planetary action, an emergent network of global citizens. It was exhilarating, and also heartbreaking. There were the inevitable screw-ups. I was reminded how our grasping, aversion, and ignorance ever shadow our generosity and openheartedness. Philanthropy can be a competitive scrum where the most ringing declarations of we’re-all-in-this-together devolve into what’s-in-it-for-me. I... posted on Apr 13 2014 (13,499 reads)

curiosity, and love. The act itself is very important. You could say the work of Radical Joy for Hard Times is like the work of the Norns, the three women who stand at the Well of Destiny in the upper level of the Norse World Tree. Like our world, the Norse World Tree is constantly under attack. But the Norns keep on doing this act of healing. We can’t prevent every assault on the places we love and where we live, but we can offer these creative acts of repairing and beauty and generosity. RW:  Do you think the earth knows it’s receiving all this? TJ:  Some of the people who go on our trips and do these Earth Exchanges say they feel the earth is... posted on Jul 22 2013 (18,811 reads)

and practical applications of his findings with David DiSalvo. DISALVO: You have a book that was just released called Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life. What in a nutshell does the term “born to be good” mean to you, and what are you hoping people learn from reading the book? KELTNER: “Born to be good” for me means that our mammalian and hominid evolution have crafted a species—us—with remarkable tendencies toward kindness, play, generosity, reverence and self-sacrifice, which are vital to the classic tasks of evolution—survival, gene replication and smooth functioning groups. These tendencies are felt in the wonderful r... posted on Oct 19 2013 (27,088 reads)

contemplative practice for a while. And so my resilience in that time was emboldened enormously by my social network. And by the ability of that, to be honest with that network about what was going on. And to be clear to this, you know, the community I live with is, and then is a kind of a gift economy. And one of the most important sort of the first two rules of all social networks. The first one is you build them before you need them. And the second is you root them in an initial act of generosity. You give to them before you expect anything from them. Otherwise you're just inviting people over to paint your house and do your homework, and that's usually no fun. So we had ... posted on Dec 5 2013 (23,088 reads)

teachers and so do failed 'Easter Egg' radishes, crimson, white, and dark purple, laid out in worm-eaten decrepitude on a chipped platter. "Life is one continuous mistake," Shunryi Suzuki Roshi, the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, used to remind his students. When he shopped he sought out the rattiest vegetables at market, all the discarded and maimed culls, and his meditation grew strong, nourished by the continuous mistakes of human life. My seventh principle is generosity with the harvest. In the biblical book of Leviticus, one of the laws of Jewish life was not to cut the corners of the fields after the main harvest but to leave them standing so there would... posted on Jan 30 2014 (21,055 reads)

has changed, in your mind, about this idea of saving the world? JN: When I first went to Africa, I thought that I was personally going to save the continent, if not the world. The only way we really create change is to enter any situation with the humility to listen and to recognize the world as it is, and then the audacity to dream what it could be, to have the patience to start and let the work teach you, to be willing to lead when you need to lead, and to listen. To have a sense of generosity and empathy, but not over-empathy, because accountability is so critical to building solutions that work. If there’s one value that is immutable, it’s integrity or respect, for ... posted on Feb 6 2014 (22,764 reads)

he ran on something that none of these theories seemed to factor in - an unextinguishable, un-definable and at times irrational value called Faith. At the age of 20, Raghu left home in his village to live a life of contribution. Armed with merely 300 rupees in his pocket, but loads of that faith. Through various serendipitous encounters, he found himself in the eco-system of the Gandhi ashram and eventually serving women and homes in the Slum community. Stories of his journey and acts of generosity are endless. But some of my most transformational moments with him came through the smallest conversations. Often, over the last few years there were times when I'd be feeling scarce. A... posted on Feb 10 2014 (35,751 reads)

good helped him to accept the tough stuff. The argument goes like this: Because life as a whole is as good as it can be, the parts of life are as good as they can be, so we should love, or at least accept, every part of life. But Aurelius took it even one step further, arguing that obstacles are actually our greatest opportunities for growth and advancement. They force us to re-examine our path, find a new way, and ultimately empower ourselves by practicing virtues like patience, generosity and courage. "The impediment to action advances action," he wrote. "What stands in the way becomes the way." There is good in everyone. Aurelius isn't e... posted on Mar 29 2014 (108,047 reads)

Western culture, many people define success narrowly as money and power. In her uplifting book Thrive, Arianna Huffington argues that this leaves us sitting on a two-legged stool, which will tip over if we don’t add a third leg. She makes a passionate case, supported by science, for expanding our definition of what it means to succeed. One of her new metrics is giving: a truly rewarding life involves contributing to and caring for others. I love this message. It’s a powerful call for us to become more generous and compassionate. Unfortunately, when people answer this call, they sacrifice their own success. Burning the midnight oil for other people, they fall behind on their... posted on Apr 24 2014 (30,868 reads)

how much time you waste at the periphery, which disappears into nothingness and how much energy, which is given at the center, turns into this beautiful, surprising, something-ness, which is inviting you on and bringing all kinds of people into your life to share the adventure at the same time. I’ll finish with this piece, which is called No Path. It’s a fierce little poem because it’s about our own ultimate disappearance. But there’s, I found, a marvelous kind of generosity at the end from the revelation, you could say. One of the great dynamics at the center of the revelation about the evanescence of life, about the way that everything passes away so quickly ... posted on Jul 7 2014 (40,898 reads)

you can make the argument that capturing the experience is in fact part of it. I’ll buy that to a limited degree. 3. To find deeper connections with people and place. It takes time to fully grasp a place and its people, to push through the confusion and difference and discord that first greets us upon our arrival — all so that we may depart with greater appreciation, connection, empathy and something even stronger: care. What began as confusion ended with pure generosity. An impromptu market feast — Zugdidi, Georgia 4. To judge less, to be more open. I’d argue that simply observing and being present actually tones down the rush-to-judg... posted on May 7 2014 (16,415 reads)

process, and very grounding. Knitting is similar in that it lends itself to repetition and logical progressions. These crafts feel more wintery to me. Painting and feltmaking give you less control over the process, and are experimental and improvisational, similar to unpredictable Spring and heated Summer. Sylvia: Why should we craft? Angie: We should craft to connect: to each other, to our own souls, to the world. Crafting can bring out the highest in human beings: empathy, generosity, resourcefulness, connectedness, gentleness, peace. Crafting gives us a sense of the value of things and people; a sense of our place in the world. Most of us, for example, do not know who ... posted on May 3 2014 (15,264 reads)

of right and wrong, with all its contextual fuzziness and situational fluidity? That’s precisely what celebrated psychologist Barry Schwartz, author of the influential The Paradox of Choice, and political scientistKenneth Sharpe explore in Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing (public library) — a fascinating and necessary exploration of how to nurture and reclaim the essential moral skill at the heart of character traits like courage, compassion, loyalty, fairness, generosity, and empathy, inspired by the timeless teachings of Aristotle’s philosophy yet grounded in invaluable insights from contemporary psychology. Schwartz and Sharpe write: ... posted on Jun 13 2014 (18,040 reads)

who can emerge from their boxes and labels to become interesting, engaged colleagues and citizens. Hosting meaningful conversations isn’t about getting people to like each other or feel good. It’s about creating the means for problems to get solved, for teams to function well, for people to become energetic activists. Hosting Leaders create substantive change by relying on everyone’s creativity, commitment and generosity. They learn from firsthand experience that these qualities are present in just about everyone and in every organization. They extend sincere invitations, ask good questi... posted on Aug 28 2014 (35,343 reads)

that any good could ever come of a cadaver, a heart failure and a vehicle with a live heart in its trunk tearing through a crowded city. That it did on June 16, 2014 in Chennai, and that more than 50 people coordinated the whole thing with surreal precision to save a life, could tempt one to use words like ‘miracle’ or ‘aberration’. But in truth, it was already the city’s eighth time this year: a heart transplant made possible by someone’s supreme generosity, a government organ registry’s bureaucratic brilliance and the police’s logistical enthusiasm. A new heart to be put in a patient's cavity. Photo courtesy Dr ... posted on Aug 11 2014 (16,289 reads)

story and that people from all over the world were thinking of her and praying for her. She stopped then and started to cry. She held my hand. They are praying for me? Yes, I said. Tell them thank you she said. Tell them that I walked for the first time - 15 steps. Tell them, there will be more she said. Tell them, Thank you. *** Mia's grandmother peacefully passed this Saturday surrounded by Mia and other loved ones. If you'd like you can send Mia a note here, honoring the generosity with which she shared her grandmother's spirit and their beautiful relationship with the world. ... posted on Sep 1 2019 (50,309 reads)

has been bad, this is just another crappy part of it, traffic will be horrible.’  And yet they’re both swimming in the same pond.”  What he learned from the woman in the magic shop changed not the reality of his external circumstance—he was still poor, and he was still the one who had to take care of his parents—but his internal perception of it. “We are the ones who create our world view—not some outside event or environment.” The generosity of the woman in the magic shop unleashed a boldness in Doty.  A high school friend was applying to the University of California, Irvine, and Doty decided on the spot that he would, too... posted on Aug 22 2014 (24,322 reads)

parts in the machinery of production. After years of being bossed around, of being told they’re inferior, of power plays that destroy lives, most people are cynical and focused only on self-protection. Who wouldn’t be? This negativity and demoralization is created by the organizing and governance methods in use. People cannot be discounted or used only for someone else’s benefit. If obedience and compliance are the primary values, these destroy creativity, commitment and generosity. Whole cultures and generations have been deadened by such coercion. But people’s reaction to coercion also tells us a great deal about the goodness of the human spirit. The horror... posted on Sep 20 2014 (30,330 reads)