Comments on: Giving away free stuff

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:47:07 +0000

Maybe they thought you were giving them uranium or a bag of botulism.

By: lambic

lambic — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 14:34:56 +0000

Maybe you got the wrong impression from my use of Jen’s favourite terminology “useless paper products”. The gift bags contained quality greeting cards and postcards.

You’re right though, there’s no such thing as complete altruism, whenever we do anything considered altruistic there is always some personal gain, even if it’s just the feel-good factor of doing something good.

Of course, the only reason I was lugging my junk around was to give it to people, I just didn’t lug it as far as I’d planned. It would’ve been a lot easier to throw the whole lot into the recycling bin.

By: Shawn Campbell

Shawn Campbell — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 14:14:47 +0000

There is no such thing as something for nothing.
The cynical people were right. You were giving them something (useless paper products), and in return, you didn’t have to lug your junk around anymore… They did!

T’was a nice gesture, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I can relate to the cynical ones. I certainly wouldn’t want other people’s junk, unless it wasn’t junk to me.

There is a program called “modern robin hood”, or something like that. They go around giving away free money, and filming it. It still isn’t something for nothing, they are getting free publicity in return, and thus, more people to their site, and thus, more revenue from AdSense (it may even be profitable).

Something for nothing indeed…

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:33:13 +0000

Less polite? Or more cynical? I think you nailed it when you said people suspected you were selling something. It is unfortunate that, in this day and age, we must be immediately suspicious of any offer of somethign for nothing.