Fair enough - personally I'm well on the side of structural changes over individual changes. And we're often not even given the option of making an individual improvement - for each pedicure with the option to tip there's the only supermarket nearby with only one cheap-but-heinous option for the product you need. But given that fact, can't you still also make a change yourself? You have to change the thousand, but if a lot of one's change that will eventually add up to a thousand. It's not a clear dichotomy to me. Between the lines there's an argument for compassion that I'm not yet ready to dismiss. But I may very well be reading too much into this.If you want to actually make life better, more livable, less of a slog for yourself, that involves making it better for a whole lot of other people as well. [...] You don’t need a better organizational app. You just need to legitimately and actionably care about other people.
I will freely and happily argue for compassion but I can't endorse the justifications here. The author is arguing, effectively, "be the change you want to see in the world" which is never bad advice. But she's also arguing that if you're that change, the world will change enough for your conscience to be clear: The core question - are your actions enough that you can consider others to be well-treated - is unanswered. Of course you overpaying for your pedicure restores order to the universe. Rush Limbaugh is a big tipper. It's how he can feel good about making a living advocating for the shafting of the poor and working class. There's a very big difference between "I want you to be well paid because I interact with you" and "I want you to be well paid because you deserve dignity and a living wage" and insulating yourself from the externalities of the economic inequality we all swim in does nothing about the inequality while numbing you to its effects.If you’re actually serious about treating burnout — yours, your partners, your future children’s — you have to be serious about treating it for people you might not even know. If you want to actually make life better, more livable, less of a slog for yourself, that involves making it better for a whole lot of other people as well. For that, you don’t need a self-help book with an asterisk in the title to blunt the profanity. You don’t need a better organizational app. You just need to legitimately and actionably care about other people.