Strategic Altruism
Generosity, good intentions, and doing the right thing.
Where have you been?
It’s been about a year since you last heard from me. Wow.
During that time, I’ve thought a lot about the purpose of this blog, about the purpose of my work, and the purpose of my life.
We’re in a time right now where democracy in the United States is under attack, where “being kind” has become a bullshit platitude that people wear on t-shirts but don’t practice, and following the Golden Rule doesn’t matter because we’ll still vote for you as long as you make a lot of money.
Old news, I know. I’ve been processing this for many months.
I’m not sure how this blog will fit into my strategy going forward, but I felt inspired to share some of the thoughts I’ve been having — so here we go.
Iteration.
This blog has undergone several makeovers.
At first, I felt the best way to help people was by focusing on productivity. The idea was that the people who are hungry and want to go after their dreams can do it — but they could be even better with a little structure, discipline, and habit.
Of course, that’s not how the world works. Working hard doesn’t always yield results — just ask any single mom.
Then, as my career shifted into marketing and business, so did my approach to life. My eyes were open to the power of influencing people through marketing and advertising. It’s real — but how you do it matters.
Finally, after letting go of that identity, I noticed my writing started to shift back into a core trope that has been woven through all of my work, seemingly non-consciously.
Leadership.
I looked back at the work I did in a developmental (pediatric) neuroscience lab at Penn State. I looked back at the mission I had carved out for myself of helping kids grow into incredible adults. I realized that while much of the work I did was “directionally aligned” with my goals, I wasn’t making the impact I wanted and I wasn’t even living up to my potential effectiveness.
Oof.
I don’t know if I’ll even go back to writing a blog post every day, but I do know that the healthy future of humanity requires healthy leadership. So, that’s where I’m headed.
Leadership.
Healthy leadership looks like generosity. It looks like doing the work to make sure you actually help people instead of just having good intentions or doing what you know how to do and hoping for the best. Healthy leadership looks like human connection. It looks like friendship. It looks like respect. It looks like gratitude.
That’s all fine and nice and fluffy to say, and most people are happy to stop there and let themselves feel good — but here are some implementation hurdles:
- You can’t be generous if you’re broke.
- You can’t help people unless you understand the root issue of their problems.
- You can’t have a human connection unless you show genuine curiosity.
- You can’t be a good friend unless you can consistently put someone else first.
- You can’t be respected unless your actions align with your values.
- You can’t be grateful if you don’t do the work to truly understand someone else’s journey.
Strategic Altruism
As you already noticed, I just changed the name of this blog from “Up To Something,” (which was a name I was really proud of) to “Strategic Altruism.”
Altruism is a fine and dandy ideal, but it requires real-world implementation and intention to be effective. If we’re truly going to help people and the world around us, we will need to be masters of ourselves, challengers of the way things are, and healthy leaders who lift up others.
Altruism has a catch. By definition, it requires that the altruist receives no credit for their work.
This is the way.
Strategic Altruism affords us the ability to let go of vanity and legacy — the things that can cloud our judgment and make us put ourselves first — and simply focus on the task at hand.
Altruism isn’t sustainable by itself. Just ask yourself how many times you could donate to UNICEF or United Way before you were broke. Just giving 100% of ourselves isn’t good enough because it doesn’t last.
Strategic Altruism maximizes impact by accounting for real-world variables and problems.
Strategic Altruism is a long-term mindset that negotiates the challenges we actually face. Strategic Altruism is not blind idealism. It’s not optimism. It’s not positivity.
It’s a framework for thinking about practical social impact.
What’s next?
I feel like I could write a whole book about this idea — and maybe I will someday. If this shift in focus feels like the right thing for you, just hang tight and you’ll see more posts like this.
If you were really hoping to get content from me about productivity, marketing, and business concepts, please feel comfortable unsubscribing — you truly won’t hurt my feelings.
Onward.
This blog has moved to Substack.
Check it out here:
Strategic Altruism on Substack
