it’s free to be kind

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, a 19 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

this publication is a place for me to reflect on productivity, health and tech, and drop unique opportunities in the space right to your inbox daily. if you’re new here, sign up to tune in!💌

scroll to the end for my daily roundup on unique opportunities!

onto today’s topic: it’s free to be kind 🌸 

how much extra does it cost you to ask the grocery store cashier how their day is as well?

how about greeting others with a smile?

dishing out a compliment unprompted?

checking in on a friend?

nothing. 🪙 

my friends and i had a conversation with our uber driver the other night and he expressed that it feels dehumanizing when he receives silence in response to a “hello, how are you?” during drives that are 30+ minutes long.

even if you’re entirely uninterested in having a conversation, acknowledging someone’s existence and their service is not so much kind as expected. yes, we pay service workers, but that payment being the full extent of an interaction with another human being and gratitude for them is disappointing. 😬 

human connections, of any kind, should not be so strictly transactional. maybe we can revisit this if (when?) service workers become replaced with machinery. but could ai-driven machinery then achieve sentience? that’s a long discussion for another time.

take a minute to rate your own average daily kindness. now, i challenge you to intentionally do something kind outside of any current habits/actions you take every day. i’ll do the same. 😁 

very few things in this world are free. kindness is free — thus, it should be abundant.

daily opportunity + resource drops 🔍️