Being Kind

Feb 2026

In a world that seems to be shifting to outsourced thinking with LLM's, it's crucial to keep thinking for yourself, especially for your values (which is actually part of Patrick's advice).

More broadly, nobody is going to teach you to think for yourself. A large fraction of what people around you believe is mistaken. Internalize this and practice coming up with your own worldview.

When talking about kindness, instead of accepting the narrative "You should be kind because that's what good people do." let's think about it for a second.

Here’s what I’ve come to believe.

They say, we should be kind because everyone is fighting a battle we know nothing about. But really, we're all fighting different versions of the same battle. We're all trying to find meaning and joy in a world that sometimes seems to lack both. We should be kind, because we know how hard that is.

Also, people accuse others that they are pretending to be kind to get what they want. But if what you want is to be kind, then pretending to be kind is being kind.

However, the most powerful angle on kindness is about human connection.

You've probably heard about the mail Steve sent himself:

Source: putsomethingback.stevejobsarchive

When we are talking about being kind, it's really difficult to top that off with anything else that I could add, but I'll try anyway.

At its core, the economy is just everyone constantly taking care of everyone else. The laws and institutions we've made to coordinate this kindness sometimes cause us to forget this fact.

In a sense, one can show their kindness by being useful. Being a tool maker. Serving those who are around them.

That may be the deepest thing that separates us from the tools we use for leverage. It may even be what separates us from AI.

Machines can optimize. Only humans can care.

If you have kindness as a value, toward yourself and others, you are part of a special group.

Because the future belongs to those who understand that contribution is just kindness at scale.