01Care starts with feeling.
We feel for others before we reason about them. Then we ask: would a fair stranger agree?
Smith, Barrett, Picard
Care theory
Why these choices
Every pair in onboarding is two good things. Thirteen books helped us pick them. None of them agree on everything, and that’s the point: there’s no wrong answer, only yours.
Seven principles
02Near and far both count.
Distance changes how loud a need feels, not how much it matters.
Smith, Parfit, Rawls
03Fair from behind the curtain.
Choose as if you didn’t know which side you’d be born on.
Rawls, Ginsburg
04Today and tomorrow.
Tonight’s meal and next year’s job both matter. Breaking a cycle is slow work.
Frankl, Buqué, Parfit
05Trust is something we build together.
A charity is only real because people agree it is. Show the receipts.
Searle, Confucius, Garrett/Sander
06Dignity, not pity.
Give so people can stand on their own terms.
Ginsburg, Frankl, Garrett/Sander
07Asking is brave.
Giving and asking both take courage. We keep it gentle.
Brown, Dawkins, Confucius
Choice map
03Choice 1
Pantry on your avenue vs grain bank in Mali
SmithParfitDawkins
Close feels louder. Far can matter just as much.
04Choice 2
Rehouse tonight vs shorten the waitlist
FranklRawlsParfit
One family now, or everyone in line.
05Choice 3
Tonight’s meals vs job-training kitchen
BuquéFranklParfit
Relief, and the way out of needing it.
07Choice 4
Same dollars, which do you reach for
BarrettPicardSmith
Notice what moves you. Then check it.
08Choice 5
Who do you trust with it
SearleConfuciusGarrett/Sander
Trust is built in public, over time.
09Choice 6
Which slow work is yours
BuquéParfitGarrett/Sander
Some change takes a generation.
11Choice 7
Your own two picks, side by side
RawlsGinsburg
Weigh your own picks as fairly as a stranger would.
06 · 10Quick read and Six in
We reflect your answers back
BrownGinsburgConfucius
We reflect you back, without judgement.
Reading shelf
Feeling and meaning
Care begins inside us: in sympathy, emotion, courage and the search for meaning.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
We care by imagining ourselves in another’s place.
How Emotions Are Made
Feelings are built, so design can shape them gently.
Affective Computing
Technology should notice feelings and respect them.
Daring Greatly
Vulnerability is where connection starts.
Man’s Search for Meaning
Meaning comes from what we give and how we face suffering.
Fairness
Equal dignity, and rules chosen without knowing where you’ll land.
A Theory of Justice
Choose rules without knowing your place in them.
My Own Words
Equal dignity, argued patiently.
The bigger picture
Count the far-off, the future and the long run.
Reasons and Persons
Future people and far-off people count too.
The Selfish Gene
Even “selfish” genes produce cooperation; generosity can be learned.
Built together
Trust, rituals, institutions and the patterns we pass on.
The Analects
Care grows through relationships and small, repeated rituals.
The Construction of Social Reality
Money, charities and trust exist because we agree they do.
Mary Elizabeth Garrett: Society and Philanthropy in the Gilded Age
A gift with conditions can change an institution.
Break the Cycle
Healing passes forward too.
Where they disagree
Smith vs Dawkins
Natural sympathy, or gene-level self-interest. Dawkins still argues we can rise above it.
Rawls vs Parfit
Help the worst-off first, or do the most total good, including for future people.
Frankl vs Buqué
Meaning found within suffering, or healing the systems and patterns that cause it.
That’s why there are no wrong answers.