this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2025
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Don't be mean. I promise to do my best to judge that fairly.
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I guess it's often just hard to see how the tiny things we do affect people when we're living in real time. If I make someone smile at work or on here, I won't see how that smile prevented them from getting into a stressed out argument with someone later on, that kept them from losing their job, which kept them from holding up a store to make ends meet. It's easy to look back and say somebody shoulda kept that Austrian from coming to power back in the day though.
We don't typically get feedback about our tiny moments. I try to post happy stuff here (or at least helpful) and it always feels so good when people say that I gave them a smile for the day. I don't know what kind of days you all are having, and if an inconsequential thing I do can give you a boost, I think that's an awesome thing. Hearing that makes me feel better on days I'm really down on myself as well. I try to let people know how important their interactions are, but a lot of people find it difficult to accept that compliment or see it as not sarcastic, because a lot of people don't seem to take that time.
It might make you happy to learn about the Pareto Principle. The basic idea is “that, for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes”
In this context (and to my understanding, which as a layperson, may be flawed), I figure that only 20% of people who get a smile from your comment would make 80% of the comments actually telling you they smiled. That means there must be many more people who took joy from whatever you said/did, but only about 1 out of 5 of them commented about it.
You’re likely spreading more smiles than you realize. ☺️
This is one of the reasons I like the lemvotes tool that lets anyone see the names of who upvotes or downvotes. While it is easy to use it for petty reasons, I first used it to show myself 99% of my downvotes are likely just accidents, and only 1 person on Lemmy actively hates me, owls, or both. The main thing I love about it is I get to see the lurkers that may not have anything to say, but quietly enjoy what I do. The upvotes themselves don't mean much, but it reminds me those are people showing love for the things I share.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
I am glad to hear it! 🦉