How many helpful interactions can a person have every day? Unless in the wilderness, generally hundreds, maybe more — smiling at a store clerk, sharing a bit of useful information, letting another car merge smoothly onto the freeway, picking up a dropped handkerchief, etc. Easy, cheap, fun.

Maybe optimal (maximization of total expectation value of cosmic utility?) would be to work on doing more such little kindnesses, rather than trying to write a best-seller, become a celebrity, win the Big Game, etc. At ~100/day that's a few million per life ... hmmmmm!

_{(cf Underappreciated Ideas (1999-07-06), Last Good Deed (2002-08-09), Franklin's Virtues (2008-05-23), Dusty Graves (2009-10-23), ...) - ^z - 2014-05-20}