21 Ways To Make The World A Better Place
A list of high-impact ideas to incorporate in your life
Hi,
People often look at headlines of war, financial panics, or technological fears and feel we’re doomed. Even worse, we feel we’re powerless individuals who can’t do anything in a world run by politicians and billionaires.
But that’s not true. High-agency, optimistic humans have often come together to do incredible things and make the world a better place.
Instead of focusing on what we can’t, we must put all our energies into what we can.
So I decided to make a list of things we can all do to improve the state of the world. Here we go:
Donate: You most likely live under a solid roof and don’t have to worry about your next meal. That’s not the case for more than half of humankind today. Acknowledge how lucky you are to have all of those things, and donate money to those who aren’t. Contribute to any cause of your choice- girl child education, food provision, orphanages, or old age homes. It’s the most direct way to have a positive impact on humanity. And if you think, “But I already pay a lot of taxes”, remember that the government is not a good allocator of capital. If the goal is to lift humanity & if you’re privileged, you can’t rely on taxes to do the job.
Random acts of kindness: Make someone’s day. Offer them a gift, offer them a meal, or just do something for them while they’re struggling with it. Not only will the recipient be delighted, but it’d send a powerful signal to them (and to those witnessing the act): that humanity is still alive. People do care for others. We can transcend our narrow self-interest and go out of our way. It reinforces the idea that mutual aid still exists- and humans can go a long way together.
Tip: Offer a generous tip to waiters, delivery partners, and other blue-collar workers who serve you. Again, not only is it a way of offering financial support, it’s a message: that people aren’t consumerist drones who solely care about receiving their triple cheese burger and getting to work stuffing their fat faces. It’s a way of saying, “I think about the effort you put in for me. I know it’s hard to run around making deliveries all day. I’m grateful that you did that for me”.
Build inner calm: Meditate. Embrace boredom. Go for long walks without earphones. Building a mind that's calm and not addicted to stimulus paves the way for critical thinking. It resists rage, fake news, and mindless advertising. And it produces the foundation for a more thoughtful life- one that’s lived based on an appreciation of values, long-standing wisdom, and rationality, not influencer hot takes, culture wars, and viral trends that feed the spiral of negativity and meaninglessness. Every drop makes up the ocean- purify the one you represent.
Quit meat: Quitting meat is a high-leverage act of positivity: it saves multiple animals from torture & death (that you’d have otherwise consumed), it vastly reduces your carbon footprint, it improves your health, and it’s good for the environment. Future generations will look at eating meat the same way we look at slavery or smoking. Be on the right side of history.
Volunteer: Go teach some kids, or feed the starving. Contributing your time is even better than contributing money. And here’s the bonus effect: helping others always improves our self-image and makes us feel good about ourselves. And a mind that feels nice and positive can do much more for others (like going for more drives, or nudging friends to give it a shot once), unleashing a virtuous cycle.
The world can be as happy as these dumb AI-generated characters Reuse and reduce wastage: Instead of being depressed about climate change and getting drunk on a few bottles of Romanov, do what you can. Stop throwing shit away. Start reusing and repurposing stuff lying around in your house, so you need to buy less. Indians are historical experts at this stuff, so just take it into overdrive. Patch a shoe or a pair of jeans with a tear. Re-use ice cream packs for storage and old clothes as wipes. The longer we use and reuse stuff, the lesser we fuel the wastage economy.
Give Interest-free loans: Offer interest-free loans to your maid, cook, driver, or any other low-wage employee. It enables them to dodge the loan sharks and achieve important goals- like putting a kid through school or getting educational material- that’d otherwise have been sacrificed because they either have no means of getting capital or are stuck in debt slavery. Imagine what can happen if all of us encouraged our house-help to ensure that their kids complete their education the right way (by acting as a fallback option for financial help). Charity truly begins at home.
Collective action: We feel corporations and politicians are all-powerful and can do whatever they want. But time and again, I’ve been surprised by resident groups or local communities defending their rights. I recently heard about how people worked together to block the destruction of mangroves for some shitty real estate project in Mumbai, and that gave me a lot of hope. We often forget that politicians work for us. Sometimes, we need to coordinate and make our demands heard loudly.
Provide mentorship: We’ve all reached wherever we are because at various points, some kind and experienced person decided to show us the way. We need to pass it on to more people who’re bumbling through a fog of confusion while dealing with issues across jobs, startups, education, or immigration. If you’re an experienced professional, make it a point to groom juniors beyond just your job role, guide college kids, and volunteer to do talks/sessions. Even if one person listens to your experience (with something you’re reasonably good at, of course) and it benefits them, it creates positive ripple effects and encourages the beneficiary to pass it on at some future point in their career.
Smile and thank people: The world is a better place when people smile at each other. Each smile is a positive nudge and a mood lifter. And each time you smile at a blue-collar worker (like cleaning staff or auto drivers), it’s even better. You are acknowledging their humanity, showing that you care about them and don’t merely see them as “workers”. They’re especially starved of warmth, even though society would crumble if they stopped working. Give them positive nudges (and offer help if possible), wherever needed. Oftentimes, it might just be the fuel that helps them go on with their very difficult jobs.
Raise kids mindfully: The best way to make the world better is to raise better humans who will in turn create a better society. And if you are the kind of person who cares about the world and already does a lot of the aforementioned things, you’re the best person to bring another life to the plane. If we teach our kids to have the right values, be kind & helpful, and have a non-zero sum mindset, we can genuinely change the face of the planet, one cute kid at a time.
Contribute to the commons: Plant trees, go for clean-ups, and see what you can do for your locality. A society grows on the back of its commons- and as privileged people, we have a responsibility towards maintaining them. This is even more important in India, where the rich can resort to private solutions for anything, and so all that the masses have is the public commons. We must maintain and nourish them.
Use long-lasting stuff: In a world of planned obsolescence, make it a point to buy goods that can last a long time. Infinite availability of products doesn’t mean that constantly buying them is a good idea. Live like your ancestors: make stuff last, be frugal, and consume only what’s needed. You also save more this way- money that could be donated, or used on other life-enhancing experiences.
Share knowledge: If you learn stuff that has had a positive effect on you or others, pass it on. The biggest payoff of writing this newsletter isn’t the subscribers I have gained. It’s every time someone messages me saying they went for a Vipassana course (maybe after reading this, this, or this piece) and how helpful it has been. A happy and calm person may then go on to help others in myriad ways. That’s the virtuous cycle of doing good.
Support local businesses: As corporations try their best to wipe out every small business, make it a point to support local businesses and buy from the small guys. It’s not in our best interest to surrender our lives to megacorporations that harvest our data, surveil us, and train us to keep scrolling & buying mindlessly. Resist the slide into techno-feudalism. Support the local shops.
Travel mindfully: Traveling can change us in positive ways- exposing us to new ways of living, zap us out of our default states (which for most people is the mindless pursuit of wealth and status), and help us gain empathy for the ‘other’- people from other tribes whom the politicians will regularly try to pit us against. Mindful traveling can also help support local businesses in other places and help us foster new connections with humans and nature- something that the modern digital panopticon is designed to reduce.
Repair things: Learn how to repair or patch things- like shirts or shoes, or taps. Rebel against wastage. Prioritizing fixing over discarding is an important meta-mindset: it makes us more keen to make things work and less prone to always finding the path of least resistance. It is a rebellion against disposability- of things, people, relationships.
Read widely to de-educate yourself: Not only did we have inadequate education, but we’ve also been programmed by the media, politicians, and billionaires to believe stuff that keeps them wealthy, ossifies power structures, and keeps the wars, negativity, and hatred going. Make it a point to read widely and sharpen your critical thinking skills instead of succumbing to the latest narrative. When we de-educate ourselves, we’re harder to manipulate.
Be dependable for 3 people: We can’t do much for a flood or earthquake 400 kms away. But what we can do is be a pillar of support for just a few people in our lives- for whom we can quit our jobs, travel anywhere, and leave anything. In an age of isolation and eroding social ties, cultivating deep relationships and developing such mutual aid networks is a powerful way of creating hope and instilling faith in a better tomorrow.
Vote with your wallet: Store the fruits of your labour in a vehicle that needs no permissions and cannot be seized, censored, or debased. One of the biggest problems in the world today is that our money system is broken and captured by the elites. Opt out of that system. There are ways to do that- you just need to open your eyes and figure out what I’m saying.
I hope this piece gave you some hope. Share it with a nihilistic friend who thinks we’re doomed, so they know they can do a lot to change our reality.
In a world gripped by despair, dare to be an optimist.