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> what is an effective way to communicate that you want to be an effective do-gooder, without triggering the cynicism?

A more important question, I believe is: is there a way for such method to not be immediately perverted by those seeking to exploit the status bonus? I can't imagine there is; it seems to me that every honest signal that brings goodwill is soon coopted by scammers and marketers.

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I think communicating your do-gooder status in a hyper connected society is highly over rated. Its like trying to figure out who is the best ant in the ant-hill. Not because there is some value to it to the ant hill, but because the data allows us to count and rank things.

We have all this data pouring in and so have ant rankings. But if Bill Gates gets hit by a bus tomorrow world history isn't going to change much. Wasn't the case in a less connected world in the past.

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