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Reading through these, some seem self- serving in a way, although still good deeds.
I was going to say that I write a bunch of OSS, but that's mostly selfish since I use everything I write. It's the "scratching the itch." I will rarely write something that I have no intention of using myself. The most selfless aspect of this is that there are a few distributions that I also maintain the packages for - again, for stuff I write, and a couple of them are not distros I use. But when I introspect about this, am I doing it in the true spirit of intoku, or am I secretly hoping this will encourage others to use my software and thereby increase my mana? Is it ultimately self-serving?
I snow-plow the sidewalk in front of my house; the HOA requires it, so although I'd do it anyway, I get no karma. I also plow in front of my neighbor's house, so that he doesn't have to if he's not feeling it. I suppose that counts, although he knows who's going it. OTOH, I used to do the neighbor's sidewalk on the other side, but after two years and not a single recognition or "thanks," I stopped. So I guess it's not true intoku after all.
I pick up trash and bin it when walking through the city if it's convenient - even that's because it makes my experience nicer. Plus, there's the tiny dopamine reward of doing the right thing that can't be discounted.
Nope. I can't think of a single, truly selfless thing I do that isn't in some way self-serving.
I doubt that a truly selfless act of charity exists. Even if you're just giving money away anonymously you're still probably feeling good about it and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. That's not really what my question was about.
Agreed.
Feeling good about oneself shouldn't be guilted.
Oh, ok. I've been binging The Good Place, which is making me think about these things.
I do wonder what connotations intoku has for the Japanese. There must be boundaries, where some things qualify and some things don't. I get a tax break for charitable giving; it's still a net loss, b/c the tax break doesn't recover very much of the donation, but... is that intoku? Does the fact that my neighbor sometimes snowblows my sidewalk if he gets to it first make it transactional - is it still intoku? And the very definition you quoted: "when no-one is watching" - does the fact that I know that he knows it's me doing it make it not intoku?
I'm really curious about the word and what boundaries the Japanese would put around is/not intoku. Or is it like trying to define "art" - it's impossible, really.
Epicurus has entered the chat.