Would you rather... information

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

(With apologies to JP, I'm stealing his Monday Blog format!)

Would you rather be uninformed but feel warm and fuzzy about something you did that you thought was useful/charitable/helpful/impactful, or would you rather be informed by someone (i.e., disillusioned) the full story and feel that your action was redundant/not useful/not impactful/a waste of energy?

[drmomentum[$]]

Rather be informed.

I'd get the warm/fuzzy for a while anyway, but being informed would help me for the next time.

[theworm[$]]

need more info.
I won't vote yet, but I'm thinking warm and fuzzy. (not a suprise, huh - I need my warm fuzzies)
This person that filled you in - what makes them expert? Maybe what you did was charitable and wonderful for just one person, and that's enough to feel fuzzy about.

[jgibson2[$]]

Rather be informed, but by someone who would do it gently, not in a neener, neener sort of way.

[theworm[$]]

I don't like the part where it makes you feel redundant, because if it was something done from the heart, it should still give you fuzzies - even if maybe you would do something different in the future.
there needs to be a third option.

[amykhar]

uninformed. I feel far too many people take great delight in bursting people's bubbles.

[Prepoia[$]]

If someone's intent is to be helpful/charitable/etc. why would anyone feel it necessary to tell them it wasn't? They were being charitable and all the rest because they cared enough to try. If no great impact happened to be felt, so what? They tried and that's as important and they should feel good for giving it a go. And, I agree with Amy....if someone is being nice than appreciate the niceness not just the outcome because otherwise you are just bursting someone's bubble to make yourself feel good or look good. Now some good intentions turn out to hurt someone in some way and I'd want to know that; but if they are just good intentions with no outcome worth speaking about, then I would let it go. Good for them for caring enough to try.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

theworm said

need more info.

Say you made a $$ donation to the XYZDisease Association, thinking it would help XYZDisease research, and a friend of yours had a relative with XYZDisease knew that the XYZDisease Association was a fake charity that only forwarded 5% of your donation to research. Or you've been collecting and sending widgets to an address that promised to help a bunch of people who need widgets, while someone in the town you're sending widgets to knows that there is a surplus of widgets and most of the widgets that were received were thrown out, at some expense to the widget recipients. (The second is a redundancy example.) The people doing the disillusionment are not being neener-neener, they figure you're interested in the cause and want to help, so they are interested in you maximizing your assistance to the cause.

[Prepoia[$]]

In those examples, I would feel stupid not knowing and would want to be enlightened in a nice way.

[amykhar]

I would want to know too.

[emeleel]

I would like to know, too, but not only would I not want the person to tell me in a neener-neener way, but neither would I want a "how could you be so stupid?!" way.

[theworm[$]]

in that case I would like to know, but it wouldn't make me feel bad.
It would just redirect me to a better donation place for the next time.
It's all about motive.

[mtbat]

I would rather know the truth, whatever that might be.

[pippadaisy[$]]

I'd want to know. But I'd be PISSED at the organization.

[drmomentum[$]]

If I want to know, then telling me is valuable. If they get their jollies by being a jerk when they tell me... well, payback's a bitch.



-JP