The Cult of Caring
Welcome to my sixth post in the Advent of Writing series.
The world isn’t divided between geniuses and the rest. It’s divided between people who care and people who don’t. In one of my tweets/X posts, I declared that I’m founding the Cult of Caring. I’d always felt there was something there, but I never really knew how to express it. Grant Slatton’s blog, Nobody Cares, really nailed it and helped me dress my thoughts and feelings in words.
As Grant lays out, plenty of things in the world just suck. The DMV, Jira, most public transportation, etc. And the thing is, most of these could be excellent with just a little more effort. But they’re not, because nobody cares enough to make that effort.
To hammer the point home, here’s a wonderful quote from Tobias Lütke, CEO & Co-Founder of Shopify:
The quality at the end of the day is simply a reflection of how much the people who created it gave a shit about the product.
I strongly subscribe to valuing quality. Honestly, I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s guilt, or maybe I simply don’t find it fun to work on things where I can’t go all in and really hone them.
Anyway, here’s my thesis. It’s biased toward building software, but you can generalize it.
If you want to be in the top 1% of anything, you have to start by caring. Skill, talent, a good education, or other circumstantial advantages give you a decent foundation. But beyond that, you need persistence and caring. Show up every day and let it compound. When you feel like you’re done, ask yourself: Can I add a tiny polish that makes this even 1-2% better? But note, caring and grinding aren’t the same thing, which brings me to my next point.
Caring comes from having honest empathy for the person using your product. Grinding doesn’t. Grinding is effort without intention. Caring is intention that shapes effort. You put in five more minutes because you genuinely want someone to have a good experience. You care how they’ll feel when they use what you built. Simultaneously, caring doesn’t mean perfectionism. It doesn’t mean burnout. It means refusing to ship something you wouldn’t enjoy using yourself.
Caring makes you cut the bullshit. It forces you to focus on what matters and prioritize brutally. You’re aiming for greatness in one area, so drop the distractions. Do one thing and do it well. The rest won’t matter. Look at Google or now ChatGPT: one box, one input, no distractions.
Now, I’m not perfect. I don’t live by these principles 100% of the time, unfortunately. But this mindset is something I strive toward. Could I have pushed more on this blog post and made it even better? Probably. Use your common sense and keep things in balance and perspective.
Tomorrow, whatever you do, do it with care. That’s how the Cult of Caring grows.