Act Without a Guarantee That It Will Matter

We often justify action by saying it will make a difference.

Sometimes we have strong evidence that it will.

Sometimes the claim is mostly hope.

A harder question appears when the outcome cannot be guaranteed.

Do we still act?

A remark associated with Werner Erhard's work about action and outcome sharpens this inquiry without requiring a deterministic conclusion about fate or free will.

It is enough to notice that action and control of outcome are different.

We can vote without controlling an election.

We can tell the truth without controlling how it is received.

We can help someone without controlling what happens after the help.

We can build, teach, protest, repair, create, or care without possessing the final result.

This does not make consequences irrelevant.

Good action still requires evidence, judgment, revision, and attention to effects.

It means commitment cannot always wait for certainty that the world will reward the effort exactly as intended.

Some actions are chosen because they express what we are prepared to stand for under uncertainty.

Impact matters.

So does the willingness to act before impact can be guaranteed.