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The Ben Franklin Effect 🤨

2024-02-01 · Short · Ali · recording, 1:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Relationships and personal life · mode: Personal story · tags: Feel-Good Productivity thesis

In an extract from his book Feel-Good Productivity, Ali tells how Benjamin Franklin in 1737 won over a rival legislator in the Pennsylvania Assembly by asking to borrow a book, and draws the lesson that asking for help is a gift to the other person: it makes them think better of us and feel better too.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Asking for help as a gift: Benjamin Franklin borrows his rival's book

  • ★★★ Ali says asking others for help can be a gift to them, rather than the burden we usually assume it will be. — 00:00:00

    “a gift to them rather than the burden we usually assume it will be”

  • ★★ Ali tells how in 1737 Benjamin Franklin, running for re-election to the Pennsylvania Assembly, faced a rival legislator's campaign against him, wrote asking to borrow a book from him, got it at once, and returned it with a note saying how much he enjoyed it. — 00:00:00

  • ★★ Benjamin Franklin (quoted): Benjamin Franklin wrote that when he next met the rival legislator in the House, the man spoke to him for the first time, with great civility, and they became friends until the man's death. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Ali explains that Franklin's rival could not reconcile having helped someone he disagreed with, so he began to see Franklin in a new light and his attitude towards him changed for the better. — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ Ali says the Benjamin Franklin effect suggests that asking someone for help is likely to make them think better of us, so we can ask others for help, which will help them feel better too. — 00:00:29

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Ben Franklin effect · Benjamin Franklin

Also: Pennsylvania Assembly

Only in the description or credits: Feel-Good Productivity (book)

Also centred on Ben Franklin effect: The Ben Franklin Effect 👴🏻

Also centred on Benjamin Franklin: The Ben Franklin Effect 👴🏻

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