My wife sent me this poem written by Mark Twain. It was originally written as a reflex of outrage surrounding the Philippine-American War of 1899, but wasn’t published until the beginning of the First World War.

The intent of it is to call out the unspoken part of prayer, the part that calls everything into balance. If you wish for your own victory, that means you wish for the defeat of someone else.

It is a great reminder that there are always two sides to every story. Life is subjective. Your experiences are just one data point. It doesn’t mean your feelings are invalid; it just means everyone experiences life in different ways.

To me, there’s no option but to give the money back. Being a tech worker is not like banking, where you know you’re not doing good for society. A lot of tech workers delude themselves into thinking they’re being “mission oriented.” I was never quite delusional enough to believe that. I was just hoping I didn’t do net harm, which in itself is hard to avoid in this industry. I want to spend and donate as much as I can in my lifetime, and if I’m able to have the money create meaning, that’d be good. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with it yet, though.