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Kind things to do for a stranger
For someone you will probably never see again, or will see constantly and never know. No history to draw on, which makes these the most nerve-wracking and often the most memorable.
Showing 61–90 of 106 ideas
Leave the public toilet better than you found it
Someone cleans that room several times a day. Thirty seconds of tidying is the most direct help you can give a stranger.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Walk a lost person to the corner
Directions are forgotten by the second turn. Walking someone to the point where they can see it is what works.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Warn someone about the ticket they are about to get
Thirty seconds of effort saves a stranger sixty pounds they very possibly cannot spare.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Take the notes nobody volunteered for
The admin of a meeting reliably falls to the same people. Doing it once, deliberately, breaks a pattern everybody has noticed.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Write down whether a place was actually accessible
Step-free claims are frequently wrong, and disabled people plan whole days around information nobody has verified.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Tell the driver you are genuinely not in a hurry
Taxi and delivery drivers assume every passenger wants speed. Saying otherwise removes a pressure they carry all day.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Copy their manager on the thank you
A private thank you is kind. The same words with their manager copied in can change how someone's year is assessed.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Ask what they would make if you let them
People who make things all day rarely get asked their opinion by the people they make them for.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Stay with someone who has fallen
Most people who fall in public are surrounded by people who assume someone else is handling it.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Talk to the person on the door
Security staff stand in one place for twelve hours while thousands of people walk past without making eye contact.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Wave through the person with three things
You have a full trolley and eleven minutes of unpacking ahead. They have a sandwich and a train to catch.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Cover the few pounds someone is short at the till
Being short at a checkout with a queue behind you is a small public humiliation, and it is trivially preventable.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Sit with whoever started this week
New starters eat alone for longer than anyone realizes, and decide how they feel about a place in the first fortnight.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Vouch for someone you have only met online
People build real reputations in communities that are invisible to employers. Saying so out loud transfers it.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Write up the process nobody has written up
Renewing a visa, appealing a decision, navigating a diagnosis. Somebody is about to do it with no map.
An afternoonFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Say something kind to a parent having a bad time
A toddler melting down in public means a parent convinced that everyone is judging them. Usually everyone is sympathetic and silent.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Offer to take the photo for the group
Someone is always missing from the picture, and it is usually the person who organized the trip.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Pay the small place in cash
Card fees take two to three per cent from a business whose margin may be five. Cash is a quiet discount you can choose to give.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Teach six people the thing you can do
Most useful skills are held by people who do not think of themselves as qualified to teach them.
An afternoonUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Hold the door a few seconds longer
The standard distance for holding a door is about two seconds. Extending it to six costs nothing and is noticed every time.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Offer to carry the heavy thing
Someone is struggling with a suitcase, a box or shopping. Most people look away rather than risk offering.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Bring the new person into the group conversation
A circle of people talking is physically closed. Turning your body is the whole mechanism for opening it.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Name the person when the feedback is good
Complaints always name the individual. Praise almost always says 'the staff', which is unusable by a manager.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Answer the question you just solved, publicly
You spent two hours fixing something. The forum thread that nearly helped you has no answer on it.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Find out who is not allowed to accept tips
Many of the people who help you most are barred from taking money. Something small they can accept works instead.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Tell someone their free thing was useful
People maintaining open resources get bug reports and complaints. They almost never hear that it worked.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Say out loud that it is not their fault
Front-line staff absorb anger for decisions made by people the customer will never meet.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Stand at the door of whatever you go to
Most people who try a group once and never return leave because nobody spoke to them in the first four minutes.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Stack it the way they would
Clearing your table is common. Stacking it the way the person collecting it actually needs is rarer and more useful.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Say whose idea it actually was
Ideas get repeated by louder people and absorbed by the room. Ten words of attribution puts it back where it belongs.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet