Perhaps this is the growing interest in zen buddhism talking, or perhaps it's something else, but I've grown more and more weary of this kind of reasoning. It'

Perhaps this is the growing interest in zen buddhism talking, or perhaps it's something else, but I've grown more and more weary of this kind of reasoning. It's not that I disagree, it's more that it strikes me as a too-rational approach that doesn't really fit with what I learned about human behavior. All else being equal, theoretically, obviously taking on the 'big questions' and being an 'idea guy' is probably better than volunteering in a soup kitchen. But more often than not, based on my own thinking and conversations with friends, talking about the big picture leads to 1) a kind of analysis paralysis, and 2) the issue being too abstract for us to push through this paralysis. There are so many paths I can think of that lead a person to bigger, more structural 'idea' solutions via, as you put it, the "can't" type approach: frustration over 'mopping with the tap open', a friendship with an addict, homeless person, etc. Furthermore, by skipping the small stuff, we might end up coming up with 'idea guy' solutions that are not based on a proper understanding of the problem. I've seen a lot of that kind of non-solution in particular from 'idealistic highly-educated, idea-focused' people who sometimes even make the situation worse by not having spent enough time 'in the trenches'. Now to be fair I've also experienced the other end of the spectrum: a particular one that comes to mind is 'volunteer tourism' in developing areas that severely upset more structural efforts but made the tourist feel like they did something. But than even that end, looking back, serves a purpose. These 'tourists' often provided an optimistic energy that we 'non-local locals' had lost over time. I guess my point is that I think anything is better than nothing, but if you're gonna start somewhere, start with the thing that activates your emotion and only then put in effort to optimize for effect. Because I think the primary problem for many of us idea-people is that we don't care enough, or don't know what to care about, not a desire to 'do good'.