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The expression was popularized by the best-selling novel “Pay It Forward” ... The protagonist does three good deeds and asks the beneficiaries to do three good

by 001sky 13y ago

The expression was popularized by the best-selling novel “Pay It Forward” ... The protagonist does three good deeds and asks the beneficiaries to do three good deeds and so on. The origins of this term are somewhat different, and worth noting. The normal mode of reciporocity is to 'pay it back'. However, there are certain times when this would be physically impossible. This is the origin of 'pay it forward'. It results from the humble notion: I can never pay it back, so I will pay it forward. It has nothing to do with scaling (3x), nor contingency (i did this for you, now you do this...etc). It is a response to an actual act of kindness or generosity that precisely lacks such a contingency (most usually because you will never interact with the person that helped you out, ever again). It would have been nice for the NY Times piece to note this correctly! Its just too bad that the actual understanding of the term could not be promulgated through what is otherwise a good piece (likely to be widely read).

oskarth 13y ago
Great comment, very interesting. Have you considered emailing the author/editor? Genuine corrections have a decent chance of being included.
cstejerean 13y ago
"While confusing in the context of paying for the car behind you in a drive-through, “pay it forward” means to repay a kindness by being kind to someone else rather than the person who was kind to you." The article didn't claim it had anything to do with 3x. That was simply explaining the version in the movie, which did in fact popularize the term.
- 001sky 13y ago
  A proper definition of any term should not be consistent with its mis-use. The term from the movie is a ~mis-use, and yet the term as elsewhwere defined (by your quote) is consistent with the mis-use. Its not technically 'false', but it suffers from an 'error of omission', for not having the correct level of granularity (to avoid confusion).

by 001sky 13y ago

oskarth 13y ago

Great comment, very interesting. Have you considered emailing the author/editor? Genuine corrections have a decent chance of being included.

cstejerean 13y ago

"While confusing in the context of paying for the car behind you in a drive-through, “pay it forward” means to repay a kindness by being kind to someone else rather than the person who was kind to you." The article didn't claim it had anything to do with 3x. That was simply explaining the version in the movie, which did in fact popularize the term.

001sky 13y ago
A proper definition of any term should not be consistent with its mis-use. The term from the movie is a ~mis-use, and yet the term as elsewhwere defined (by your quote) is consistent with the mis-use. Its not technically 'false', but it suffers from an 'error of omission', for not having the correct level of granularity (to avoid confusion).