The Old-Fashioned Skill of Giving a Damn
We know the term, but just in case: "giving a damn" refers to the act of showing genuine concern about someone or something. It encompasses a mental investment in a particular situation or cause, and it implies a willingness to go beyond mere passive observation and actively engage with the matter at hand. It involves taking action, offering enduring support, and demonstrating a desire to make a positive difference in the state of affairs.
In essence, giving a damn means caring, irrespective of the thing itself. From putting the toilet seat up (and down), paying attention to the autocorrector, a JIRA ticket, telemetry data from a machine, an email or a message in Slack, an action item from a meeting. Those who give no fucks will not give a single fraction of a flying fuck all across the spectrum, from the complex to the niceties.
It’s becoming rarer to find people who truly give a damn. In reality, what you more easily find are the zero-fucks-given kind, cynically unbothered to sustain in time any mental engagement. For the no-shits-given master race, the damns’ supply drops rapidly and steeply. They quickly move on and do not look back, while feeling no remorse because the cognitive process by which one feels the pressure of taking care of things unattended does not seem to be there. For the no-fucks-given movement, things go die alone in an Elephant’s’ Graveyard1 of sorts, get magically sorted. I have to admit, it must feel great to have such mental freedom to neglect what clearly must be done.
Work, in general, is about a variety of things popping up into existence. Some things emerge as expected, some others appear out of the blue. Whatever their nature, things have a life cycle, from appearance to closure. Sure, there is joy at the genesis—the thrill of the novelty—while there is not much glamour in the steady state, in the maintenance, the monitoring.
Giving a damn is one of those behaviors you can only see in action—or should I say inaction?—but you can never ask about. Obviously, if you ask anyone “do you give a shit?” what do you think they will say? Of course they’ll say they are walking factories of shiny damns.
The final message here shall be: do give a damn. Give tons of them. Never stop giving a damn. Follow things up, own them, get them monitored and closed. Everything that comes to existence needs a decent level of attention.
An elephants' graveyard is a place where, according to legend, older elephants instinctively direct themselves when they reach a certain age. According to this legend, these elephants would then die there alone, far from the group. However, there is no evidence in support of the existence of the elephants' graveyard.