• "This one little example of the world like not always being totally on my side and I start rethinking my entire policy of being intentionally over-trusting. Which is a thing that I actually think about. I want to be that.
• So this guy definitely stole 50-60 bucks from me but that, by far, was not the greatest, like, negative impact that this experience had on me. Suddenly I'm thinking, how do I avoid getting taken advantage of again? All the space in my brain that my new theft protection algorithms are going to take up and just generally building a wall between me and the world that's gonna decrease my enjoyment of the world.
• And this, from me, a guy who's pretty much got the whole world on his side. I'm a straight white dude with money. Just one little betrayal and I'm rethinking the way I think about all other humans? Come on! Maybe every act of trust is a gamble that we choose to make. But I think the feeling of being taken advantage of is way less pleasant than the feeling of having your trust be justified and having the good, desired outcome happen.
• On the scale of violations of trust, of course, a taxi driver stealing your money and you not being smart enough to realize it's happening is really far down the scale. I don't want to stay this was like a huge, terrible thing that happened to me. I'm just surprised the impact it had on me and I feel like if I let that change the way I think about the world, that's not bad for the scammer, or the thief, that's bad for me.
• But if that guy is rationalizing his theft - or if anybody is rationalizing them taking advantage of other people by saying "yeah that person can afford to have that stuff taken from them (whatever that is." Maybe. Maybe that's the case. Maybe I can afford to have $60 stolen from me. But I don't think that our society can afford to be constantly looking over its shoulder.
• We have to be able to trust each other or society falls apart. That to me is the true, untold, unrecognized cost of being the kind of person who takes advantage of other people's trust. That thing, not the theft, is what ends up making the world a significantly worse place."

- Hank Green