When should I start giving?

Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success, by Adam Grant — what a great read. It argues that givers are often the most successful people around, and explains why. It can also be read as a manifesto for change: I’d already started helping people I might not have, before reading it.

But when should one start being a giver, or give giving more time? Is it better to be a matcher (or even a taker) early in one’s career, then gradually put more resources into giving? Clearly one must perform well early on, and attend to important short-term goals — publishing your first few papers, writing your thesis. On the other hand, I suspect important short-term goals never really go away. And, perhaps more importantly, giving is probably a bit like investing in a pension: early investments matter more than later ones, because interest builds on interest. If the benefits of giving have something like geometric growth, it’s never too early to start.

The intuition is simple: two exponential growth curves with the same rate of growth, but one starting a little later than the other — the gap between them just grows and grows.

That said, I’d never advise a PhD student (or postdoc) to compromise on publishing a paper. But I’d also be surprised if there wasn’t room for a little smart giving, to get that investment started.