Charles Goodyear, the inventor of vulcanized rubber, wrote in his memoir, "Inventors are the children of misfortune and want."
Goodyear himself suffered unbelievable hardships during his life, even after making one of the greatest discoveries of the nineteenth century.
It's a good a time as ever to reveal "Die Penniless". It's a checklist / personal assessment system for creative geniuses who want to make history. For first access when it launches, please sign up here: http://diepenniless.com
I stopped using MaxCDN since a website I took offline months earlier suddenly achieved "bandwidth overage" according to them, and my credit card was charged.
Recently, they advertised they now provide server logs to prove usage, but I'm done with them.
"How do I quit smoking?"..."highlight of my day"..."helps me relax"...
Do you see what you're doing here? Smoking is at the center of your universe. There is NO WAY you will quit an addiction like smoking until you refuse to even acknowledge its existence.
Get rid of your thinking first, then you'll easily get rid of the addiction.
FYI: I smoked for 10 years before I quit. That was 10 years ago.
As I commented earlier, I ALWAYS give and I NEVER judge. I do this because I'm a Latter-Day Saint[1] and God explicitly spells out in the Book of Mormon[2] how we should respond in such a situation:
Succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
I wonder if Elohim would accept increasing one's tithe a bit as sufficient repentance. While I dropped Mormonism after I left childhood, I still find little thought patterns in myself like wanting to give by default that I think are most simply explained by my upbringing in a smallish (~13,000 to ~26,000 over my first 10 years) city in Utah and around a close-by and religiously-involved extended family, plus cub/boy scouts.
When I see bums nowadays I think I should always give to them, but two beliefs have saved me from letting guilt get to me since about 99% or more of the time I don't give. (Especially if I'm in a bum-heavy area like Vancouver or Seattle or if I can quickly rationalize it away by the fact I don't usually carry cash or finding a place to buy a banana or whatever would be out of my planned way.) First is my relative lack of spare money since I've only recently finished college and don't have a nest egg (I do believe in paying myself first), second is my belief in optimizing charity (see the GiveWell comment). Every time I see a bum and don't give, I try to make a small mental note to donate an additional $5-$10 to my chosen non-profit at some point in the future. I've got a few hundred dollar backlog right now due to financial constraints (fortunately I don't see too many bums in my area), but this has worked out in the past. Sometimes I do give anyway, and I do feel good, and it's not just the feeling of guilt relief. Though I feel a lot better helping people who are trying to help themselves, I do judge, and I feel best helping friends and some family especially when they don't ask. In the end I'm glad when I can live with my decisions and am able to "repent" mistakes not for fear of perishing forever but because they were mistakes that I eventually recognized as such.
I was really ashamed after I read your answer. I'm still not 100% sure that's the spirit I'm willing to adopt, but there is something to it that feels right. I will think about it.
What about after you give them money and they look down at their hand like "WTF? That's it?" and walk away disgusted (or just stare at you)? Do you judge then?
I'm not making this up to be combative. I use to carry a bunch of coins in a quickly accessible pocket just to give to anyone who asks because I hate having to internally debate it every time. The passive beggars are always fine, but I've had frustrating experiences with the active ones (especially the drunk and mentally disturbed).
I'd say they were in good company.
On a quasi-related note, here's a project I'm launching soon. It's for innovators: http://diepenniless.com