There's a famous story often repeated in talks about "the power of words."
A blind boy holds a sign: "I am blind. Please help."
A passerby rewrites it to: "Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it."
Donations supposedly increase.
But I've always felt uneasy about this.
The second line is emotionally loaded, yes. But as a CTA, it's vague. It guilt-trips the reader without saying what action to take. And more importantly — it gives nothing back.
A different kind of exchange
Years ago in São Paulo, I met a man on Paulista Ave — soaked from drizzle, clothes torn, asking if I had coins for food.
I only had a few reais. I apologized, handed them over, and told him it wasn't enough for what he wanted.
He looked at me, made the sign of the cross, said "God bless you," and disappeared into the rain and the crowd.
It felt like he gave me something greater than what I'd given him. Not pity. Not manipulation. Just a tiny exchange of dignity and meaning.
That moment changed how I think about value.
UX is value exchange
We talk about UX as if it's screens and flows. But at its core, UX is value exchange — and value isn't limited to what we own. It can be a word, a gesture, a moment of recognition.
If you had nothing — no tools, no skills, no safety net — what could you invent as value?
Not nostalgia. Not purity. Just imagination doing what it always does: taking whatever is left and turning it into something that moves someone.
Most people underestimate how much value they can create from zero.