I don’t actually get paid for extra hours I work, so that’s not really a good comparison (the joys of salary).

I think, though, that I see your point. I’m “just keeping my options open”, on the off chance that I change my opinion about Facebook at some point in the future. I guess the effort (one to two hours) versus realizing a year from now that I missed a one-time chance seemed to balance towards making the effort.

If I could put in a one to two hour effort once and, say, save all the cloud leopards in the world, of course I would. The reality is, however, that we make the “big” problems seem totally insurmountable without making massive changes in everything we do.

I do things like have taps that I can quickly and easily turn off and on (while maintaining the temperature settings) so I only run the tap long enough to fill my glass or spit my toothpaste. I don’t leave it running for five minutes while I stand there… and that extra effort of stopping and starting the water probably costs me a few seconds a day, an hour or so a year, but maybe saves a few gallons of water for the future. It seems trivial, but if we only look at the big things we will never make those small changes that impact the future.

Look at recycling as an example: 30 years ago, no one would have believed that people could change so that 50% of what used to go in land fills now gets reused. It takes a few minutes a day for hundreds of millions of people, but the ultimate impact is big. I remember how huge they made the problem seem when I was a kid. But enough people got together and said “well, it might not save the world, but here is what we can do”- and did it. It hasn’t resolved our landfill problem, but it has made a major difference.

I think humans *do* make the small changes towards possible future need, if the problem can be expressed in a way that makes the effort seem worthwhile. The biggest change in human psychology will come when we, as a species, begin to consistently visualize our 6.5 billion strong impact. If every person on earth decided to throw their McDonald’s cup on the ground instead of in the garbage for a few months… imagine the damage that would be done. But we still think as if we live in a tiny village of hunter/gatherers: we don’t yet really grasp how small efforts can have huge potential payoffs.