Immediate relief and long-term good are not always the same act. Giving cash to someone in trouble may help or may sustain the trouble, and only knowing the person and the situation tells you which. Generosity that never asks that question is really about how giving feels.

When the stakes are real, slow down and think about the year rather than the afternoon. Sometimes the answer is still the immediate help, and it is a better answer for having been examined rather than assumed.