Ben Pace from LessWrong rethinks apologies through an unexpected lens: financial accounting. His argument? Sometimes you should apologize not because you should have known better, but because you want to assure others that knowing you won't leave them worse off. Think of it as a ledger of social costs. If your joke ruins someone's mood, if you bump into them while rushing, you're not admitting fault—you're saying: that cost is on me. You'll own the consequences even if you couldn't prevent them. It's less about blame and more about being a person others can trust to clean up their own mess. The payoff: you can take meaningful risks—crack risky jokes, ask friends on ventures—while still assuring people they won't be damaged by knowing you.

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