I'm sure that this outcome was inevitable, even if Sam had never been born. I even think there are a few good lessons here. If everyone managed to calm down a bit we might even come out better off.

I'm pretty sure it looked like the card had been running for a good while, maybe a few weeks, before it went viral. It looked like it was working out pretty well. A few hours in, I checked out the twitter feed again and it was a mad house. $30 would show up one minute and be gone the next, donors were getting thanked long after the money was spent, and people were chatting about how you could turn it into a money laundering scheme or if it was all gorilla marketing. I imagined people rushing up to the counter shoving their phone at the barista before it got emptied again. It felt as unsustainable as a politician on a coke binge.

Now I'm sure lots of you didn't see it that way, and I'm not saying I'm right. But it was that same feeling that made me feel like throwing a wrench in the gears somehow, and I'm sure I'm not completely alone. Internet wisdom says you're pretty lucky it didn't end up with someone taking the money, loudly and publicly donating it to the KKK then inviting half of 4chan over to rub it all in.

One insight might be that wild, unchecked growth can end up really hurting things. I wonder if it was going a fair bit slower would Sam have bothered? Or maybe he'd have just gotten $70 and that would have felt like an easier thing to just shrug off. Maybe Jonathan would have split it into a few cards, so it could all be a little less chaotic and more personal. For me I associate that pretty strongly with the 90's tech boom. My friends worked at netscape and my gf at a yahoo purchase and people were paper loaded. The vibe was sketchy but it all rubbed off and I left a profitable old school startup for what turned out to be a worsening series of disasters culminating with watching $260M get turned into a $20M firesale with nothing much to show for it. And predictably the place with real, lame customers managed to make it through the downturn without laying anyone off.

Crazy growth can feel amazing but it can also make you lose sight of things, and the psychology of a crash can be that much worse. Switching gears, society operates within a complex system of morals, laws and customs. Those aren't symbols of the weakness of humanity - I think they show our ability to organize and keep our faults in check, allowing us to achieve more together.

Most rules and disincentives exist to help good people stay good. The lock on my neighbors door wouldn't stop a determined burglar, but if it wasn't there people would get nosy from time to time and sneak in guiltily. Jonathan's card looked to expose a bit of whimsical generosity and faith in humanity. But with no checks in place and a growing volume of cash it instead became a test. With one person able to fail the test for everyone it was practically inevitable that it all would end in tears.

I think you could see the experiment as a pretty decent success. Pretty much everyone turned out to be good, even the great villain seems more good and misguided than evil to me, I believe his plan really was to help folks who don't have enough. Plus scumbags don't stick around apologizing and asking where the money should go.It'd be easy to turn this story from a tragedy to a triumph. The best way to demonstrate people's continued faith in humanity and generosity would be to come back with just as much positive energy.

It was classed as an experiment, and you shook out a bug. Maybe if you could retain the fun and spirit but with a bit of a safety net. Say two cards existed one getting donations and transferring manageable amounts to the public card every few minutes. Maybe encourage a picture or thought from people who got a cup, just to humanize it a bit and make a few connections while discouraging abuse.

(PS I hate starbucks)