Tim Ferriss is promoting a new charity idea that he is working on called LitLiberation.

It’s not really my thing but I think it would be really cool if a charity announced a partnership with WheresGeorge.com, the money tracking site. All charitable donations would converted to cash before they were deposited and then their serial numbers would be entered into the database. For the rest of that bill’s circulation, as it was tracked by its exchangers, the donation giver’s name would show up as the originator and labeled as “charitable.” But more importantly, they could trace its path all over the world, seeing the “good” that it is doing–maintaining ownership in a way that keeping it would have never really touched. And here’s the thing, it looks like the ultimate transparency, a truly open charity. But it’s really since it all goes to the bank, they aren’t significantly more accountable then they are now. Wouldn’t every other charity have to do the same thing? I know where I would put my money.

When people screw up in front of me, the first thing I like to think about is how close I’ve come to doing the same thing. Or, how many times I’ve probably done it and never even known.

Last week, I spoke to advertising company about working for just one of the Rudius sites. Later in the conversation, I dropped another major client in their lap, for the good of everyone involved. And by major, I mean a site who’s pageviews are measured in the millions, monthly. The person on the phone, thinking that the Rudius property was of little value, turned around and gave the private information to a competitor. Thinking that I was little, and thus didn’t matter, he felt that it was safe to act without integrity. But the problem with that is that you never know who someone has lines of communications with and who else is packaged along with them. In the midst of what the rep thought was a big coup for he and his sales friends, he fucked himself out of nearly 30 million monthly pageviews and that’s just the immediate present. More than that, he placed me in a troublesome situation, for which I will never forgive his company.

It is almost never safe to act without integrity. And even more dangerous to think that you can get away with it. You won’t be confronted about it, people will just move on. Rudius will go with another advertiser (because you can’t be trusted) and I don’t plan on recommending this to any of the other properties that I’m working to monetize.

For me, I’m quickly learning that people often have influence where you wouldn’t expect them to have–especially when knowledge is scarce. But more importantly, since I know that I purposely reveal very little about myself, most other people do it too. It’s better to be safe and treat people right, then the folly of underestimation.

On Tuesday night, I ran until I vomited, wiped off my mouth and kept going. Goddamn it felt good.