Activities that produce profit can be done by another person through:

• Outsourcing - The other does it for me
• Competition - The other does it instead of me

Meanwhile, activities that lead to benefit can never be delegated. These are:

• Gestures
• Acts
• Living moments

“Living, in the deepest sense, is something no one else can do for us.”

We need to allot more time on things that we can do by ourselves.

Walking is something we can only do by ourself.

To do

• Research where Thoreau asked the question "Could someone else do it in my place"

References

Gros, F. (2014). A Philosophy of Walking. Verso.

The difference between profit and benefit is that operations producing profit can be carried out by another in my place: he would make the profit, unless he was acting on my behalf. But the fact remains that profitable activity can always be carried out by someone else. Hence the principle of competition. On the other hand, what is beneficial to me depends on gestures, acts, living moments which it would be impossible for me to delegate. Thoreau wrote in a letter that when considering a course of action, one should ask: ‘Could someone else do it in my place?’ If the answer is yes, abandon the idea, unless it is absolutely essential. But it is still not bound up in the inevitable part of life. Living, in the deepest sense, is something no one else can do for us. You can be replaced at work, but not for walking. That’s the great difference.