My Dear Hard Drive

Isn’t it funny, when someone is saying that to us, we pretty much know that what we are about to be offered is either free nor a gift. First of all, “gift” is by definition:

something voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation

And “free” by definition is:

not costing or charging anything

Compensation is defined as follows:

something that constitutes an equivalent or recompense

So, “compensation” can include work or favours. “You do this and as a compensation, I’ll give you this.” No money is transferred, and an object or service is changing hands, ‘given’ but it’s not a gift but a compensation. Therefore, someone offering a “free gift” is actually merely returning a favour or compensating a favour.

When someone truly gives you a gift and you offer to give something in return, they will tell you: “Oh don’t be silly, it’s a gift!” If someone would tell you this: “Hey, I could give you this gift but you’ll have to do this for me first…” you would probably say: “That’s not a gift, that’s a returned favour!”

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