About this quote

Decisions look different when you picture the person with the least power to absorb a bad one. Held up against the most vulnerable, self-serving choices tend to shrink and honest ones hold. It's a plain test that keeps policy and ambition tethered to actual people.

When to use it

• A city council weighing a bus-route cut by asking who has no other way to get to work.
• A product team judging a feature by whether it helps the users who can least afford a mistake.
• Setting a store's return policy with the customer who can't easily come back in mind.