Reciprocity works when it builds trust, not when it becomes bookkeeping.
Healthy operators remember who helped, give credit, and look for ways to be useful. They do not turn every favor into debt collection.
Scorekeeping changes the texture of a relationship. People feel the invoice coming. A better pattern is to return value where you can, name credit fairly, and keep the relationship bigger than the transaction.
Operator artifact: keep a quiet reciprocity map: who helped, where credit is due, where you can return useful value, and where the relationship should stay unpriced.
Field test: Return value without making the relationship transactional.
This is part 8 of 10 in Influence Without Manipulation.
