Tag / ethics

by Nathan Coumbe

Love thy neighbor as thyself

Hillel the Elder was once asked to explain the Bible’s teachings as succinctly as possible.

He stood on one foot and made the following statement:

“Love thy neighbor as thyself—all the rest is commentary.”

This statement keeps going through my mind as I read the news each day. As I see what certain people are doing to others, on camera, in broad daylight.

I just want them to answer a question like: “How would you feel if you were the one being wrongfully arrested by New York police officers while on vacation?”

We are losing our humanity. We are losing our ability to empathize.

I have no positive words of encouragement today—only a reminder to love thy neighbor.

by Nathan Coumbe

Does “how” or “what” matter more?

If someone achieves a good outcome through manipulative or unethical means, is the outcome still good?

If that same person makes a great decision based on sound information and principles, but it leads to a bad result, was the effort still “good” in a moral sense?

by Nathan Coumbe

Reward the effort, not the outcome

Children flourish if parents reward their efforts rather than outcomes.

Annie Duke’s decision-making education makes it clear that good decisions don’t always result in good outcomes. All decisions involve luck to a certain degree, so neither we nor our children can control how things might turn out.

Sometimes, a good decision leads to a bad outcome, and other times, a bad decision leads to a good outcome. This means we must reinforce good decision-making first and foremost, not just praise decisions that lead to results we like.

This is not to say that all children deserve a participation trophy. It means that we should appropriately reward good effort (i.e., good decisions) and discourage bad decisions, even if they lead to a positive outcome.

The “how” of achievement matters as much, if not more, than the “what.”

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by Nathan Coumbe

Give the people what they want

But what happens when what we want isn’t good for us? Or downright harmful?

One example I thought of comes from the food world. 

Many of our favorite things—Girl Scout Thin Mints, potato chips, Coca-Cola, Reese’s Cups—were engineered in a lab by a bunch of guys in white coats for one purpose. To be hyperpalatable—hitting our taste buds in all the right ways to make us eat more, crave more, and buy more. 

The problem is this: these things are designed to be easy to eat in massive quantities and to play on the chemical reactions in our brains to make us want them more and more all the time!

Now, they would argue that they’re just “giving people what they want”. Meeting market demand. And there’s some truth to that. 

If they suddenly went back to using more natural, rather than chemical, ingredients, customers would notice. We’d hate it… and probably get REALLY upset with these companies too.

 If they made them less cravable, crunchable, salty, delicious—they would be more like fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, and other whole, mostly unprocessed foods. 

Now, those real foods taste great, but they don’t have the same impact on our taste buds and brains as do our packaged foods. There’s just no comparison. 

Which is why it’s hard to make the switch. An apple just doesn’t taste as good as a Thin Mint. (Believe me, I’m speaking from experience here). 

But again, the problem occurs when these things take over our lives, causing massive health issues like diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, and others. And we can’t stop ourselves because our brains are being played on directly—it all just tastes so damn good!

Now, I’m not saying the government needs to get involved in things like this. Or that people need to be told what and what not to eat. I’m simply asking a question:

How do we embrace a free market system, a “give the people what they want” system, when what we often want is terrible for us? 

Is there a good solution? Probably not. They all come with downsides, some of them quite severe. 

Such is life in the 21st Century.

***As an aside, let me be clear: there are no good foods and bad foods. Don’t put labels on your stuff like that. There’s no quicker way to drive yourself nuts than to do that. Think of your foods on a continuum from “Eat More” to “Eat Less”. 

Unless you like to eat dryer lint or chug anti-freeze, there probably isn’t anything you should put in a “Don’t Eat” category. 

The purpose of today’s post was more philosophical: an exercise in mindfulness on my part.

by Nathan Coumbe

The correct thing? Or the right thing?

Sometimes we have a choice between what is correct and what is right.

What’s “correct” is often bureaucratic or compliant with rules and regulations. Often those same rules and regulations fly in the face of common sense, decency, and the dignity we owe others.

When a customer’s computer catches fire with no fault on their part, obviously due to a manufacturer’s defect, we have a choice. We can do the correct thing: quote the manual and say there’s nothing we can do. Or worse yet, we can say:

“You should have bought the warranty.”

Or we can do the right thing: acknowledge the problem and take responsibility. We can help the person who put her faith in us and our product or service.

Correct or right—it’s a choice.

We must improve our ability to make the proper choice when the time comes.

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