Good Marketing, Bad Marketing
Why not use marketing principles to keep people happy? Why not use them to empower everyone to behave in ways that will improve the lives of themselves and others? Much like a knife can be used to wound or simply cut vegetables, marketing is ultimately a tool that can be used for good or for ill....
Beyond Good and Evil
There is no such thing as good, there is no such thing as evil. At least not in the way many of us believe. We sentient beings want nothing more than to live happily in the world....
The problems we face
Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well. Here are some questions I would like you to reflect on. * What are our biggest problems? * Where should we direct our time and energy towards? We all want happiness and shirk from suffering. In fact, a problem is essentially a cause...
The lies we tell
Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well. Yesterday I had a conversation with a good friend about Sam Harris' book Lying. Sam's position was that we tend to be skilled at rationalising that it is justified when it is not and that we tend to...
Effective Altruism and Social Engineering
Hello everyone, I hope you have been doing well. In this week's email, I want to take the time to tell you about Effective Altruism. What is it? The goal of Effective Altruism is summed up pretty well by the title of William Macaskill's book. "...
The Logic of not eating meat
For many of us, the consumption of meat is an everyday occurrence, an activity woven into the fabric of our lives. It is just the way it is, and the way it always has been. It can be difficult to imagine what life would be like without it. This is,...
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Humans can thrive on a modern vegetarian diet and animals' interests in a life free of pain and premature death surely outweigh the marginal increase in pleasure we get from eating their flesh.Steven Pinker
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Pain and humiliation distract children from pondering what they did wrong.Steven Pinker
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The evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane, when asked whether he would lay down his life for his brother, replied, 'No, but for two brothers or eight cousins.'Steven Pinker
On Radical Compassion
Hatred. Anger. Jealousy. These are all forms of suffering. These are all mental defilements. It is in your own interest to banish these demons from your mind. Even from a purely selfish point of view, it can be said that there are some emotions we would truly be better off...
The Thousand Finger Garland
This is my rendition of an ancient tale. This is not the original story. I did not create the events in it.[1] There once lived a miserable man. He was profoundly dissatisfied with everything in his life. Nothing he tried to do, ever seemed to go right. No one...
What is Morality?
Where exactly do we draw the line between what we call good and what we call bad? What is it we hope to accomplish by walking a straight path in life? The purpose in this piece is to make the case, that morality is concerned with safeguarding the well being...