Ethics

Meaning

Accomplishments, Awards, and Asterisks

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, August 14 2024

What matters? It seems like a simple question. But here’s the thing: people every day ask themselves what they want in life or how they can find more meaning in life and never really face that question. They often end up looking around at what other people like and following them. With that approach, they had better hope that they like the same...

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The Meaning of Life

Principles Behind The Meaning of Life Book

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, June 26 2024

When anyone writes a book, the first thing to figure out is what the book should be about. The second part is to figure out how to tell the story. When it comes to non-fiction specifically, that entails understanding what information to include, how to convey the information, and what you want the reader to take away from the information. As with...

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Ethics

Fun with the Honesty Ethic

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, May 29 2024

Ethics are extremely interesting in that everyone looks for “universal truths” regarding ethics but struggle to find them. Many point to religious texts or other books with ethics and principles in them as guides, while others point to the science of causing someone physical harm or pain for examples of universal right and wrong. Unfortunately,...

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Ethics

The Ethics of Victimization

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, May 8 2024

There is a famous condition known as Munchausen’s. It is a fancy way of saying that a person is faking a condition to gain sympathy. There is another one, Munchausen’s by proxy, where a person pretends that a dependent has an illness so that they can take care of them and be a hero. As life becomes easier and less risky, people need to create...

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Growth

Cooperation, Competition, and Growth

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, May 1 2024

We all want our lives to be better tomorrow than they are today. That is the nature of life. Life is growth. But how do you get better most effectively—or how do you get to be the best that you can be? The obvious answer is work/effort: to become more fit, you have to exercise. To improve a skill, you have to practice. To get a higher education,...

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Ethics

Can vs. Should

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, January 17 2024

One of the all-time great movie quotes comes from Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." I use this quote or my personal variation ("Just because I can do it doesn't mean I should do it...") frequently because when you are a highly capable human being,...

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Ethics

Just This One Time

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, January 10 2024

I have read hundreds of books on psychology, philosophy, self-help, and success, so it’s not often anymore that something truly surprises me. I love looking at the world or an idea in a new way, though, so I am always looking for new insights and treasure the “lightbulb moment” when it happens. One day a few years ago, I decided to try a Wayne...

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Ethics

The Road to Hell Is Paved with Good Intentions

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, December 27 2023

Three factors determine whether people assess a behavior is ethical: the intention, the action, and the result. For example, if you accidentally (i.e., no intention) kill someone while driving drunk in your car, the punishment is much less severe than if you commit pre-meditated (i.e., intentional) murder. If you attempt (i.e., intention) to kill...

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Ethics

Competition Is Cooperation

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, December 20 2023

Social species inevitably involve competition and cooperation. Before social species evolved, it was mostly competition as all living organisms fought for survival. Early forms of cooperation were coincidental, as bacteria move in patterns and birds clean the teeth of crocodiles. But once animals began to form large families and communities, mass...

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Ethics

Non-Consensual Harm or Expense vs. “The Greater Good”

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, August 2 2023

I wrote in a previous post about the ethics of selfishness and altruism. Effectively, it’s a misconception that selfishness is always bad and altruism is always good; you need to be selfish enough to take care of yourself so that you are not a burden on others, and being altruistic when it harms you is not necessarily a good thing, either. But I...

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