Me vs. We

Personal beliefs translate into our work. I always think about how my practice of Zen Buddhism has changed my entire POV about the world and has dramatically changed everything in my life, including the type of work I choose to do. But, beyond my Buddhist practice, which is more about how I prepare for death as a way to appreciate life more, I think effective altruism is really more at the core of how I think we should choose to live our daily life.

In a nutshell, altruism is about the improvement of the lives of other beings and doing the most good with the resources that are available. This is opposed to egoism which is focused on the self (and by extension, those who are like yourself). By nature, this way of thinking is long-term and systemic by nature, as one uses scientific and fact-based reasoning to determine how to get to the root cause of a problem, rather than focusing on the temporal symptom.

My first exposure to this way of thinking was Peter Singers book, Animal Liberation, which I found on my dads bookshelf in the 1980s and still have in my book collection today. Singer, who is a philosopher asserts that we must move beyond only referencing our own species as a reference and if we truly believe in living ethically, we must apply the same respect and dignity to other species for the survival of all. I was already a vegetarian by that time, but I had not really considered that the choices I make, even the choice to *abstain* from something, was so consequential and even political. For those who are of a Judeo-Christian background, this is at the core of how sects interpret the role on mankind - you believe humans have dominion over the earth or you believe humans are guardians. There is a vast difference in these two points of view. We are either part of this natural system or we exploit it. I maintain that to exploit is a painful way to live, even, ultimately, for the exploiter.

We make choices every day, every day we decide how we spend our meager time on this planet.

We can do whatever we want to do, we have the technology to do it now - so they question all of us who create things have to grapple with is what are we going to make? Who is it for? And how does it make life better, not for ourselves, but for every being who will come after we have long left this earthly plane.