We humans love moral standards. Particularly if they directly benefit ourselves or if they potentially limit the success of others. And if our moral standards come at no personal cost or their costs can be passed to others, that’s the icing on the cake.

The harsh truth is that humans rarely want the best for each other. We rather serve our inherent self-interest than an altruistic commitment to universal principles. The moral standpoints we develop and adopt will always reflect this tendency.

One of the main agents of this self-serving bias in our moral judgments is the reticular activating system (RAS) in our brains. The RAS acts as a filter for incoming stimuli, prioritizing information that is of immediate personal importance and diminishing the rest. This selective attention mechanism doesn’t just help us to focus on our personal needs and desires, it virtually shapes our moral landscape by highlighting information that reinforces our self-concept and personal advantage. It influences not only what we pay attention to but also how we interpret our beliefs and behaviors.

In other words, our minds focus on what suits or doesn’t suit our needs and then rationalize our moral standpoints that egoistically align with these needs. More often than not we even claim this to be altruism. Because that’s just what we want our concept of self to represent.

We disguise our desires with morality.

Here are a couple of typical examples where personal gain is prioritized over proclaimed moral standards in the rationalization of beliefs and actions:

• One might fixate on and condemn the dishonesty of a coworker while simultaneously ignoring their own dishonest actions. They might feel genuinely indignant when a coworker lies at the workplace, yet dismiss their own fabrications as harmless.
• One might criticize allegedly illegal activities of public figures and politicians while simultaneously justifying and excusing personal legal infractions, such as disregarding traffic rules.
• One might extol the virtues of generosity and criticize others for not donating to charity, yet they themselves only donate when it provides a tax benefit or public recognition, ignoring opportunities for anonymous giving that offer no personal gain.
• One might criticize others for sharing misinformation on the internet, yet selectively share articles and posts that confirm their own biases, overlooking the credibility of the sources when it suits their argument or reinforces their beliefs.
• A consumer might condemn corporations for unethical practices like exploiting labor in developing countries, while at the same time continuing to purchase products from these companies if they offer lower prices or greater convenience.
• A manager may loudly support diversity and inclusion initiatives in public forums but overlook promoting diversity within their own team.

When you pursue your goals, especially those that challenge established norms, you’ll likely face resistance. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the ones that accuse you of poor moral judgment. Their own moral standpoint is just the result of rationalized egoism. Your goals aren’t unethical or inherently flawed but they threaten the self-serving moral frameworks others have constructed and submitted to for themselves. Others’ criticism may appear as moral nobility, but beneath the surface, it’s fueled by their personal interests disguised as ethical concerns.

Nevertheless, sometimes others’ criticism comes from a position of genuine benevolence. How can we distinguish these? If the criticism is delivered within the boundaries of a transparent and structured system such as logic and without the inherent attempt to change our mind (e.g. the person delivering the criticism is rather indifferent about whether we change our mind or not) chances are high the criticism is not inherently self-serving, thus being of higher value. Is the criticism delivered merely with moral or formal rather than substantive arguments or colored by emotions, chances are high the criticism is of low value and should therefore be disregarded.

If you want to be successful, whatever your definition of success may be, learn not to be swayed by the moral judgments of others. Understand their subjective nature. Rarely are they founded on an informed or balanced perspective. Recognizing that many criticisms are shaped by personal biases and the rationalization of self-interest will empower and liberate you to pursue your aspirations with greater conviction and resilience.

Our paths should be informed by a clear understanding of our values and goals, which may be just as noble, ethical, and beneficial to society as any purportedly altruistic stance.

We’re constantly exposed to an endless stream of opinions. Learn to deal with it. Opinions are the cheapest good of all. Everybody has one, everybody wants to give it away for free, and few are truly expert. If they were, their opinion would cost you money.

Have a phenomenal week!

⏤Ferdinand

✨ Sparks

🌐 Website: 10FastFingers

Another great website to practice your typing speed and accuracy. It offers tests with the top 100 and top 1000 words for a multitude of languages with a worldwide ranking. If you set up a profile the site shows your progress in distinct graphs for each language you practice. You can find me here.

In conjunction with Typingclub and Typelit developing your keyboard prowess will feel like a breeze.

10FastFingers.com - Typing Test, Competitions, Practice & Typing Games

10FastFingers - Improve your Typing Speed with our Typing Games

Typing Test, Competitions, Practice & Typing Games

📝 Article: Growth Without Goals

Excellent writing that puts forth the idea that our societies’ definitions of success are flawed as achievement-based rather than practice-based.

Success is about building a set of daily practices, it is about growth without goals. Continuous, habitual practice(s) trumps achievement-based success.
I think “accomplishments” are traps. Accomplishments, by their very definition, exist only in the past or future—which are not even real things. Pride is the worst of the seven sins and it is closely related to past and future accomplishments.

There is always that stupid interview question: where do you see yourself or your company in five years. Instead, we should ask, what things do you think are important to do every day?

Great habits and practices make a great and successful life. Cultivate those and the rest will take care of itself.

Growth Without Goals

I. Four years ago, soon after learning that my wife was pregnant with our first child, I was sitting on the Metro-North commuter train, reading. I was thinking about being a father; specifically, I wa

Editorials

✍🏻 Cartoon: Rat Park

In this drawing Australian cartoonist Stuart McMillen explores the famous experiments conducted by Professor Bruce Alexander around addiction, contrasting the standard “Rat Cage” drug experiments with the more humane and socially rich environment of "Rat Park." While traditional experiments showed rats compulsively consuming drugs when isolated in small, empty cages, Alexander's “Rat Park” experiment provided a community setting with ample space, food, companionship, and entertainment, resulting in significantly less drug consumption.

What if the difference between not being addicted and being addicted was the difference between seeing the world as your park and seeing the world as your cage.

Rat Park drug experiment comic – Stuart McMillen comics

Comic about a classic experiment into drug addiction science: Rat Park. Would rats take drugs if given a stimulating environment and company?

Gary

💡 This Week’s Wisdom

Whatever you cannot say ‘No’ to is your master and makes you it’s slave.
[…]
Commitment ‘should’ be a function of genuine desire. Ideally, commitment should be to something one is so passionate about that the limiting of one’s own future opportunities that come from that commitment is an equitable, and mutually appreciated exchange.

From The Rational Male by ROLLO TOMASSI.
Captured and resurfaced using the phenomenal Kindle reader.

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