· 2 min read

Why Ethics?

Long term impacts

Long term impacts

Photo by Tyler Quiring on Unsplash

I have been wondering over this lately. I don’t have concrete thoughts formed yet.

Ethics extends from personal to even business decisions (like data privacy).

Ethics

Ethics is hard to define. Objectively, it is a myth, a shared myth 1.

For the sake of this post, let’s reduce ethics to:

  • Not doing wrong things that you know are wrong.

Not being corrupt

One should be ethical so that once’s mind isn’t corrupt when facing life’s challenges 2.

So that once can act sane and not make things worse.

Reducing decision fatigue

A side effect of being ethical is that you’ll have fewer decisions to make. You can instantly eliminate un-ethical once.

The price you pay not being ethical

Your habits and actions are proofs to yourself of the kind of person you are. 3

If you take the same behaviour and stretch it to a lifetime, you will likely be in a very different place to where you are.

The direction of things is more important than the speed at which you achieve them because you could end up in a very different place.

Long Term Greedy 4

Being ethical is being greedy long term.

The hallmark of any compounding process is short term pain for long term reward.

For example: If people know you are ethical, they trust you more. They’ll be more likely to do deals through you. 4

Example 2: If you are ethical, you are surrounded by ethical people. 4

Being ethical includes a lot of short term pain for a future reward.

Having nothing to hide. 4 2

Being ethical allows you to tell the truth almost always and not be afraid of the consequences.

Node in a network

Your actions and decisions are more than yours. They are a ripple in a network 2.

If you can affect 1000 people positively, they might do that same to other people. Positive things branch out like a tree.

Meaning

Ethics provide life more meaning.

A meaningful life is more exciting and fulfilling.

Rights and Responsibilities

Rights and responsibilties is how you create trust and have a fare trade.

If you want rights, you have to take responsibilities. 2

Ethics is something you practice and not just something you learn 4

Footnotes

  1. Sapiens by Yuval Harari

  2. Jordan Peterson 2 3 4

  3. Atomic Habits

  4. Naval Ravikant 2 3 4 5


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