Philosophy

Virtues

I've built a framework for living a good life based on virtues.

I've defined virtues as such: behavioral instruments that can evoke peace and joy.

I've selected the following 10 virtues to focus on right now:

• Mindfulness

• Empathy

• Curiosity

• Gratitude

• Kindness

• Humility

• Integrity

• Discipline

• Skepticism

• Rationality

I conceptualize virtues not as attributes to be acquired, but as instruments to be practiced and mastered.

I believe that my time and effort is best spent building apps and resources that will inspire, motivate and enable people to practice virtues.

Free Will

I believe that all behavior is deterministic (free will is an illusion); but that we can experientially still love, learn, change, and strive to make good decisions.

• Due to my belief in determinism, I thereby believe that there is no good reason to sustain hatred, no matter what they do. No one deserves to suffer.

• I also thereby believe that there's no good reason to sustain frustration. What happens is the only possibility. Agonizing over what "could have" or "should have" happened is unhelpful. The only question worth asking is, "What is the most skillful way for me to respond to what happens?"

Religion

I believe that there are valuable lessons to learn from all religions, but that their epistemological methods are usually flawed and often harmful. See my Life Story - Faith Crisis for a bit about how I've gone from deeply religious to strongly skeptical.

• I believe that many religions do a good job at helping people practice many important virtues (kindness, humility, gratitude, and more).

• I also believe that many religions stifle the practice of many other important virtues (empathy, rationality, skepticism, and more).