Be useful!

Are you a non-believer? If not, do you still live by a moral code? Scott Adams has a suggested moral code for non-believers: Be useful.

To me, a well-lived life starts with total selfishness, as a baby, and over time you learn to take care of yourself before turning outward and trying to help those around you. I’m at the helpful age now. I enjoy recreation, but I only find meaning and satisfaction from being useful to other people. I think that change in a person happens automatically after we satisfy our own needs. Our strongest instincts after self-preservation are, apparently, to protect the tribe.

You probably think “useful” is a vague standard, and far too subjective. But you might be surprised at how often it clarifies your world and your role in it.

My only expectation from other humans is that they are trying to move up the scale from useless (as a baby) to relatively useful as an adult. And by that I mean you add to society more than you subtract. I don’t think we should assume some “normal” rate at which people should become useful. Everyone is different. But I do think the world is better when everyone is trying to move in that direction.

Keep in mind that we are flawed creatures, so our sense of what is useful at any given moment might be biased or totally mistaken. But as long as our intentions are leaning the right way, I think it all works out in the long run.

Read more here.