essay on a good person

How to Be a Good Person Essay

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What does it mean to be a good person? The essay below aims to answer this question. It focuses on the qualities of a good person.

Introduction

What does it mean to be a good person, qualities of good person, works cited.

The term “good” has relative meanings depending on the person who is defining it. Several qualities can be used to define what constitutes a good person. However, there are certain basic qualities that are used to define a good person. They include honesty, trust, generosity, compassion, empathy, humility, and forgiveness (Gelven 24).

These qualities are important because they promote peaceful coexistence among people because they prevent misunderstandings and conflicts. A good person is fair and just to all and does not judge people. He or she is nice to everyone regardless of religion, race, social and economic class, health status, or physical state (Gelven 25).

A good person treats other people with respect, care, and compassion. Respect shows that an individual values and views the other person as a worthy human being who deserves respect. Compassion is a quality that enables people to identify with other people’s suffering (Gelven 27). It motivates people to offer help in order to alleviate the suffering of others. A good person has compassion for others and finds ways to help people who are suffering. Showing compassion for the suffering makes them happy.

It promotes empathy, understanding, and support. In addition, good people are forgiving. They do not hold grudges and let go of anger that might lead them to hurt others. They think positively and focus their thoughts on things that improve their relationships (Needleman 33). They avoid thinking about past mistakes or wrongs done by others. Instead, they think of how they can forgive and move on.

A good person is honest and trustworthy. This implies that they avoid all situations that might hurt the other person, such as telling lies, revealing secrets, and gossiping (Needleman 34). As such, their character or personality cannot be doubted because they do not harbor hidden intentions.

They act in open ways that reveal their true characters and personalities. On the other hand, good people are kind and respectful. They offer help voluntarily and work hard to improve the well-being of other people. In addition, they treat all people equally despite their social, physical, or sexual orientations. Good people do not discriminate, hate, deny people their rights, steal, lie, or engage in corrupt practices (Tuan 53).

Good people behave courageously and view the world as a fair and beautiful place to live in (Needleman 40). They view the world as a beautiful place that offers equal opportunities to everyone. Good people believe that humans have the freedom to either make the world a better or worse place to live in. They act and behave in ways that improve and make the world a better place.

For example, they conserve the environment by keeping it clean for future generations. A popular belief holds that people who conserve the environment are not good but just environmental enthusiasts. However, that notion is incorrect and untrue. People conserve the environment because of their goodness. They think not only about themselves but also about future generations (Tuan 53). They are not self-centered and mean but generous and caring.

Good people are characterized by certain qualities that include trust, honesty, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, respect, courage, and goodwill. They do not steal, lie, discriminate, or deny people their rights. They think about others’ welfare and advocate for actions that make the world a better place. They promote justice and fairness because they view everyone as a deserving and worthy human being.

Gelven, Michael. The Risk of Being: What it Means to be Good and Bad . New York: Penn State Press, 1997. Print.

Needleman, Jacob. Why Can’t We be good? New York: Penguin Group US, 2007. Print.

Tuan, Yi-Fu. Human Goodness . New York: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008. Print.

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15 Qualities That Are At The Core Of Every ‘Good’ Person

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pensive young woman with slight smile - illustrating a good person

What makes a person “good” in the grand scheme of things?

There are some traits considered to be good by just about everyone. There are also cultural variables as to what symbolizes and expresses goodness in a person.

Ultimately, it’s up to the individual to determine what they feel are the qualities of a “good person.”

When we’re asked to explain why some of our heroes are (or were) sincerely good people, many of these traits will make the list.

1. Prudence

A good person is a prudent person. Prudence is the ability to determine whether or not a particular action is a good (or appropriate) idea at that specific point in time. It’s considered to be one of the four cardinal virtues, derived originally from Plato’s Republic .

Prudence also refers to a situation in which you have the strength to do something, but choose not to. Or, when you could do something that’s self-indulgent in the moment, but choose to err on the side of better judgment for later.

An example of this would be refraining from spending money on games and junk food because you need to save enough to cover your portion of the rent and bills. You may spend a bit on a small indulgence, but choose responsibility over temporary amusement or gratification.

2. Temperance

Although most people interpret temperance as being abstinence from something, what it actually means is moderation.

Having temperance means finding the middle path, and balancing the self in the face of any situation. It encompasses self-discipline and self-awareness. After all, you have to know your own abilities as well as your own limits in order to find the moderate zone between them.

For example, embodying a sense of diplomacy as a moderator means finding that magical middle ground between expressing what you need to say, with the needs and views of others around you.

In other people, temperance might mean accepting a small drink when toasting with others, but refraining from drinking to inebriation. Or thoroughly enjoying a slice of cake without overindulging.

When you are balanced and measured in your approaches to everything, you can experience and understand all without being overwhelmed by it.

Good people often show courage. Courage isn’t the absence of fear, but rather the ability to take action even though you feel afraid. It is knowing that there is a difficult, potentially dangerous task ahead of you, but doing it because you know it needs to be done.

This one goes along with several of the other qualities listed here. For example, it often takes courage to act with integrity.

Courage can take many forms, from trying a new, challenging exercise to standing up to an intimidating person, or facing something that scares you.

The first level of courage is doing something even though it terrifies you.

The last level is being a calm, inspirational force to others, while feeling the same fear that they’re experiencing.

For example, a high-ranking officer in a WWI trench was a bastion of calm and confidence, while the troops around him were quaking with fear. A young Private asked him how he was so calm, and the officer replied that he had to be in order to keep morale up. Additionally, he knew that the soldiers on the other side were also afraid, and that was oddly reassuring to him.

4. Compassion

Being compassionate isn’t just about understanding someone else’s pain. It’s also the desire to help alleviate it. One can look at a person and see that they’re suffering (sympathy) and then walk on by. But when we want to do what we can to help, then that’s compassion in action.

Ultimately, the basic element of compassion is kindness. We want to give of our own abilities to help another being who may be suffering. We can have compassion for people, animals, trees, rivers… anything that seems to be in distress that we can help to lessen.

The greatest mastery of compassion is when the one you’re trying to help is hurting you, and yet you’re still offering them assistance in a loving, gentle way. An adult may rail against you, or the hurt animal may bite you, but you still try to help.

Compassion means that you understand another’s pain without compounding it, offering what the other needs, and giving of yourself, regardless of the outcome.

5. Generosity

Generosity is a quality often associated with a good person. When we have a surplus of something, it’s important to share with others who have less. Even if we don’t have a surplus, it’s important to share with others.

We always have something that we can share or give to those around us. This doesn’t have to be monetary wealth or physical objects, either. People who don’t have a lot of money can still be immensely generous with their time, for example. They can volunteer with the elderly or doing charity work. Or they can teach their skills to others who would like to learn from them.

Being generous means that you’re giving with the heart, without any schemes to receive anything in return, or control those you are being generous with. These are gifts freely given, not because you think you’ll benefit in turn.

Quite often, those who have the least are the most generous toward others, because they know what it’s like to have nothing. They have the biggest hearts, and tend to be the most willing to help others in need.

6. Patience

This is one of the qualities that many admire, but it is also one of the most difficult to put into practice. It’s possible that this is because few of use are actually patient by nature.

We tend to want things on our terms, on our own time. As a result, we get frustrated and annoyed when things don’t play out the way we think they should.

This is why it’s important to remember that the world doesn’t revolve around our wants and our schedule. There are billions of other players on this chess board, all engaged in an intricate dance. As such, we need to acknowledge and respect that we are all cogs in the machine, and our time to turn will come when it’s meant to.

Furthermore, it’s important to be aware that a lack of patience can cause a great deal of harm. People can only do their best, and when we’re impatient with those who aren’t as capable as we are, we can make them feel truly horrible about themselves. Or worse, they may end up traumatized and damaged.

This is why it’s important to be patient with the grandmother or the child when crossing the road in a hurry, because they can’t keep up with you. If you’re not, and you walk away quickly instead of helping, they may end up getting hurt.

Patience means that you can remain calm and measured in your responses, even when irritated. To not throw a tantrum when forced to wait. And to not complain unduly when things are taking longer than expected.

7. Respect

Respect is undoubtedly a characteristic of a good person. When we talk about respect, we’re encompassing various aspects thereof. This includes respect for other people, self-respect, respect for life, for nature, etc.

Tolerance, esteem, appreciation, and recognition are just a few aspects of respect that can come into play.

For example, we can respect nature by not throwing garbage around or polluting water supplies. We can respect housemates by acknowledging the fact that they live their lives differently than we do, so we don’t project our behavioral expectations onto them.

We can respect our bodies by eating well and getting plenty of exercise, and show self-respect by not engaging in activities that would make us feel shame later.

We acknowledge boundaries – our own and other people’s – and don’t overstep them for the sake of self-indulgence. We acknowledge that every individual is perfect, sovereign, and sacred. As such, we don’t put others down or mistreat them. Instead, we pay attention when they speak, honor their words, heed their personal choices.

It doesn’t take much effort to help others feel seen and heard, but it makes a world of difference to them when we do so.

8. Tolerance

Tolerance means accepting that others may think, behave, or live differently than we are, without trying to change their ways to suit our own preferences.

In simplest terms: live and let live.

Seek to understand your contemporaries in other cultures, races, religions, and creeds, rather than attacking them for their differences from you.

This is the difference between people who talk about how tolerant they are, but want to lead the next witch hunt.

In the 1600s it was witches. In the 1800s it was Amerindians. In the 1930s it was Jews. It is what it is today, and in 200 years, there will be another target group for people’s ire.

Don’t jump on that bandwagon. We’re all better than that.

9. Integrity

A good person will act with integrity. Integrity means doing the right thing, even when nobody is watching. It’s holding to your individual moral and ethical convictions despite other people’s opinions and influences. Especially when it’s difficult to do so.

For example, let’s say that you’re working on a construction site and you find a precious artifact. You’re only making minimum wage at this gig, and this is a centuries-old gold ring buried in the mud. Nobody saw it except you. If you sold it, you’d likely make a ton of money. But you also recognize that it has historical significance.

Your sense of integrity would have you report the ring to the local coroner or Finds liaison officer so they can investigate it. Sure, you might get a reward for it – likely less than you’d have made for pawning it – but you know it’s the right thing to do. You didn’t have to, but you did it anyway.

10. Commitment

This one goes along with integrity, but expands upon it differently.

Commitment means that you’ve held to your word, even if it was difficult to do so. This might mean sticking with a job or project that you absolutely hate because you promised someone that you would do so. Or it could be remaining faithful to a partner, despite your own non-monogamous leanings, because you gave your word that you’d be loyal.

You’ll see something through, simply because you made a promise.

A person who keeps their commitments is someone who can be trusted and relied upon. When you’re known as someone who keeps their word, you’re incredibly valued and respected in your community, as well as among your friends and loved ones.

11. Honesty

Honesty is often expressed as a quality of a good person. After all, if you discovered that someone lied to you, could you ever trust them again? If they lied to you that time, what would stop them from lying to you about everything and anything else?

People respect and appreciate honesty, especially when it’s difficult. For example, if and when we mess up horribly at work, but own that screw-up, admit to it, and take action to remedy it. Our employers and peers will respect us a lot more than if we try to cover it up or cast blame on others.

Furthermore, many people even appreciate honesty when it’s a bit hurtful. When someone is honest about a difficult topic or situation, it means that they care enough not to betray the other’s trust by lying about it.

Of course, a lot depends on how a truth is shared. We can be gentle in our tone and the words we choose, rather than being cruel or scathing. How a truth is delivered can make the difference between long-term positive change, and trauma.

12. Humility

You know the type of person who’s always bragging about how awesome they are? Humility is the opposite of that.

Humility is holding to the idea that no person is greater or lesser than any others, despite popularity, wealth, titles, or achievements.

Those who feel that they are better or more important than other people tend to treat others badly. Since they consider themselves to be special, they often expect better treatment, and to be allowed to belittle those around them.

In contrast, someone who remains humble treats everyone around them with care and respect. They don’t tell others about all the wonderful charitable things they’ve done: they just do them. Their actions are for the greater good, not for the acknowledgement and praise they’ll receive from doing so.

13. Strength

The strength that makes a good person is mental and emotional rather than physical. Strength can be shown in a gentle way, albeit one that is unyielding. Look at Mahatma Gandhi and his hunger strike. It took immense strength to quash his own hunger, though agonizing, in order to work toward positive change.

Hannibal and Marcus Aurelius showed immense strength of character in keeping everyone together while undertaking a massive journey.

Anne Frank and Mother Teresa both showed tremendous strength in atrocious circumstances. Furthermore, their ability to love and care for others remained intact despite the horrors they witnessed and experienced.

You’ve likely noticed that strength and compassion, and strength and courage are linked. This is because strength is not always a projective virtue, but rather it’s an adaptive term.

Strength is often a battery for many of the other qualities on this list. For example, you may show immense strength when you hold to integrity when everyone around you is doing something that goes against everything you believe in. Standing up for what you believe is right might be dangerous to you – perhaps even life threatening. As such, it takes immense strength of character and will to be true to yourself.

There are many different types of love, despite the fact that only one word is used to encompass them in the Western world. We’re mostly familiar with romantic love, or the love felt between parents and children. But we can love humanity or nature with all our hearts as well. And we know that we love when we pour our energy toward other beings’ happiness, health, success, and freedom.

Some people mistake infatuation for love. Or possessiveness. Someone might love another person because they feel that the other person will give them what they need. Similarly, they might love a pet, or a house, or any other being or creature that brings them fulfillment.

In contrast, when we truly love a person, our greatest wish is for their happiness.

Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski covers this when he talks about “fish love.” What most people consider to be “love” is when their needs are fulfilled. Such as a man who eats a fish because he loves fish. This man loves the fish he’s eating so much that he took it out of the water, boiled it, and is eating it. He loves himself, and sees the fish as something that will fulfill his needs and wants.

If he truly loved the fish, he would encourage it to swim happily and lead a beautiful life.

Real love isn’t a question of what we’re going to get from a situation or a person, but what we can give .

15. Self-awareness

You know in your gut when you’ve done wrong, or when you have done good.

If you ever do something and feel a twinge of shame or disgust with your actions, then you’re fully aware that you didn’t act in love or respect. Perhaps you did something sneaky for the sake of your own self-interests. Or the selfish altruism you displayed was far more for your own benefit than the other person’s.

In contrast, when you’ve done something that’s ethical and loving, you’ll feel an immense lightness of being. A warm glow will suffuse through you, and you might even get a bit choked up. You know that your actions will have long-reaching positive repercussions; like a glowing pebble thrown into a pond. Every ripple will carry light along with it.

Listen to this feeling when it speaks to you. Recognize it as your own inner compass, and allow it to lead you to the sincere goodness you’re capable of.

About The Author

Finn Robinson has spent the past few decades travelling the globe and honing his skills in bodywork, holistic health, and environmental stewardship. In his role as a personal trainer and fitness coach, he’s acted as an informal counselor to clients and friends alike, drawing upon his own life experience as well as his studies in both Eastern and Western philosophies. For him, every day is an opportunity to be of service to others in the hope of sowing seeds for a better world.

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How to Be a Better Person

Elizabeth Scott, PhD is an author, workshop leader, educator, and award-winning blogger on stress management, positive psychology, relationships, and emotional wellbeing.

Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and international bestselling author. Her books, including "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her TEDx talk, "The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong," is one of the most viewed talks of all time.

We all want to be our best, but many people wonder if it's actually possible to become a better person once you're an adult. The answer is a resounding yes. There are always ways to improve yourself. This answer leads to more questions, however.

How can you improve yourself to be a better person? What is the easiest approach? And what are the most important aspects of self to work on? Taking into account your own well-being as well as the best interests of others, here are some of the most important ways to become a better person.

Let Go of Anger

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We all experience anger in our lives. Uncontrolled anger, however, can create problems in our relationships and even with our health. All of this can lead to more stress and additional problems, complicating life and keeping us from being our best selves. That's why learning to manage and eventually let go of anger is so important to becoming a better person.

Letting go of anger isn't always easy. But the first step is learning more about recognizing anger and knowing what to do when you feel angry in your life.

Recognizing anger is often simple if you make an effort to notice when you feel upset and decide to manage this feeling rather than denying it or lashing out at others as a way of coping. Focus on noticing when you feel angry and why, and know that there is a difference between feeling angry and acting on that anger. Then, know your options.

You can change your beliefs about what is making you angry. This can work by learning more about the situation, or even reminding yourself there may be things you don't know yet.

Remind yourself that maybe that person who cut you off in traffic was distracted by something challenging in their own life. If a friend seems to be rude to you, inquire about how their day is going and find out if there's more that you don't know.

You can also focus on what your "anger triggers" are, and eliminate them as possible. For example, if you find yourself becoming frustrated and angry when you have to rush, work on making more space in your schedule (even if it means saying "no" a little more), and try to eliminate that trigger. If a certain person makes you angry, try to limit their role in your life if it doesn't work to talk things out with them first.

It's also important to learn to let go of grudges and residual anger from each day. Don't wake up holding a grudge from the night before if you can help it. Focus on forgiveness , even if it means you don't let someone who wronged you continue to have an important role in your life. When you stay in the present moment as much as possible, this becomes easier.

Practicing stress relievers like meditation can also help you to let go of anger. Focus on releasing the hold that the past may have on you. Put your attention to the current moment and it becomes easier to avoid rumination and stay in a good place.

Support Others

Helping others may seem like an obvious route to becoming a better person. We often think of "good people" as those who are willing to sacrifice for others. This, in the minds of many, is what makes a person "good." However, good deeds can also make us better people because of the connection between altruism and emotional well-being.

According to research, it just may be true that it's better to give than to receive. So while you may feel too stressed and busy to extend help to others when it's not absolutely necessary, expanding your ability to focus on the needs of others can really help you as well. It’s true: Altruism is its own reward and can actually help you relieve stress.

Studies show that altruism is good for your emotional well-being and can measurably enhance your peace of mind.

For example, one study found that dialysis patients, transplant patients, and family members who became support volunteers for other patients experienced increased personal growth and emotional well-being.

Another study on patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) showed that those who offered other MS patients peer support actually experienced greater benefits than their supported peers, including more pronounced improvement of confidence, self-awareness , self-esteem , depression, and daily functioning. Those who offered support generally found that their lives were dramatically changed for the better.

In addition to making the world a better place, exercising your altruism can make you a happier, more compassionate person. Because there are so many ways to express altruism, this is a simple route to being a better person, one that is available to all of us every day. This is good news indeed.

Leverage Your Strengths

Losing track of time when you’re absorbed in fulfilling work or another engaging activity, or what psychologists refer to as " flow ," is a familiar state for most of us. Flow is what happens when you get deeply involved in a hobby, in learning a new skill or subject, or in engaging in activities that supply just the right mix of challenge and ease.

When we feel too challenged, we feel stressed. When things are too easy, we may become bored—either way, finding the sweet spot between these two extremes keeps us engaged in a very good way.

You can experience flow by writing, dancing, creating, or absorbing new material that you can teach others.

What may bring you to that state of being may be challenging for others, and vice versa. Think about when you find yourself in this state most often, and try doing more of that.

The state of flow is a good indicator of whether an activity is right for you. When you're in a state of flow, you're leveraging your strengths, and this turns out to be great for your emotional health and happiness. It's also a very positive thing for the rest of the world because your strengths can usually be used to help others in some way.

When you learn enough about yourself to know what your best strengths are and find out how to use them for the benefit of others, you're on your way to being a better person, and a happier one as well.

Use the "Stages of Change" Model

Ask yourself: If you had a magic wand, what would you like to see in your future? Ignoring the ideas of how you’ll get there, vividly imagine your ideal life, and what would be included in it.

Take a few minutes to list, on paper or on your computer, the changes and goals that would be included in this picture. Be specific about what you want. It’s okay if you want something that you seemingly have no control over, such as a mate who is perfect for you. Just write it down.

You may follow the lead of many businesses and have a one-year, five-year, and 10-year plan for your life. (It doesn’t have to be a set-in-stone plan , but a list of wishes and goals.) Keeping in mind what you hope for in your future can help you feel less stuck in the stressful parts of your present life, and help you see more options for change as they present themselves.

There are several ways to focus on change, but the stages of change model can lead you to your best self perhaps more easily than many other paths. This model of change can be adapted to whatever mindset you have right now and can work for most people.

The Stages of Change Model

Precontemplation : Ignoring the problem
Contemplation : Aware of the problem
Preparation : Getting ready to change
Action : Taking direct action toward the goal
Maintenance : Maintaining new behavior
Relapse : Reaffirm your goal and commitment to change

One of the most important parts of this route to change is that you don't push yourself to make changes before you're ready, and you don't give up if you find yourself backsliding—it's a forgivable and even expected part of the process of change. Understanding this plan for making changes can help you to be a better person in whatever ways you choose.

Press Play for Advice on Creating Change

This episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares how to use the six stages of change to apply them to your own process of change. Click below to listen now.

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Take Care of Yourself

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You may not always have control over the circumstances you face. But you can control how well you take care of yourself, which can affect your stress levels and enable you to grow as a person when you face life's challenges.

Self-care is vital for building resilience when facing unavoidable stressors for several reasons. When you're tired, eating poorly, or generally run down, you will likely be more reactive to the stress you face in your life. You can even end up creating more problems for yourself by reacting poorly rather than responding from a place of calm inner strength.

Conversely, when you're taking good care of yourself (both your physical and mental health ), you can be more thoughtfully engaged with whatever comes, use the resources you have in your life, and grow from the challenges you face, rather than merely surviving them.

Taking proper care of your body, soul, and mind can keep you in optimum shape for handling stress. That gives you added resilience to manage those challenges in life that we all face, as well as those that may be unique to you.

Basics of Self-Care

In terms of self-care strategies , there are several that can help, but some of the most important aspects of self-care include the basics:

Connection with others

Sleep is important for your emotional and physical well-being because too little or poor quality sleep can leave you feeling more stressed and less able to brainstorm solutions to problems you face. Lack of sleep can take a toll on your body as well, both in the short term and in the long run. Poor sleep can even affect your weight.

The same is true with poor nutrition. A poor diet can leave you feeling bloated and tired, and can add extra pounds over time. You need the right fuel to face life's challenges, but when stress hits, it's often the unhealthy food we crave.

Social Connections

Feeling connected to others can help you feel more resilient. Good friends can help you to process negative emotions, brainstorm solutions, and get your mind off your problems when necessary. It's sometimes challenging to find time for friends when you have a busy, stressful life, but our friends often make us better people both with their support and their inspiration.

Finally, it is important to take a little time for yourself. This can mean journaling and meditation, or it can come in the form of exercise or even watching re-runs at home. This is particularly important for introverts , but everyone needs some time to themselves, at least sometimes.

Learn to Be User-Friendly

Our relationships can create a haven from stress, and help us to become better people at the same time. They can also be a significant source of stress when there is conflict that is resolved poorly or left to fester. The beauty of this is that as we do the work it takes to become a better friend, partner, and family member, it can also be a path to becoming a better person.

To improve your relationships and yourself, learn conflict resolution skills. These skills include being a good listener, understanding the other side when you are in conflict, and anger management techniques .

These things can help us be better versions of ourselves. They can also minimize the stress we experience in relationships, making these relationships stronger. Close relationships usually provide plenty of opportunities to practice these skills as you work on improving them, so you can perhaps even appreciate the opportunities when they arise and feel less upset.

Mental Health Foundation. Cool down: Anger and how to deal with it .

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Cheron G. How to measure the psychological "flow"? A neuroscience perspective . Front Psychol . 2016;7:1823. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01823

Sadler-Gerhardt CJ, Stevenson DL. When it all hits the fan: Helping counselors build resilience and avoid burnout . American Counseling Association VISTAS 2012(1).

National Sleep Foundation. How much sleep do we really need?

By Elizabeth Scott, PhD Elizabeth Scott, PhD is an author, workshop leader, educator, and award-winning blogger on stress management, positive psychology, relationships, and emotional wellbeing.

Essay on Qualities of a Good Person

Students are often asked to write an essay on Qualities of a Good Person in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Qualities of a Good Person

Understanding goodness.

A good person is someone we all strive to be. They possess traits that are admired and make others feel good.

Kindness and Compassion

Kindness is a fundamental quality. A good person shows compassion, helping others without expecting anything in return.

Honesty and Integrity

Honesty and integrity are vital. A good person stays true to their word, ensuring trust is built and maintained.

Respectfulness

Respect for all is another key quality. Good people understand that everyone is unique and deserves respect.

Responsibility

Lastly, responsibility is essential. Good people are accountable for their actions, learning from mistakes, and striving to improve.

250 Words Essay on Qualities of a Good Person

Introduction.

Being a good person is a complex and multifaceted concept, encompassing a variety of characteristics and traits. It’s a subjective term, often shaped by societal norms, personal beliefs, and individual values. However, some universal qualities are widely recognized as markers of a good person.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. A good person is empathetic, demonstrating an innate capacity to connect with others on an emotional level. They can put themselves in someone else’s shoes, fostering understanding and promoting unity.

Integrity is a fundamental quality of a good person. It’s about being honest, trustworthy, and standing up for what is right, even when it’s challenging. A person with integrity holds themselves accountable for their actions and decisions, fostering respect and trust among their peers.

Respect for Diversity

In an increasingly globalized world, respect for diversity is crucial. A good person acknowledges and appreciates the differences among people, embracing diversity in thought, culture, and lifestyle. They understand that diversity enriches society and fosters growth and innovation.

Kindness, though simple, is a powerful quality. A good person is kind, not because they expect something in return, but because it’s the right thing to do. They strive to spread positivity, make others feel valued, and contribute to a more compassionate world.

In conclusion, being a good person is about more than just individual actions or behaviors. It’s about embodying qualities like empathy, integrity, respect for diversity, and kindness. These qualities enable us to connect with others, foster positive relationships, and contribute to a better world.

500 Words Essay on Qualities of a Good Person

Understanding the qualities that make a good person is essential in fostering interpersonal relationships and building societies. A good person is not defined by their wealth, fame, or power but by their character, actions, and how they treat others. This essay outlines several key qualities that define a good person.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It is an essential quality that allows a person to connect with others on a deeper level. Empathy fosters kindness and compassion, making one considerate of the feelings and circumstances of others. It encourages mutual understanding and respect, which are vital in any social interaction.

Integrity is another crucial quality of a good person. It involves being honest and having strong moral principles. People with integrity stand by their beliefs and values, even when facing challenges. They uphold ethical standards and are reliable and trustworthy. Their actions align with their words, making them dependable and respected in their communities.

Resilience refers to the ability to recover quickly from difficulties. Life is full of ups and downs, and a good person knows how to navigate these challenges without losing their sense of self. Resilient individuals are adaptable and maintain a positive outlook on life, despite the obstacles they face. Their ability to bounce back inspires others and fosters a sense of hope and optimism.

Selflessness

Selflessness is the ability to put others’ needs before your own. A good person is willing to make sacrifices for the benefit of others. They give their time, resources, and energy to help those in need without expecting anything in return. Their selfless acts often make a significant impact on the lives of others.

Open-mindedness

Open-mindedness is the willingness to consider different ideas and perspectives. A good person understands that the world is diverse, and people have varying opinions and beliefs. They respect these differences and are open to learning from others. Their open-mindedness fosters inclusivity and promotes understanding and acceptance.

In conclusion, the qualities of a good person revolve around their character and actions towards others. Empathy, integrity, resilience, selflessness, and open-mindedness are all critical attributes. These qualities not only make individuals better but also contribute to building healthier relationships and societies. It is essential to remember that being a good person is not about perfection but striving to make a positive impact on the lives of others.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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How to Be a Good Person

Last Updated: May 26, 2024 Approved

This article was co-authored by Tracey Rogers, MA . Tracey L. Rogers is a Certified Life Coach and Professional Astrologer based in Philadelphia. Tracey has over 10 years of life coaching and astrology experience. Her work has been featured on nationally syndicated radio, as well as online platforms such as Oprah.com. She is certified as a Coach by the Life Purpose Institute, and she has an MA in International Education from George Washington University. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 79 testimonials and 87% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 1,733,276 times.

Being a good person means more than just doing things for others. You have to accept and love yourself before you can put positive energy into the universe. Philosophers have been debating what is good and what is not for centuries, and many people find that it's more complicated than just being kind . While every person's journey is different, being good has a lot to do with discovering yourself and your role in the world. In order to truly be good, you will have to consider what 'goodness' means to you. Perhaps this means doing good for others, or simply being an honest and kind person. Use some of the following tips to help yourself be a better person.

Being a Good Person

Emulate characteristics of good people like honesty and respect. As much as possible, go out of your way to help others and always be a good listener when people are sharing with you. Don’t make excuses for your past mistakes—just improve yourself going forward!

Improving Yourself

Step 1 Determine what being a good person means to you personally.

What is your ideal person? Make a list of traits that you believe make up a good, ideal person. Start living your life according to these traits. [2] X Research source
Are you waiting for something in return? Are you doing things because it will help you look good? Or are you doing things because you truly want to give and help? Stop putting up airs and adopt the attitude of giving without expectation of receiving anything in return. [3] X Research source
Being good does not mean only by outer goodness. You have to consider being good straight from the heart (i.e., purely). Ultimately, you have to decide on your own code of ethics, and what matters is that you follow through with what you believe makes you a good person. At times, this may conflict with what others believe is good, and they might even accuse you of being wrong or evil. Consider their views - either they know something you don't, in which case you may learn something from them and update your morality, or perhaps their experience is limited, meaning that you should take their views with a grain of salt.

Who do you look up to and why? How are they making the world a better place to live in, and how can you do the same?
What qualities do you admire in them, and how can you develop the same ones?
Keep your role model close to you, like a friendly spirit that is always at your side. Think of how they would respond to a question or circumstance, and how you should respond in the same manner.

You have your own unique gifts and talents . Focus on sharing them with the world instead of focusing on the gifts of another. [8] X Research source

Are you superficially acting like a good person? If you are self-loathing and angry on the inside, you may not be a good person despite all your outward actions.

Be good for its own sake. Don't try to be a good person because your parents told you to, because you want recognition or respect, or for any kind of reward except your own satisfaction in doing what you believe is good. Never act superior to anyone else or brag about your "goodness" or "righteousness". Your dedication to a particular creed, ideology, or set of guidelines does not make you better than anyone else. Do what you believe makes you a good person on your own terms, and remember that it's an individual journey - everyone's path is unique. " Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame." — Alexander Pope.

Find a private, safe space free from distractions. Sit in a comfortable position. Clear your mind from all thoughts and take a few deep, slow breaths. Observe the thoughts in your head. Don't feel or react, just observe. If your focus breaks, just count to ten. Meditate until you feel cleansed and rejuvenated. [13] X Research source

An example for Goal 1: I will listen to others without interrupting at all either verbally or in any other way. Think of how annoying it can be for you when the other person begins to move the lips as if they are about to intervene.
Goal 2: I will do my best to think of what things would make another person happy. This could be sharing your food or drink with others when they are hungry or thirsty, letting someone else sit where you want to sit or something else.

Having a Positive Attitude

Step 1 Try to look at the bright side of things.

The Motto of the Christophers says: "It is better to light a single candle than it is to curse the darkness." Be that light. When you see controversy, try to be the one who changes the subject by suggesting a solution . Don't state what you would do, but ask everyone to get involved.

Step 2 Do an act of charity for someone else.

Even reach out to people who have been cold or indifferent to you. Show someone who is rude to you the example of your kindness. Maybe people have always been rude to them. Be the person who shows them kindness instead. [16] X Research source

Buying organic and locally grown food
Being a responsible pet owner by cleaning up after your pets [17] X Research source
Donating old items to shelters or charitable organizations instead of a thrift store [18] X Research source
Putting items back in the store where you got them instead of leaving them
Not taking the closest parking space so you leave it for someone who needs it more

Don't be in a hurry to get to the store and get back. Enjoy the scenery as you pass by. While in the store, notice all the fine and colorful fruits and vegetables that are there for your nourishment, and realize that others are not as fortunate to enjoy the same benefits. Buy some extra nourishing food to give to the food bank to help feed others. Suggest to the manager there should be a food drop off sold at discount somewhere in the store for the poor.
Only use the car horn in an emergency situation. Don't blow it at a little old man that can barely see over the wheel or someone driving extremely slow. Realize the driver may be taking his/her time so he/she doesn't injure him/herself or someone else. If they rush past you, understand that they may be in a hurry for something important. Even if they are not, why add to already negative feelings? [21] X Research source Anger only begets anger.

Have integrity . Make your word mean something. If you say you are going to do something, then follow through on that promise. If circumstances arise that make it so you can't do it, be honest and direct and let the person know. [26] X Research source
Being honest doesn't mean being rude or cruel.

Step 7 Make these small gestures a daily habit.

It doesn't work very well if you are merely trying to be diplomatic. Don't adopt a policy like, "Anything for a quiet life."

Live empathetically and help others to the best of your ability "We have a responsibility to be aware of others. We need to make justice the norm, not the exception."

Interacting With Others

Be respectful of elderly people . Realize that you will be old someday and may need a helping hand. Next time you go to a mall, parking lot, or anywhere, look for an old person struggling with something, like carrying bags or loading groceries into their car. Ask, "May I help you with that?" You will be doing a great service for seniors. Sometimes you may get one who will reject your offer; simply say, "I understand, and I wish you a good day." Or when you are out and see an old person alone, say hello with an amiable smile and ask how they are doing. Just acknowledging someone can make their day.
Be compassionate towards intellectually disabled people . They are people with feelings too. Give them a big smile and treat them like a person. If other people are smiling or laughing with your interaction with them, ignore them and keep your attention on the person who is your true friend.
Don't be racist , homophobic, or intolerant of other religions. The world is a large place full of diversity. Learn from others and celebrate differences.

Don't blame others. Accept what is your fault, talk to others about what they have done to upset you. But blaming others fosters negativity and resentment. [28] X Research source
If you can't let go of your anger, try writing down your feelings, meditating, or managing your thoughts. [29] X Research source
Don't try to correct people when they're angry by saying something irrational. Just listen with compassion and remain quiet. Say to them, "I'm sorry you feel this way, is there anything I can do to help?"

Jealousy is hard to overcome. Try to realize that you don't have to have the same things as everyone else. Try to stop feeling jealous of other people.

When other people see you doing good deeds, they will be reminded to take more positive action themselves. Nurturing someone else and striving to be an example can help you see your own acts more clearly.
Start small. Join a Big Brother-Big Sister program, volunteer to coach a kid's sports team, teach, or be a role model for young family members. [34] X Research source

Share your food with others. Never take the biggest slice of pizza or piece of meat, or if you absolutely must do so, split it with others.

Don't talk about others behind their backs. Be a genuine person. If you have a problem with someone, confront them in a respectful way. Don't spread bad things about them when they are not around.
Don't unfairly judge people. You don't know the circumstances surrounding them. Give people the benefit of the doubt, and respect their choices. [36] X Research source
Treat others the way you'd like to be treated. Remember the golden rule. Put the energy out into the universe you'd like to receive.
Respect extends to your surroundings, too. Don't throw trash on the floor, don't purposefully mess up things, and don't talk too loud or be obnoxious. Respect that other people share the same space as you. [37] X Research source

Expert Q&A

You may make mistakes, but never repeat the same mistakes. Learn from your mistakes and help yourself grow stronger as a person. Thanks Helpful 6 Not Helpful 0
When people attempt to put you down, don't talk back or take it to heart. Instead, laugh or shrug it off, or simply say you're sorry they feel this way. This will show you are too smart to sink down to their level and will prevent you from being harsh, aggressive, and a bad person. Not to mention, when they see how well you handle the situation, even your aggressors may back off or lose their interest in insulting you. Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 1
Remember, happiness is a state of mind. The only thing in the world that we can control is ourselves, so choose to be happy and control yourself by purposely maintaining a positive mental attitude. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 1

Tips from our Readers

Even if you're going through some rough times right now, that doesn't mean you can't get through them. You probably went through some challenges in life when you were a child and thought you couldn't make it ,but you got through it and you can do it again!
Never look down on or judge someone. If you're going to offer someone advice, make sure it's done kindly and with the purpose of helping them.
If you meet a mean person, don't stoop to their level. Counteract their mean-spirited ways with your kindness!

Recognize that you may find it more difficult to be kind and understanding in practice than in theory - just keep working at it. Thanks Helpful 60 Not Helpful 4
As much as possible, seek to have a sense of humor about these things - both with regards to the mistakes you've made and the sacrifices you anticipate you will need to make to be nice. Thanks Helpful 42 Not Helpful 3
The areas relating to others which you could most likely improve in are quite possibly the ones which you are least willing to admit that you are wrong in; that's exactly why you can benefit so much from facing that you may be wrong or out of line in how you relate to or treat others. Thanks Helpful 48 Not Helpful 5
Remember that you are still human - for as long as you live, you will have a tendency to sometimes make mistakes; that's okay. Everyone makes them. Do the best you can, and if you occasionally make mistakes or are not as nice as you'd like to be, just bring yourself back to focusing on thinking of others as much as yourself. Thanks Helpful 44 Not Helpful 6
If someone asks you for help and it involves doing what they should do alone never do it! It's cheating and simply teaches the person that cheating is fine. Thanks Helpful 35 Not Helpful 8

↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/10226211/Are-you-a-good-person.html
↑ http://personalexcellence.co/blog/101-ways-to-be-a-better-person/
↑ Tracey Rogers, MA. Certified Life Coach. Expert Interview. 6 January 2020.
↑ https://www.inc.com/john-rampton/15-ways-to-become-a-better-person.html
↑ http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12430/31-ways-to-be-a-better-person-every-day.html
↑ http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/5-reasons-why-you-should-always-yourself.html
↑ http://personalexcellence.co/blog/10-reasons-you-should-meditate/
↑ http://personalexcellence.co/blog/how-to-meditate/
↑ http://www.marcandangel.com/2013/09/08/10-ways-to-gain-fame-for-being-a-good-person/
↑ http://thoughtcatalog.com/david-dean/2013/06/how-to-be-a-good-person-everyday/
↑ http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/9-ways-better-person.html
↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joyce-marter-/10-ways-to-evolve-and-be-_b_4495114.html

About This Article

To be a good person, make sure to love and accept yourself so that you can be more accepting of others. Additionally, try to approach situations with a positive attitude, focusing on what you can do rather than what you did wrong. Then, work on being more empathetic by treating others as you would want to be treated. You should also try to perform a small act of kindness every day, like holding open a door or giving someone your seat on the bus. Alternatively, do something positive for the world around you, like recycling your trash or cleaning up after your pet. For tips on how to be a good person by forgiving other people’s mistakes, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How Can You Tell If You Are a Good Person?

Four virtues are the key. which do you possess.

Posted October 14, 2016 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

There are many ways to define what it means to be a good person. One definition of “good” is that you follow the rules — you don’t break the law, commit crimes, lie, or cheat.

Another way to determine who is a good person is to ask others — friends, family members, coworkers — people who know you and can “vouch” for your good qualities and character.

Another, more abstract, way to define goodness is that, at the end of your days, you leave the world a better place — you have done good deeds, saved lives (or souls), raised good children, made others happy, and the list goes on.

An approach that we’ve used in our research on “good” leaders stems from the ancient Greek philosophers and emphasizes character. According to Aristotle, there are four cardinal virtues that determine a person of good character. So, an easy way to get on the path to “goodness” is to practice the four virtues.

Here are the four cardinal virtues, their definitions, and how you can tell if you are leading a virtuous life.

1. Prudence. Another term for prudence is “ wisdom ,” but it involves being objective and reflective when deciding on courses of action. Prudent individuals learn to avoid making bad decisions. They value and learn from others. To assess how prudent you are, consider this:

Do you make life decisions by studying information, listening to the advice of trusted friends and relations, and “fact-checking?"
Do you choose courses of action that are based on what you “ought” to do? For example, would your parents approve of your course of action?

2. Temperance. This virtue focuses on moderation — not being too extreme. It involves controlling your passions and not acting out.

Do you manage your emotions, particularly the “dark” ones (i.e., anger , despair)?
Do you avoid the lure of power, wealth, and do you have good perspective on your own accomplishments (i.e., not have an overinflated ego)?

3. Justice. This virtue deals with being fair and respecting others.

Do you treat others fairly, giving them credit when credit is due?
Do you respect the rights of others? Do you treat others as you would want to be treated?

4. Fortitude (or Courage). This involves having the courage to stand up for what you believe in — to do the right thing.

Do you intervene when you see others being mistreated or abused?
Do you have the courage to take responsibility for your own mistakes and failures?
Do you have a moral compass that you follow and do you have the courage to do what that moral compass tells you to do?

Although our work involves trying to help leaders assess and build their character via the cardinal virtues, these are important for everyone, not just leaders. Moreover, parents should foster these virtues in themselves and in their children. Focusing on these virtues, checking your own behavior, and working to become more virtuous in all areas of life is the key to becoming a good person.

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Riggio, R.E., Zhu, W., Reina, C., & Maroosis, J. (2010). Virtue-based measurement of ethical leadership: The Leadership Virtues Questionnaire. Consulting Psychology Journal, 62(4), 235-250.

Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D. , is the Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology at Claremont McKenna College.

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How To Be A Good Person And Why It Matters

What makes a person a “good” person? Should we strive to be good—and if so, why? If you asked twenty people what it means to be a good person, chances are you would get twenty different answers. What individuals perceive to be good character traits can vary depending on several factors. Religion, culture, and family dynamics, for example, can all play a part in forming one's viewpoint on a topic like this.

Note that human beings are complex and that sorting all people into the strict binary of “good” or “bad” is generally not possible or particularly helpful. Attempting to do so can even result in distorted thinking, which can sometimes lead to mental health concerns like low self-esteem, anxiety, or depression. Here, we’ll use being a “good” person as a general term that refers to behaving in ways that are broadly considered to be considerate and kind, but it can be helpful to keep in mind the deep nuances of a topic like morality .

What is goodness?

The word "good" is defined by Merriam-Webster as "virtuous, right and commendable; kind and benevolent." Henry David Thoreau was quoted as saying, "Goodness is the only investment that never fails."

A “good” person often has certain habits or characteristics that reflect their efforts to be a considerate individual who avoids harming others. While, again, these can vary from person to person and culture to culture, a few general examples of these traits can include the following.

The empathy definition in psychology is the ability to emotionally understand another person's feelings by imagining yourself in their position. An empathetic person tends to be able to express an understanding of how others feel and treat them accordingly.

An individual who wants to be a good person might also strive to be honest with themselves and others. Dishonesty can damage trust between two people and potentially lead to distance or conflict within a relationship.

Someone who practices the principle of fairness might aim to be aware of their biases and avoid letting those negatively affect others. This could manifest as a belief in justice or equality, for example.

Responsibility

Responsibility or accountability for one’s actions is also considered by many to be a sign of a good person. It usually involves an effort to make decisions that aren’t harmful to others and to take ownership of them if they are.

Why being a good person matters

One’s motivation for being “good” can vary widely. Research suggests that altruism—or the act of showing selfless concern for the well-being of others—is a uniquely human trait, of which there are many examples. Biologically, evolutionarily, or on some other level, many may feel generally driven to be kind and not harmful—a trait that many people equate with being a good person.

However, there are many other complex factors that go into how humans decide to behave, and our actions can have effects on many areas of our lives. If you’re in the process of deciding what values you want to live by, you might consider some of these potential outcomes of who you may choose to be.

Effects on your career and opportunities

Your actions and behaviors help build your reputation which, among many other factors, can help to create the opportunities you encounter in life. Behaving in ways that are generally respectful of others may help others develop a positive opinion of you. This could lead to benefits in your career and other opportunities that may help you achieve what you’re looking for in life.

Effects on relationships

The way we behave can also impact how others see us and relate to us, which can affect our relationships overall. For instance, many people are looking for friends and romantic partners who are “good” people in that they’re honest, caring, respectful, etc. People who are looking for healthy, supportive relationships often tend to seek out others who make them feel safe rather than uneasy or disrespected.

Feeling a sense of purpose

Deciding on a set of values that you want to live by and then sticking to them as best you can may help give you a direction and a purpose in life. This may even correlate with less loneliness and better overall health.

Seeking support related to being a good person

The idea of being a “good” person can affect a person’s mental health in a variety of ways. For instance, a person might have trouble coping with mistakes they’ve made in the past and how they may have affected those around them. Or, they could hold themselves to an impossible standard of perfection , which could lead to feelings of depression or anxiety. If you’re looking for support in discovering your values or changing the way you relate to morality , a therapist may be able to help.

If you’re interested in therapy but prefer to receive this type of care from the comfort of home, you might try online therapy. In one study published in World Psychiatry, researchers examined the effectiveness of online therapy in treating a wide range of mental health disorders. Their research indicates that online therapy can be as effective as face-to-face counseling in many cases, which reflects the similar findings of other studies as well. With a platform like BetterHelp, you can get matched with a licensed therapist who you can meet with via phone, video call, and/or in-app messaging. See below for client reviews of BetterHelp counselors.

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"Michal has been very supportive. Her techniques are very handy and have really helped me switch my negative thoughts to positive ones. Looking forward to learning more from her to become a better version of myself. Thank you Michal."

"Krysten has been an immense help in dealing with and confronting my anger and depression issues. I started to notice immediate changes in my general disposition within a week of working with her. My friends and family have even said I seem less bitter and jaded. And the fact that I can communicate with her frequently has done wonders in keeping me on track and progressing forward. My time working with Krysten and being on BetterHelp has been a positive experience and done much more for me than traditional in-office therapy ever did."

How can you become a good person?

There isn’t a consistent definition of what makes a good person. Even rules that seem constant and rigid, like “Good people don’t hurt others,” can become flexible under the right conditions. For instance, most humans condemn murder and believe it is morally wrong, yet there are often exceptions that allow for taking a life in the case of self-defense or during war.

Deciding what makes you a good person requires understanding your moral identity . What do you believe to be morally right? When can the rules be bent or broken? Do small actions, like holding the door open for someone, make you a good person, or does it take a more substantial effort, like volunteering for charity work?

Becoming a good person means understanding your moral code and improving yourself until your actions consistently reflect your values. While that journey is different for everybody, there are some common tips that may help you:

Don’t make excuses. Becoming a good person is a personal responsibility, and no one can achieve your goal besides you. Be wary of pointing the finger at others; becoming a good person often means examining your mistakes and making peace with your shortcomings.
Use honest and direct communication. Lies and deception are rarely seen as traits kind people possess. Learn to articulate your thoughts and feelings openly and honestly.
Help others. Take time to assist others when you can; helping others through tough times will likely improve your reputation and self-perception. Good deeds and kindness are commonly considered a foundational part of being a good person.
Become a good listener. Knowing how to listen actively can make it easier for you to understand and empathize with others. Empathy is commonly associated with goodness, and demonstrating empathy is likely an important skill to have.
Always be respectful . Your words and actions should always demonstrate respect for the people around you and the environment that you’re in. Take time to learn how to control your negative emotions. You don’t have to agree with everything or appease everyone, but even when disagreeing, you should maintain a respectful tone and demeanor.

What is the point of being a good person?

Philosophers have debated the reasons for being a good person for centuries. Today, there are several philosophical and sociological arguments that justify good behavior. One of the longest-running unsettled arguments is the egoism/altruism debate . The egoism/altruism debate examines what motivates humans to be good to each other.

The altruism side of the argument asserts that humans have an intrinsic drive to help others. The existence of an empathetic connection between humans supports the altruism argument. For example, if a person comes across someone who is injured, they are likely to try to assist them, probably because they empathize with their position. In the altruism argument, empathy motivates good and helpful behavior, allowing for self-sacrifice with no prospect of receiving a reward .

In contrast, the egoism argument suggests that people tend to be motivated to help others for self-serving reasons. It may elevate their status in society, make it more likely they can receive help from others, or put others in their debt. Furthermore, some proponents of the egoist perspective assert that even when someone helps another with no intention of a reward, the warm feeling of satisfaction that commonly comes after helping someone else may serve as its own reward. From an egoist perspective, helping behavior is inherently self-serving, no matter whether an external reward is expected.

How do you feel like a good person?

Feeling like a good person is often related to self-improvement and self-acceptance. You will likely feel good when your behaviors align with your core values. No matter what your exact definition of a “good person” may be, if your actions match your beliefs, you will likely feel like a good person.

You may want to consider building your self-esteem and recognizing your strengths. You likely have much to offer the world around you, and recognizing your inherent goodness can help you feel better about yourself. Self-examination may also be helpful. Taking time to analyze your understanding of what is morally right may offer insight into how you can be a good person on your terms.

How can I be a better person and happy?

Self-improvement is likely one of the most critical steps toward becoming happier. People with good personalities who understand their place in the world and surround themselves with a support network tend to be much happier than those who do not reach those goals. Achieving those goals requires committing to self-improvement and growth. It requires a willingness to examine your moral identity and develop an understanding of how you conceptualize the difference between good and bad.

Many people begin by identifying their strengths and improving their self-esteem . You likely have strengths to offer, and utilizing your natural strengths can make becoming a better person much easier. Early in your self-improvement process, you should decide on reasonable goals that will continually make you a better person. Goal-setting can be challenging ; it is important that you stay within your limits and grow into a better person at a reasonable pace.

How can I improve myself every day?

Committing to daily positive change is likely a worthwhile goal. Improving yourself daily lets you take small steps towards a larger personal goal. Many people find setting both long-term and short-term goals to be helpful. Long-term goals should represent relatively large aspirations related to your self-improvement, and short-term goals should represent steps you can take to achieve your larger goals.

Ensuring that your long-term and short-term goals are reasonably achievable is important. Your goals shouldn’t take so little effort that you don’t have to work to attain them, but they shouldn’t be so hard that you risk burnout trying to accomplish them. Appropriately balancing your goals is likely to help you stay on track and motivated as you incorporate daily self-improvement into your life.

How can I change myself to be better?

Bettering yourself requires time, effort, and dedication. When you set goals and work toward them, you are physically changing the pathways in your brain , which requires consistent effort and repetition. If you are trying to rid yourself of bad habits or develop better ones, you may need to commit days, weeks, or months to the process. That is why choosing achievable goals is so important; if you go too long without reaching a goal, you may experience depleted willpower and burnout.

When deciding your goals and how you want to achieve them, it may be helpful to study your successes. You likely have many strengths you can leverage on your self-improvement journey, some of which you may not realize you have. Consider paying close attention to the positive feedback you receive from others.

Reflect on what strengths are apparent and how you can use those good qualities to achieve your goals. If feedback from others in your life is sparse, consider asking those around you for feedback directly. Don’t expect everything to be positive; you should be prepared for some (hopefully constructive) criticism. You can reflect on the criticism, too, especially if it conflicts with your goals, but be sure to come back around to the positive.

How do I get better at something?

No matter what skill you are trying to develop, getting better at something requires willpower and persistence. Self-improvement requires actions that physically change your brain as your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors change. Sticking to your goals is arguably the most challenging part of getting better at something, especially at the beginning of the process.

Here are some basic steps to help you remain committed to your self-improvement journey:

Develop a growth mindset. A person with a growth mindset sees failure as a necessary part of success. You may want to work on accepting the trials and tribulations of personal growth. Doing so may make it easier to avoid burnout and stay committed to your goals.
Develop refined goals. Goals that are too broad (e.g., “I want to get better”) are difficult to achieve. It is important that your goals be attainable . Each time you achieve one of your goals, the reward center in your brain reinforces the behavior that got you there. Refined goals are balanced; they aren’t so easy that you don’t have to work to achieve them and aren’t so hard that you burn out trying to attain them.
Keep your focus. It is easy to get distracted from whatever improvement goals you have. Vices and bad habits are potential distractions, but so are the demands of daily life. Other people’s poor behavior can distract you as well. Consider learning to forgive people quickly, for your sake, instead of theirs. Make sure you are reminding yourself of your goals and tracking your progress daily.
Maintain accountability. Monitoring your progress towards your goals lets you analyze how your journey is coming along. If there are areas where you are struggling to progress, take time to figure out where the challenges are and how you can overcome them. Take responsibility for your own progress; only you can make yourself a better person.

How do you keep growing in life?

Consistent personal growth requires dedication and commitment. As you become a better person, you will need to identify new growth areas and goals to move forward. It is likely prudent to engage in self-evaluation regularly. Take time to learn yourself, understand your moral identity , and determine which goals you should set next in your improvement journey.

It may also be helpful to seek feedback from others. Friends, family, and coworkers can all be valuable sources of insight into your strengths and weaknesses. When seeking feedback from others, ask that they be open and honest with you. This means that you will need to prepare yourself to receive negative as well as positive feedback. Although criticism can be unpleasant - even if it’s constructive - listening to negative feedback can help illustrate areas for personal development, while positive improvement-oriented feedback is likely to improve your performance overall.

Overcoming Hopelessness: Tips To Help You Feel Better Medically reviewed by Julie Dodson , MA
Do's and don'ts: Addressing a loved one’s hoarding disorder Medically reviewed by Laura Angers Maddox , NCC, LPC
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Essay Samples on Being a Good Person

Working on the set goal to become a good person.

Being a good leader and role model is very important to me and I am very motivated to gain any skills that will assist in achieving those qualities. I want to develop the self confidence, vision, wisdom, motivational impact and delivery skills that most effective...

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The Struggle of Being a Good Person and Leader at the Same Time

I worked for Infosys Ltd, one amongst the top Software giants in India, for 4.6 years. I joined as a Trainee and was a Technology analyst by the time I quit Infosys. I have had the opportunity to work with 5 to 6 leaders in...

Letting Go of Being a 'Good' Person and Becoming a Better Person

Each individual defines being a good person differently by perspective. The definition of a good person is narrow due to the human brain relies on shortcuts to do a lot of its work. It was explained that that mental processes are taken place outside of...

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How to Write a Descriptive Paragraph About a Person (With Examples)

4-minute read

7th January 2023

Describing a person or character is difficult for even the most successful authors. It requires a balance of words to make sure they shine through without the language being too heavy. In this article, we’ll look at how to write a descriptive paragraph about a person, share some examples, and talk about different strategies.

1. Brainstorm Your Ideas

Brainstorming is crucial to any writing process. It’s the process in which you think of ideas for what you’d like to write about. In this case, you’re writing a descriptive paragraph about a person. It’s important to use adjectives to describe the features or characteristics you want to focus on.

One way to come up with ideas for a descriptive paragraph about a person is to go through the five senses. Use the questions below to get some ideas for what you want to highlight about your person.

Appeal to your reader’s senses – smell, taste, sound, sight, and touch

Smell: How does the person smell? Do they wear perfume? Are they doing an activity that would make them have a certain smell?

Taste: Do you associate a certain food with this person? Does it make you think of a specific taste? Can you taste something due to a certain smell they have?

Sound: Do they have a unique voice or laugh? Are they doing an activity that has distinctive sounds?

Sight: What prominent features do they have? For example, think about their dressing style, their smile, or their surroundings. What do you see them doing in your mind when you see a photo of them? What memories do you have of this person? Does this person remind you of something or someone?

Touch: What textures do you see? For example, imagine their skin or clothing. How does it feel if you hug them?

2. Begin With a Short and Snappy Sentence

Like with any type of writing, you want to hook your reader so that they want to continue reading. In this case, you can use a topic sentence, if appropriate, to introduce your reader to the person. For example:

Or, if you want to be more creative, you can reel them in with a short and snappy sentence about this person. This is called a writing hook . This sentence should focus on a stand-out detail or characteristic about the person you’re describing. For example:

3. Describe the Person

Now, this is the hard part. But, if you’ve brainstormed plenty of ideas and know which ones you want to focus on, it will be easier. Let’s look at some examples to get a better idea of how to write a descriptive paragraph about a person using the prompt “describe a person you admire.”

Comments: This paragraph is pretty typical of most students. It gives lots of visual details of the person and uses a simile or two (“ Her eyes are like the color of honey” and “Her smile shines like the sun” ). While this strategy gets the job done, it’s not very exciting to read. In fact, it can be quite boring!

Let’s look at how we can rewrite this to make it more exciting.

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Comments: In this example, we focused on one defining characteristic of the person we are describing — her laugh. This strategy places more focus on the person you’re describing, rather than the adjectives you use to describe them.

4. Edit and Revise

After you write your descriptive paragraph, be sure to read it over. Read it out loud. Read it in a funny voice. Doing this will help you to hear the words and identify which parts do not work or sound awkward.

5. General Tips for Descriptive Writing

● Avoid using too many descriptive words.

● Remember to show the reader, not tell.

● Appeal to the reader’s five senses – smell, touch, taste, sight, and sound.

● Focus on a striking or defining characteristic.

● Use contrasting details from other people or surroundings for emphasis.

● Use literary devices (metaphors, similes etc.) sparingly and with intention.

● Use a hook to reel your reader in.

● Use a variety of short and long sentences.

● Practice creative writing exercises to improve your descriptive writing skills.

● Always edit and revise your writing.

If you need more help with writing a descriptive paragraph or essay , send your work to us! Our experts will proofread your first 500 words for free !

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Good Manners Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on good manners.

Since our childhood, we were always taught good manners . Our parents always insisted us to enlist good manners. Moreover, they always tried their best to teach us everything to become a good human being . Good manners are important for a person to live in a society. Furthermore, if a person wants to be liked by everyone then he must know how to behave. The difference between an educated person and an illiterate person is not of knowledge. But the way he speaks and acts. So the presence of good manners can make a person gentleman. Yet if a person is lacking it then even the most educated person will not be a good man.

Good manners hold great importance in a persons’ life. In order to become successful in life, one should always take care of how he interacts. Various businessman and successful people are achieving heights. This is because of their good manners and skills. If a boss does not speak properly with his employees then they will leave the job. Therefore good manners are essential in any field of life.

Our parents have always taught us to respect our elders . Because if we won’t respect our elders then our Youngers will not respect us. Respect also comes in good manners. Respect is one of the most essential needs of a person. Moreover, many people work really hard to earn respect. Since I was a child I have always heard from my parents that respect is the utmost thing you should aim for. Therefore everyone deserves respect in life.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Division of Good manners can be done under two categories:-

Good Manners at School

In-School, a child should respect his teachers and seniors. Furthermore, he should listen to what the teacher is saying because they are his mentors. Moreover, the child should be well dressed and hygienic.

Furthermore, a child should always carry a handkerchief, in order to maintain hygiene . The child should always be punctual. So that he may not waste others time. Also, you should never take others’ things without permission. Since there are many children studying in the school, you should not push each other while standing in a queue.

Good Manners at Home

Most importantly, you should respect your parents at home. Always wish them “GOOD MORNING” and “GOOD NIGHT” at the beginning and end of the day. Moreover, you should brush your teeth and take a bath daily. So, you may maintain proper hygiene.

Wash hands before eating your meal, chew your food well and eat with mouth closed. Also, you should take permission from parents before going out of the house Above all, you make use of the words ‘Thank you’ and ‘Please’ in your speech.

Good manners at work for elders. You should respect your Co-workers. Also, you should try to complete yours on time. Furthermore, you should be punctual in the office. Do not gossip while working and do not distract others.

Moreover, you should not interfere in others’ work. Consider your junior employees and help them if they have any problem. At last, do not fall into corruption and do your work with honesty and diligence.

FAQs on the Good Manners

Q1.Why is the importance of good manners?

A1. In order to live in a society, one should have good manners. This maintains a peaceful environment and people will like you as a human being.

Q2.How can we enlist good manners in us?

A2. We can enlist good manners by reading books and learning from it. Moreover, you can also join personality development classes. They teach all the good manners and make you a better person.

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The Big AI Risk Not Enough People Are Seeing

Beware technology that makes us less human.

“Our focus with AI is to help create more healthy and equitable relationships.” Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder and executive chair of the dating app Bumble, leans in toward her Bloomberg Live interviewer. “How can we actually teach you how to date?”

When her interviewer, apparently bemused, asks for an example of what this means, Herd launches into a mind-bending disquisition on the future of AI-abetted dating: “Okay, so for example, you could in the near future be talking to your AI dating concierge, and you could share your insecurities. ‘I just came out of a breakup. I have commitment issues.’ And it could help you train yourself into a better way of thinking about yourself. And then it could give you productive tips for communicating with other people. If you want to get really out there, there is a world where your dating concierge could go and date for you with other dating concierges.” When her audience lets out a peal of uneasy laughter, the CEO continues undeterred, heart-shape earrings bouncing with each sweep of her hands. “No, no, truly. And then you don’t have to talk to 600 people. It will then scan all of San Francisco for you and say, These are the three people you really ought to meet. ”

What Herd provides here is much more than a darkly whimsical peek into a dystopian future of online dating. It’s a window into a future in which people require layer upon layer of algorithmic mediation between them in order to carry out the most basic of human interactions: those involving romance, sex, friendship, comfort, food. Implicit in Herd’s proclamation—that her app will “ teach you how to date”—is the assumption that AI will soon understand proper human behavior in ways that human beings do not. Despite Herd’s insistence that such a service would empower us, what she’s actually describing is the replacement of human courtship rituals: Your digital proxy will go on innumerable dates for you, so you don’t have to practice anything so pesky as flirting and socializing.

Read: America is sick of swiping

Hypothetical AI dating concierges sound silly, and they are not exactly humanity’s greatest threat. But we might do well to think of the Bumble founder’s bubbly sales pitch as a canary in the coal mine, a harbinger of a world of algorithms that leave people struggling to be people without assistance. The new AI products coming to market are gate-crashing spheres of activity that were previously the sole province of human beings. Responding to these often disturbing developments requires a principled way of disentangling uses of AI that are legitimately beneficial and prosocial from those that threaten to atrophy our life skills and independence. And that requires us to have a clear idea of what makes human beings human in the first place.

In 1977, Ivan Illich, an Austrian-born philosopher, vagabond priest , and ruthless critic of metastatic bureaucracies, declared that we had entered “the age of Disabling Professions.” Modernity was characterized, in Illich’s view, by the standardization and professionalization of everyday life. Activities that were once understood to be within the competencies of laypeople—say, raising children or bandaging the wounded—were suddenly brought under the purview of technical experts who claimed to possess “secret knowledge,” bestowed by training and elite education, that was beyond the ken of the untutored masses. The licensed physician displaced the local healer. Child psychologists and their “cutting edge” research superseded parents and their instincts. Data-grubbing nutritionists replaced the culinary wisdom of grandmothers.

Illich’s singular insight was that the march of professional reason—the transformation of Western civilization into a technocratic enterprise ruled by what we now call “best practices”—promised to empower us but actually made us incompetent, dependent on certified experts to make decisions that were once the jurisdiction of the common man. “In any area where a human need can be imagined,” Illich wrote , “these new professions, dominant, authoritative, monopolistic, legalized—and, at the same time, debilitating and effectively disabling the individual—have become exclusive experts of the public good.” Modern professions inculcate the belief not only that their credentialed representatives can solve your problems for you, but also that you are incapable of solving said problems for yourself. In the case of some industries, like medicine, this is plainly a positive development. Other examples, like the ballooning wellness industry, are far more dubious.

If the entrenchment of specialists in science, schooling, child-rearing, and so on is among the pivotal developments of the 20th century, the rise of online dating is among the most significant of the 21st. But one key difference between this more recent advancement and those of yesteryear is that websites such as Tinder and Hinge are defined not by disabling professionals with fancy degrees, but by disabling algorithms . The white-coated expert has been replaced by digital services that cut out the human middleman and replace him with an (allegedly) even smarter machine, one that promises to know you better than you know yourself.

Faith Hill: ‘Nostalgia for a dating experience they’ve never had’

And it’s not just dating apps. Supposed innovations including machine-learning-enhanced meal-kit companies such as HelloFresh, Spotify recommendations, and ChatGPT suggest that we have entered the Age of Disabling Algorithms as tech companies simultaneously sell us on our existing anxieties and help nurture new ones. At the heart of it all is the kind of AI bait-and-switch peddled by the Bumble CEO. Algorithms are now tooled to help you develop basic life skills that decades ago might have been taken as a given: How to date. How to cook a meal. How to appreciate new music. How to write and reflect. Like an episode out of Black Mirror , the machines have arrived to teach us how to be human even as they strip us of our humanity. We have reason to be worried.

As conversations over the dangers of artificial intelligence have heated up over the past 18 months—largely thanks to the meteoric rise of large language models like ChatGPT—the focus of both the media and Silicon Valley has been on Skynet scenarios. The primary fear is that chat models may experience an “intelligence explosion” as they are scaled up, meaning that LLMs might proceed rapidly from artificial intelligence to artificial general intelligence to artificial superintelligence (ASI) that is both smarter and more powerful than even the smartest human beings. This is often called the “fast takeoff” scenario, and the concern is that if ASI slips out of humanity’s control—and how could it not—it might choose to wipe out our species, or even enslave us.

These AI “existential risk” debates—at least the ones being waged in public —have taken on a zero-sum quality: They are almost exclusively between those who believe that the aforementioned Terminator-style dangers are real, and others who believe that these are Hollywood-esque fantasies that distract the public from more sublunar AI-related problems, like algorithmic discrimination , autonomous weapons systems , or ChatGPT-facilitated cheating . But this is a false binary, one that excludes another possibility: Artificial intelligence could significantly diminish humanity, even if machines never ascend to superintelligence, by sapping the ability of human beings to do human things.

The epochal impact of online dating is there for all to see in a simple line graph from a 2019 study . It shows the explosive growth of online dating since 1995, the year that Match.com, the world’s first online-dating site, was launched . That year, only 2 percent of heterosexual couples reported meeting online. By 2017, that figure had jumped to 39 percent as other ways of meeting—through friends or family, at work or in church—declined precipitously.

Besides online dating, the only way of meeting that increased during this period was meeting at a bar or restaurant. However, the authors of the study noted that this ostensible increase was a mirage: The “apparent post-2010 rise in meeting through bars and restaurants for heterosexual couples is due entirely to couples who met online and subsequently had a first in-person meeting at a bar or restaurant or other establishment where people gather and socialize. If we exclude the couples who first met online from the bar/restaurant category, the bar/restaurant category was significantly declining after 1995 as a venue for heterosexual couples to meet.” In other words, online dating has become hegemonic. The wingman is out. Digital matchmaking is in.

But even those selling online-dating services seem to know there’s something unsettling about the idea that algorithms, rather than human beings, are now spearheading human romance. A bizarre Tinder ad from last fall featured the rapper Coi Leray playing the role of Cupid, perched on an ominously pink stage, tasked with finding a date for a young woman. A coterie of associates, dressed in Hunger Games chic, grilled a series of potential suitors as Cupid swiped left until the perfect match was found. These characters put human faces on an inhuman process.

Leif Weatherby, an expert on the history of AI development and the author of a forthcoming book on large language models, told me that ads like this are a neat distillation of Silicon Valley’s marketing playbook. “We’re seeing a general trend of selling AI as ‘empowering,’ a way to extend your ability to do something, whether that’s writing, making investments, or dating,” Weatherby explained. “But what really happens is that we become so reliant on algorithmic decisions that we lose oversight over our own thought processes and even social relationships. The rhetoric of AI empowerment is sheep’s clothing for Silicon Valley wolves who are deliberately nurturing the public’s dependence on their platforms.” Curtailing human independence, then, is not a bug, but a feature of the AI gold rush.

Of course, there is an extent to which this nurtured dependence isn’t unique to AI, but is an inevitable by-product of innovation. The broad uptake of any new technology generally atrophies the human skills for the processes that said technology makes more efficient or replaces outright. The advent of the vacuum was no doubt accompanied by a corresponding decline in the average American’s deftness with a broom. The difference between technologies of convenience, like the vacuum or the washing machine, and platforms like Tinder or ChatGPT is that the latter are concerned with atrophying competencies, like romantic socializing or thinking and reflection, that are fundamental to what it is to be a human being.

Read: AI has lost its magic

The response to our algorithmically remade world can’t simply be that algorithms are bad, sensu stricto. Such a stance isn’t just untenable at a practical level—algorithms aren’t going anywhere—but it also undermines unimpeachably positive use cases, such as the employment of AI in cancer diagnosis . Instead, we need to adopt a more sophisticated approach to artificial intelligence, one that allows us to distinguish between uses of AI that legitimately empower human beings and those—like hypothetical AI dating concierges—that wrest core human activities from human control. But making these distinctions requires us to re-embrace an old idea that tends to leave those of us on the left rather squeamish: human nature.

Both Western intellectuals and the progressive public tend to be hostile to the idea that there is a universal “human nature,” a phrase that now has right-wing echoes . Instead, those on the left prefer to emphasize the diversity, and equality, of varying human cultural traditions. But this discomfort with adopting a strong definition of human nature compromises our ability to draw red lines in a world where AI encroaches on human territory. If human nature doesn’t exist, and if there is no core set of fundamental human activities, desires, or traits, on what basis can we argue against the outsourcing of those once-human endeavors to machines? We can’t take a stand against the infiltration of algorithms into the human estate if we don’t have a well-developed sense of which activities make humans human , and which activities—like sweeping the floor or detecting pancreatic cancer —can be outsourced to nonhuman surrogates without diminishing our agency.

One potential way out of this impasse is offered by the so-called capability approach to human flourishing developed by the philosopher Martha Nussbaum and others. In rejection of the kind of knee-jerk cultural relativism that often prevails in progressive political thought, Nussbaum’s work insists that advocating for the poor or marginalized, at home or abroad, requires us to agree on universal “basic human capabilities” that citizens should be able to develop. Nussbaum includes among these basic capabilities “being able to imagine, to think, and to reason” and “to engage in various forms of familial and social interaction.” A good society, according to the capability approach, is one in which human beings are not just theoretically free to engage in these basic human endeavors, but are actually capable of doing so.

As AI is built into an ever-expanding roster of products and services, covering dating, essay writing, and music and recipe recommendations, we need to be able to make granular, rational decisions about which uses of artificial intelligence expand our basic human capabilities, and which cultivate incompetence and incapacity under the guise of empowerment. Disabling algorithms are disabling precisely because they leave us less capable of, and more anxious about, carrying out essential human behaviors.

Of course, some will object to the idea that there is any such thing as fundamental human activities. They may even argue that describing behaviors like dating and making friends, critical thinking, or cooking as central to the human condition is ableist or otherwise bigoted. After all, some people are asexual or introverted. Others with mental disabilities might not be adept at reflection, or written or oral communication. Some folks simply do not want to cook, an activity which is historically gendered besides. But this objection relies on a sleight of hand. Identifying certain activities as fundamental to the human enterprise does not require you to believe that those who don’t or can’t engage in them are inhuman, just as embracing the idea that the human species is bipedal does not require you to believe that people born without legs lack full personhood. It only asks that you acknowledge that there are some endeavors that are vital aspects of the human condition, taken in the aggregate, and that a society where people broadly lack these capacities is not a good one.

Without some minimal agreement as to what those basic human capabilities are—what activities belong to the jurisdiction of our species, not to be usurped by machines—it becomes difficult to pin down why some uses of artificial intelligence delight and excite, while others leave many of us feeling queasy.

What makes many applications of artificial intelligence so disturbing is that they don’t expand our mind’s capacity to think, but outsource it. AI dating concierges would not enhance our ability to make romantic connections with other humans, but obviate it. In this case, technology diminishes us, and that diminishment may well become permanent if left unchecked. Over the long term, human beings in a world suffused with AI-enablers will likely prove less capable of engaging in fundamental human activities: analyzing ideas and communicating them, forging spontaneous connections with others, and the like. While this may not be the terrifying, robot-warring future imagined by the Terminator movies, it would represent another kind of existential catastrophe for humanity.

Whether or not the Bumble founder’s dream of artificial-intelligence-induced dalliances ever comes to fruition is an open question, but it is also somewhat beside the point. What should give us real pause is the understanding of AI, now ubiquitous in Big Tech, that underlies her dystopian prognostications. Silicon Valley leaders have helped make a world in which people feel that everyday social interactions, whether dating or making simple phone calls, require expert advice and algorithmic assistance. AI threatens to turbocharge this process. Even if your personalized dating concierge is not here yet, the sales pitch for them has already arrived, and that sales pitch is almost as dangerous as the technology itself: AI will teach you how to be a human.

Watch our Memorial Day tribute to the military who sacrificed all to serve their country

Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer. It's a time to gather with friends and family for a grill out, a picnic, or maybe a trip to the beach to soak up the sun. But while it may well feel like a day of celebration, what sometimes gets forgotten is that it was conceived as a day of commemoration for the brave military members who died serving their country.

A University of Phoenix survey found that less than half of Americans polled knew the exact purpose of Memorial Day, while around a third were unsure of the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

To clarify, Veterans Day, which takes place in November, is a tribute to all those who served honorably in the military in wartime or peacetime, whether living or dead.

The confusion is compounded by Armed Forces Day, a military celebration held in May for those currently serving. However, while the reasons differ, the sentiment of each day is the same: all three are important opportunities to show gratitude.

So, when you chow down on that hot dog, barrel down that slip 'n slide, or whatever you do for fun this Memorial Day, spare a moment to acknowledge the people in uniform whose sacrifice made a difference.

On this Memorial Day, watch the video for a surprise reunion of battle buddies bonded by the loss of their leade r

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12 Giveaways You’re A Good Person

Posted: May 30, 2024 | Last updated: May 30, 2024

<p>If he consistently disregards your opinions, belittles you or your accomplishments, or undermines your preferences or decisions, it may indicate a lack of respect for you as an equal partner. For instance, if he frequently interrupts you or dismisses your ideas during discussions, it may signal a pattern of disrespect.</p>

In a world where actions often speak louder than words, being a genuinely good person can sometimes feel like a rare commodity. However, true kindness and integrity shine through in the simplest of ways, revealing the essence of a person’s character. You might wonder if your everyday actions and attitudes signal to others that you are a person of good heart and intentions.

The following are twelve clear signs that showcase your inherent goodness, reflecting the positivity you bring into the lives of those around you.

<p>Call your provider and inquire about available discounts or promotions. Begin by contacting your provider to inquire about any existing discounts or promotions. You can also bring up competitive offers from other providers during negotiations to leverage for a lower monthly rate or extra data. </p>

YOU HAVE NO PROBLEM ACCEPTING MISTAKES

People who accept their mistakes demonstrate a profound level of self-awareness and humility. Acknowledging their errors shows they value truth and growth over ego, and this honesty fosters trust and respect from others. Such individuals are often empathetic and considerate, understanding that everyone is fallible.

<p>Disrespecting service workers can serve as a red flag in a man, revealing underlying attitudes towards authority, empathy, and entitlement. For instance, belittling or mistreating waitstaff, retail employees, or janitorial staff may indicate a lack of empathy and an inflated sense of superiority.</p>

YOU RESPECT EVERYONE

People who respect everyone, regardless of their status, display a deep understanding of human dignity and equality. This respectfulness indicates an awareness that every individual has intrinsic value and deserves kindness. By treating everyone with equal regard, they foster an inclusive and positive environment, showcasing their humility and empathy.

<p>People who are consistently caring and responsible exhibit a high degree of awareness and reliability, traits that underscore their inherent kindness. They anticipate the needs of others and take proactive steps to provide support, whether it’s helping a colleague meet a deadline or checking in on a friend going through a tough time. For instance, someone who ensures their elderly neighbor has groceries during inclement weather shows both care and responsibility.</p>

YOU ARE CARING AND RESPONSIBLE

People who are consistently caring and responsible exhibit a high degree of awareness and reliability, traits that underscore their inherent kindness. They anticipate the needs of others and take proactive steps to provide support, whether it’s helping a colleague meet a deadline or checking in on a friend going through a tough time. For instance, someone who ensures their elderly neighbor has groceries during inclement weather shows both care and responsibility.

<p>If he consistently prioritizes his own needs without considering your feelings or making efforts to find common ground, it can lead to feelings of resentment. For example, if he refuses to compromise on important decisions or insists on having his way in every situation, it may indicate a lack of empathy and willingness to prioritize the relationship.</p>

YOU UNDERSTAND PRIVACY

People who are private and discerning about what they share exhibit a strong sense for boundaries. By carefully choosing what to reveal and what to keep private, they show an understanding of the importance of personal and others’ privacy. This discretion indicates their thoughtfulness and respect for both their own and others’ personal space.

<p>People who remain kind in the worst situations and manage their emotions well demonstrate remarkable resilience and emotional intelligence. Their ability to stay calm and compassionate, even under pressure, highlights their genuine niceness and strong character. For instance, someone who patiently helps others during a crisis, rather than succumbing to frustration, shows a deep sense of empathy and control.</p>

YOU ARE KIND AND IN CONTROL

People who remain kind in the worst situations and manage their emotions well demonstrate remarkable resilience and emotional intelligence. Their ability to stay calm and compassionate, even under pressure, highlights their genuine niceness and strong character. For instance, someone who patiently helps others during a crisis, rather than succumbing to frustration, shows a deep sense of empathy and control.

<p>Imposters pretend to be your grandchild, saying they need urgent money. Always verify with your family before sending funds to anyone.</p>

YOU DO NOT GOSSIP

People who refrain from gossiping about others are typically seen as good individuals because they value integrity and respect. By not engaging in gossip, they show they understand the harm that spreading rumors or speaking ill of others can cause.

<p>Farm laborers work outdoors on farms, performing various tasks such as planting, weeding, harvesting, and packing crops. They may also care for livestock, repair fences, and maintain farm equipment to support agricultural operations.</p><p>The median salary is approximately $47097 per year per year.</p>

YOU HAVE EMPATHY

Empathy is a key indicator of goodness. Understanding and sharing the feelings of others highlights your ability to connect on a deeper level. This often involves offering support in times of need. For instance, comforting a colleague who’s having a bad day by offering a kind word or a listening ear showcases your empathetic nature.

<p>Choose a give-and-take policy with your neighbors. Do something for them for free, and ask them to return the favor. You can mow their lawn so that they fix your leaky taps. </p>

YOU ACT WITH WITH INTEGRITY

Good people consistently do the right thing, even when no one is watching. They uphold strong moral principles and honesty in all aspects of life. For example, they return a lost wallet with all its contents intact, showing integrity and respect for others’ property.

<p>Good people are quick to forgive and let go of grudges. They understand that everyone makes mistakes and believe in giving second chances. This attitude fosters peace and reduces conflict. For instance, forgiving a friend who forgot an important date and moving past it shows your ability to maintain relationships with grace.</p>

YOU PRACTICE FORGIVENESS

Good people are quick to forgive and let go of grudges. They understand that everyone makes mistakes and believe in giving second chances. This attitude fosters peace and reduces conflict. For instance, forgiving a friend who forgot an important date and moving past it shows your ability to maintain relationships with grace.

<p>There is a tendency of liars to offer unnecessary explanations without being prompted, which can arouse suspicion. It suggests that their compulsion to over-explain, especially when not explicitly asked for clarification, is a red flag indicating potential deceit. This behavior may stem from a subconscious desire to cover up inconsistencies or create a false narrative to support their deception.</p>

YOU PRACTICE PATIENCE

Patience is a virtue, and good people exhibit this quality in their interactions with others. They remain calm and understanding, even in challenging situations, demonstrating empathy and respect. For example, patiently waiting for an elderly person to cross the street and offering assistance if needed reflects your considerate and patient nature.

<p>When you have the means, why not throw the party of the century? Billionaires are known for hosting extravagant bashes with celebrity guests and over-the-top entertainment. </p><p>Think of theme parties that transport guests to different worlds. There are musical performances by renowned artists and firework displays that light up the night sky. These parties are more than just celebrations. They’re opportunities to network, build relationships, and create memories that will last a lifetime.</p>

YOU CELEBRATE OTHERS’ SUCCESS

Good people genuinely rejoice in the accomplishments of others, without envy or jealousy. They understand that everyone’s victories contribute to the collective good and offer support and encouragement. For example, throwing a surprise party to celebrate a friend’s promotion demonstrates your happiness for their success instead of jealously.

<p>Good people are great listeners. They give their full attention when someone is speaking, showing that they value and respect the other person’s thoughts and feelings. This attentiveness makes others feel heard and appreciated. For example, a friend who puts away their phone during a conversation to fully engage demonstrates this trait.</p>

YOU LISTEN ATTENTIVELY

Good people are great listeners. They give their full attention when someone is speaking, showing that they value and respect the other person’s thoughts and feelings. This attentiveness makes others feel heard and appreciated. For example, a friend who puts away their phone during a conversation to fully engage demonstrates this trait.

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Guest Essay

How to Make Room for One Million New Yorkers

By Vishaan Chakrabarti

Vishaan Chakrabarti is the founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, a New York City architecture firm, and the former director of planning for Manhattan.

New York City doesn’t have enough homes. The average New Yorker now spends 34 percent of pre-tax income on rent, up from just 20 percent in 1965. There are many reasons homes in the city are so expensive, but at the root of it all, even after the pandemic, is supply and demand: Insufficient housing in our desirable city means more competition — and therefore sky-high prices — for the few new homes that trickle onto the market.

Some New Yorkers harbor fantasies that instead of building more, we can meet our housing needs through more rent control, against the advice of most economists , or by banning pieds-à-terre or by converting all vacant office towers into residential buildings, despite the expense and complexity . Given the enormity of the crisis, such measures would all be drops in the bucket, leading many to worry that if we were to actually build the hundreds of thousands of homes New Yorkers need, we would end up transforming the city into an unrecognizable forest of skyscrapers.

This resistance to change is more than just the usual grumbling from opinionated New Yorkers; it has become a significant obstacle, and it threatens to stifle the vitality of this great city. As Binyamin Appelbaum of The Times argues in his analysis of New York’s housing crisis: “New York is not a great city because of its buildings. It is a great city because it provides people with the opportunity to build better lives.”

I Want a City, Not a Museum

New York’s layers of laws to protect existing buildings has led to a shortage of housing.

By Binyamin Appelbaum

To do that, New York needs to build more housing, and it can. New York could add dwellings for well over a million people — homes most New Yorkers could afford — without substantially changing the look and feel of the city.

My architecture firm, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, previously worked with Times Opinion to imagine the future of the city’s rail infrastructure and streets . This time, we took a fresh look at housing.

We found a way to add more than 500,000 homes — enough to house more than 1.3 million New Yorkers — without radically changing the character of the city’s neighborhoods or altering its historic districts.

Here’s how we got to 500,000 housing units — the same number that the mayor has called a “moonshot goal.”

Apartments near public transit are convenient for residents and better for the environment, so we started by looking at areas within a half-mile of train stations and ferry terminals.

Next, we excluded parts of the city that might be at risk of flooding in the future.

In the remaining areas, we identified more than 1,700 acres of underutilized land: vacant lots, single-story retail buildings, parking lots and office buildings that could be converted to apartments.

For each lot, we calculated how much housing we could add without building any higher than nearby structures.

Take this single-story grocery store in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.

A mid-rise apartment complex built above a replacement grocery store could create 58 new housing units. The resulting structure wouldn't be any taller than the apartment complex next to it.

We also identified sites that could support smaller developments, like this vacant lot on the northern edge of the Bronx.

Low-rise apartment buildings house many more people than single-family homes. If designed thoughtfully, they could become just as much a part of the urban fabric as the city's brownstones.

This single-story store in Flushing, Queens, is just minutes away from a subway stop on a line that runs straight to Midtown Manhattan. It’s a prime example of underutilized land.

Matching the density of surrounding buildings, a high-rise built above new retail spaces could create 242 apartments.

Last, we considered office buildings that could be converted to apartments.

Office building conversions can require a tremendous amount of construction. But we should consider any reasonable proposal to house more New Yorkers.

The hypothetical buildings in our analysis would add 520,245 homes for New Yorkers. With that many new housing units, more than a million New Yorkers would have a roof over their head that they could afford, near transit and away from flood zones, all while maintaining the look and feel of the city.

Of course, adding apartment buildings would place more demand on our subways and schools in some neighborhoods. But the construction of over 520,000 homes would stimulate our economy; add people to our sidewalks, making them safer; and make the city more accessible to middle-class families — who are essential to the long-term health and prosperity of New York.

How to add 520,245 housing units to N.Y.C.

conversions

Getting to 500,000

How many housing units our proposed buildings would add.

Office conversions

Mid-rises wouldn’t feel out of place

in many parts of the Bronx and Queens.

Almost all of the office conversions

we’re proposing are in Manhattan.

Residents of high-rises along Atlantic Avenue could easily take the subway to work.

Low-rises near the

Staten Island Railway

could house thousands

more New Yorkers.

Several political, legal and economic impediments stand in the way of addressing New York City’s housing crisis. Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul have proposed ambitious plans to build hundreds of thousands of new housing units, but they have faced stiff opposition. Our City Council and State Legislature need to support a significant expansion of housing supply for the city or otherwise answer for our housing and homelessness crisis.

There are many reasons it is so difficult to build new housing in New York City — including zoning, the under-taxation of vacant and underutilized land, the continuing rise of construction costs, the elimination of important tax incentives, and intense and often misguided anti-development sentiments. These challenges can and should be addressed. But please, don’t let people tell you we can’t build the homes New Yorkers need because we’ve run out of room or because it would ruin the city’s character. We are, in fact, a very big apple.

Methodology

We identified underutilized lots using the Department of City Planning’s PLUTO dataset. Transit stations include stops for the subway, ferry, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North train lines. For the flood risk analysis, we used the NYC Flood Hazard Mapper’s 0.2 percent annual chance floodplain for 2100.

Contiguous lots facing the same street were merged to maximize hypothetical development potential; small and irregular lots were excluded from the analysis. Maximum building heights were determined by looking at buildings in an 800-foot radius from sites on local streets or quarter-mile radius for sites on more heavily trafficked thoroughfares, as defined by the city’s LION street database.

For low- , mid- and high-rises, we calculated the number of units in each proposed building using the following assumptions: We allocated 37 percent to 45 percent of each lot to open space, and then multiplied the remaining lot area by the number of stories allowed as determined above to calculate the amount of buildable area. Of that total buildable area, we allotted 15 percent to hallways, lobbies and mechanical spaces; we divided the remaining residential space by an average unit size of 750 square feet to determine the number of units.

To identify offices that could be converted to apartments, we created a list of larger, older offices that were built between 1950 and 1990 and have not been altered since 2003. We excluded offices that are publicly owned or have architectural or historical significance. To estimate the number of units in the proposed conversions, we allocated 40 percent of each building to hallways, lobbies and mechanical spaces.

To calculate how many people could live in the proposed housing, we used a rate of 2.56 people per housing unit, based on statistics for New York City from the U.S. Census Bureau.

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What we actually know about aliens, according to science

GREEN BANK, W.Va. — It came from space, hurtling at tremendous speed: a mystery object, reddish, rocky, shaped like a cigar. Its velocity was so extreme it had to have come from somewhere far away, in the interstellar realm. The astronomers in Hawaii who spotted it in 2017 named it ‘Oumuamua, Hawaiian for “a messenger from afar arriving first.”

But what was it, exactly? A comet? An asteroid?

Or maybe … an alien spacecraft ?

That conjecture incited headlines, as well as eyerolls from most scientists. But here in West Virginia, the people involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence — commonly called SETI — decided to aim a giant radio telescope at it, just to be sure.

Aliens are having a moment . Fascination with the concept of extraterrestrial visitors isn’t new, but it has enjoyed a 21st-century efflorescence. Military pilots have seen things that look otherworldly. The Pentagon has established an office to look into the sightings. Congress has held hearings . Even NASA got into the game , training the cool logic of science onto a scorching-hot cultural topic.

Somewhere along the line, UFOs got rebranded. Unidentified flying objects are now, per government edict, unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).

For SETI researchers, the hypothetical existence of aliens is foundational. Nestled in the remote mountain town of Green Bank, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory has a role in one of the most ambitious SETI projects, called Breakthrough Listen. The project buys time on the towering Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, which has a steerable dish 300 feet in diameter. If there are aliens transmitting radio signals anywhere near us in the galaxy, that big dish is all ear.

Confirming an alien radio signal would be possibly the most consequential and disruptive scientific discovery of all time. SETI scientists have no doubt that the search is worth the effort.

“I think if we didn’t do that, and turned our back on our cosmological neighbors, that would be a sad thing for me,” David MacMahon, the chief scientist on Breakthrough Listen, said this fall during a visit to Green Bank.

That’s why the Breakthrough Listen team pointed the big telescope at the mystery object ‘Oumuamua, listening for signs of intelligent life.

“It was absolutely silent,” reports Matt Lebofsky, lead engineer on the project.

Silence: That is all astronomers have heard since the first SETI search was conducted at Green Bank in 1960.

Only a small fraction of our galaxy has been studied. Absence of evidence, as everyone knows, is not evidence of absence. Aliens may not consider radio waves to be a useful or dignified way to communicate. They could be pathologically shy. Or, at least with the kind of technology we have today, they could be just a little bit out of range.

For whatever reason, SETI has not found anyone out there, and at some point the silence could get deafening.

The physicist Paul Davies has written that SETI is a search for a needle in a haystack without knowing if the needles are really there.

All possibilities remain in play. Including the possibility that we are alone.

UAPs and the renewed alien obsession

One day circa 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi was talking with fellow scientists about flying saucers and whether it might be possible, in theory, for an advanced alien species to cross the vast expanses of the galaxy by traveling faster than the speed of light.

Suddenly Fermi erupted: “But where is everybody?”

Thus was born “the Fermi Paradox.” The universe is big and old, and it is highly plausible that alien civilizations have evolved, based purely on statistical probabilities. Fermi posed his question in an era of technological revolutions, including computers and rocketry. It seemed possible humans would master space travel and explore the cosmos. So why, he asked, is there no compelling scientific evidence that extraterrestrials have visited Earth?

Perhaps the simplest explanation for the Fermi Paradox is that there’s no paradox at all: They’re here!

The idea that mysterious things seen in the sky are alien spaceships has proved remarkably resilient. It has had some ups and downs and is now in an up phase. It has found a warm reception recently in the halls of Congress, where the hypothesis has enjoyed bipartisan support amid a push for government disclosure of whatever anyone might know about extraterrestrials.

“The American public has a right to learn about technologies of unknown origins, non-human intelligence, and unexplainable phenomena,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said this summer.

Republicans in the House convened a headline-grabbing hearing in July at which a former Air Force intelligence officer testified that he had been told that the United States is in possession not only of crashed spacecraft of “non-human” origin but also alien “biologics.” This is a relaunch of the 1947 Roswell, N.M., crashed-saucer story , rising Lazarus-like to annoy skeptics anew.

In September, a journalist in Mexico garnered global headlines by displaying to Mexico’s Congress what he claimed were the thousand-year-old mummified corpses of two three-fingered aliens. Mexican scientists scoffed , appalled at the reputational damage caused by what one professor called “a pseudoscientific event, which appeals to our fantasies, desires, and fears.”

The scientific community views the recent UAP mania as a cultural phenomenon, not an astrobiological one. There’s not much here that meets the standards science requires, such as evidence that is testable, reproducible, falsifiable.

That’s impossible with the conjectured existence of alien spaceships that have the amazing ability to disappear. And if someone says there’s alien hardware stashed in a warehouse somewhere, scientists want to see it, and poke and prod it and bite it and gnaw on it for a while.

There have been many sightings of UAPs by credible witnesses, including military pilots. Some remain unexplained and could have national security significance if the objects in question involve new technologies from foreign adversaries. But official government reports — including one from a special NASA task force — say there is no evidence that any of these things involve extraterrestrials.

SETI researchers occupy a unique and awkward niche amid the debate. Aliens, though hypothetical, are the reason they go to work. But they have chosen not to include an investigation of blurry, stealthy, here-and-gone UAPs as part of their mission, MacMahon said.

“SETI is not a belief system,” MacMahon said. “It’s a scientific methodology.”

The math that says Earth is no miracle

For SETI experts, two arguments grounded in science bolster the conjecture that aliens are surely out there somewhere: Big Numbers and the Copernican principle.

The Big Numbers argument notes that our galaxy, the Milky Way, has something like 400 billion stars, and it’s just one of untold billions of galaxies in a universe that might be infinite. Moreover, in the past 30 years, astronomers have discovered that planets of all shapes and sizes are common in the universe.

With so much turf out there, even the most frowny-faced skeptic must admit it’s hard to run the numbers in a 13.8 billion-year-old universe like ours and wind up with just one self-aware, technological, telescope-constructing species.

The Copernican principle is inspired by 16th-century astronomer Copernicus, whose revolutionary model of the solar system put the sun and not Earth at the center. The principle suggests that, in the same way that Earth is not in a privileged place in the universe, humanity should not presume itself special, or unique. The universe is not about us, and what happened on this planet over the past 4 billion years could happen elsewhere.

“Otherwise you have to believe that Earth is a miracle. I don’t,” said Seth Shostak, an astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. “It’s just never true that you only find one example of something in nature.”

Shostak is right, with an asterisk: So far, science has found only one example of a habitable planet with intelligent life. Despite decades of hunting for signs of another civilization, in scientific parlance, N=1.

In 1960, here in Green Bank, radio astronomer Frank Drake made the first attempt to pick up alien signals, aiming a telescope at two nearby sun-like stars. “Project Ozma” produced one brief false alarm, but otherwise the stars remained silent. The following year Drake developed an equation that has since guided the debate about the abundance of detectable communicative civilizations.

The Drake Equation includes a host of variables, some of which we have started to measure (the rate of star formation, the fraction of stars with planets, the average number of potentially habitable planets among such stars) and others that are as-yet unknown (the fraction of planets that have life, the fraction that have intelligent life, etc.). Pioneering SETI astronomer Jill Tarter has described the equation as a wonderful tool for “organizing our ignorance.”

The discovery of exoplanets injected new optimism into the equation. There’s surely an Earth twin out there somewhere. The closest thing found so far, according to planet-hunting NASA astrophysicist Knicole Colón, is Kepler-452b, a planet 1,800 light-years away. It orbits in the “habitable zone” of a sun-like star, which means water could be liquid on its surface. It’s not our galactic doppelgänger, however: It is 50 percent larger than Earth, putting it in a class known as a “super-Earth.”

The James Webb Space Telescope is also probing the intriguing Trappist-1 planetary system, which has a gaggle of rocky planets that deserve a closer look. And detection technology will keep improving as NASA and the global astronomy community build a new generation of space telescopes designed to find and analyze even more Earth-like planets.

“I do think it’s impossible for Earth to be the only place with life, even if it’s just bacterial or microbiological life,” Colon said, adding, “I would be shocked if we were the only intelligent civilization out there.”

Penn State astrophysicist Jason Wright, who heads the university’s Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center and who has consulted with Breakthrough Listen, notes that intelligence has arisen in many distantly related species on Earth. Consider octopuses: They’re savvy, know how to escape an aquarium and are only distantly related to humans.

But the evolution of complex life is fraught with unknowns. Emily Mitchell, a paleobiologist at the University of Cambridge, points out that, while there is fossil evidence of life on Earth at least 3.5 billion years ago, no large multicellular creatures appeared until about 600 million years ago. Life on Earth took roughly 3 billion years to learn to crawl.

“I think there’s a massive, massive difference between being able to find life elsewhere, and being able to find evidence of intelligent life and being able to contact them,” Mitchell said.

What it means to be alone

At Green Bank, Jay Lockman is a sage presence, a former director of the observatory who is eager to discuss all angles of radio astronomy — including SETI. He thinks it is “silly” to say we are alone in the universe.

“There’s no killer barrier in the Drake equation that we know of,” he said.

But Lockman adds a caveat: If intelligence evolves on a world covered entirely by an ocean, “you wind up with all these super-intelligent dolphins who will never build a radio transmitter.”

Which raises a philosophical question: What do we mean when we ask “Are we alone?”

The bible for alien-life pessimists is the 2000 book “ Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe ,” by Peter D. Ward and Donald E. Brownlee. The controversial book argued that Earth is unusually blessed with conditions that make complex life possible, such as having the giant planet Jupiter in just the right spot to run interference against dangerous comets.

But the book does not argue there are no aliens out there. Here’s where the debate gets subtle. Ward told The Washington Post that he assumes aliens do exist somewhere in the vast universe, but we’ll never know because they’re just too far away to make contact. We’re not literally alone, in his scenario, but we’re functionally alone.

“The chances that there’s one close enough to ever interact with is vanishingly small,” Ward said.

Which is an unsatisfying situation. We are a social species. And finding others out there would give us hope, demonstrating that this remarkable evolutionary adaptation of intelligence is sustainable and is not ultimately self-destructive.

We are not looking for alien algae, alien trilobites, or even alien dolphins. We’re looking for some version — perhaps a better version — of ourselves.

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Can't restrain the laughter. 1. You Maintain Your Happiness By Being A Good Person …show more content…. Not everyone will appreciate you, but the right people will. - Tim Fargo Not everyone will appreciate that you are a good person. In fact, you may run into a lot of people who don't care that you are good - they still want to abuse you ...
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Being a good leader and role model is very important to me and I am very motivated to gain any skills that will assist in achieving those qualities. I want to develop the self confidence, vision, wisdom, motivational impact and delivery skills that most effective... Being a Good Person. Human Behavior. Leader.
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Critique on Mencius' Claim of Person's Capability to Become Good. 3 pages / 1280 words. In this essay I argue against Mencius' claim that 'a man is capable of becoming good' due to the inherent goodness in his nature. I am against Mencius' claim because of his assumption that human nature is inclined towards good morals.
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How to Be a Good Person Essay

Introduction

15 Qualities That Are At The Core Of Every ‘Good’ Person

1. Prudence

2. Temperance

4. Compassion

5. Generosity

6. Patience

7. Respect

8. Tolerance

9. Integrity

10. Commitment

11. Honesty

12. Humility

13. Strength

15. Self-awareness

About The Author

How to Be a Better Person

Let Go of Anger

Support Others

Leverage Your Strengths

Use the "Stages of Change" Model

The Stages of Change Model

Press Play for Advice on Creating Change

Take Care of Yourself

Basics of Self-Care

Social Connections

Learn to Be User-Friendly

Essay on Qualities of a Good Person

100 Words Essay on Qualities of a Good Person

Kindness and Compassion

Honesty and Integrity

Respectfulness

Responsibility

250 Words Essay on Qualities of a Good Person

Respect for Diversity

500 Words Essay on Qualities of a Good Person

Selflessness

Open-mindedness

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How to Be a Good Person

Being a Good Person

Improving Yourself

Having a Positive Attitude

Interacting With Others

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Essay Samples on Being a Good Person

The Struggle of Being a Good Person and Leader at the Same Time

Letting Go of Being a 'Good' Person and Becoming a Better Person

Essays on Being a Good Person

Overview of The Absolute Characteristics of an Ideal Person

Receiving is Better than Giving

How to Write a Descriptive Paragraph About a Person (With Examples)

1. Brainstorm Your Ideas