How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question

by Michael Schur

Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

happiness. That’s the telos,4 or goal, of being human.

consequentialism,” which cares only about the results or consequences of our actions.

His optimism was therefore perhaps excusable, but in our more disillusioned age it seems somewhat naïve.

So, should we lie to our friend? No. Because first we have to imagine a world where everyone lies—and in such a world, we’d realize, no one would ever trust each other, human communication would cease to function, all interactions would become suspect, and even lying (the thing we’re thinking about doing) would lose its point. So: we can’t lie to anyone, ever, for any reason.

“happiness” is something subjective that we can only define for ourselves. Nothing in the world, no matter how simple, will make everyone happy—my