and when you should definitely ask “what if everyone did this?”
My last post was rather stupidly called why you should never ask “what if everyone did this?”
Of course it is silly to think I meant it literally.
I mean, there are not many instances where you should actually never consider doing something. A few that spring to mind are:
- Murdering someone
- Stealing
- Putting the empty milk bottle back in the fridge
But asking yourself a simple question? Shouldn’t really do any harm so crack away at it if you really want.
The previous post was only applicable to asking that question in a certain situation and so the word “never” was a bit of a poor choice and bordered on the “clickbaity” side of blog post titles (apologies if anyone got offended by that 🙂 )
One of the times that you should definitely ask this question is to guide your moral compass:
If everyone did this, would the world be a better place or worse?
For example if you are wondering if riding your bike to work is a good idea or not, ask the question.
The obvious (to me and you) answer is that the world would be a much better place if everyone rode their bike to work. There would be less congestion, less pollution, a much healthier population with less money spent on healthcare and therefore more money to go around elsewhere, and I’d hazard a guess that everyone would be a much fucking better mood as well than they are today – me included as you can probably tell! 😉
Done by Forty totally got this when he mentioned this on my last post:
I like your take on this question, FIREStarter. I think there’s often some value in questioning whether your actions, if universally adopted (like, driving a car 50 miles a day, or creating X pounds of trash a year) would have on the world. It’s often helpful to think about if your actions are acceptable as the “average”.
Just a short one for you today so that’s your lot, something else small to think about hopefully if you haven’t done so already.
What small things do you do that would make the world a better place if everyone did it?
FI LONDON meeting alert: Just a quick aside to say that I’ll be attending a meeting on the 6th October in London with some other FIRE minded folk. If you want to go just go onto Facebook, search for and join the private group Financial Independence London if you aren’t already a member, and if you are, just say your going and turn up I guess. If you aren’t on Facebook shoot me an email or comment below and I’ll let you know the details.
Hopefully see some of you there!
You still get milk bottles, rather than the plastic cr@p from the supermarket?! I wish we could get a reasonably priced milkman 🙂
Ill put a twist on your never do stealing. Most people today are doing it all the time without their realising – stealing from their future selves by spending now 😉 I like the thought on cycling – I am considering it for work, but for now I am sticking to the train as it means I can catch up on my reading 🙂
Look forward to the meetup next week, including a pub dinner 🙂
Sorry no we don’t, was just a turn of phrase. Sorry to burst your bubble of us living in some olden times there! 🙂
I like your twist there, very good!
Bit of an awkward one there as I don’t currently cycle to work, it was just an easy example that came to mind. Around 25 miles is a bit too much for me on a bike, but a couple of trains and a good 3 or 4 miles of walking a day does me pretty well though.
Looking forward to it as well!
Darn it – you got me excited that there may be some old fashioned “Ernie” milkman out there 🙂
I can see 25 miles would be a bit excessive (but wouldnt half get you fit!) – I am struggling getting myself to do 8 miles, with the old excuse of I cant turn up to work looking sweaty and cant carry in a shirt etc. – I can always find an excuse 🙂
Cycle more miles than you drive each year.
Volunteer for a least one community group in your area: even just for a few hours a year… something is infinitely better than nothing.
Eat less meat & cook from scratch as much as you can (which may be interpreted as “learn to cook” for some!
Spot on for the cook from scratch – by far the best way to do it. I bulk cook meals at weekends and freeze them in individual portion sizes so depending on what time I get home I have a variety of meals to choose from. Not so sure about the eat less meat side of things as yet – I know its not ideal but I still have meat with at least 2 meals a day 🙂
I’m like you London Rob, I can’t do without meat, although I don’t need to eat it every day! I need to start my batched cooking again, plus start making my homemade soup now that it’s getting a bit chilly! Making soup…uses up all my bits of vegetables so nothing is wasted.
Batched cooking is the best – people complain about how long things take and its expensive – not surprising if they buy an entire celery thing and then only use two sticks! I am naturally lazy as well so I would rather spend an hour or two doing a massive cook up and then just freeze it 🙂
Nice one on the soups – I know a few people who do that, sadly I cant stand soup (its not “proper” food!) so I do lose out on that, especially given how cost effective it is!
There is definitely something about the nights drawing in and cold weather that gets you in the bulk cooking mindset isn’t there?! 🙂
Woot! I made today’s post! Thanks for the mention, FIREStarter.
I can’t make the meet up, unfortunately, as I’ll be stuck here in AZ. :/ Have a great time though.
No worries DbF, you did kinda read my mind for the next post so thought it was worth a mention!
Ah poor effort, we were all expecting you 🙂
Did you mean “Financial Independence London”? as FI London is “Forum för Feministiskt Initiativ London.”
Lol
Both sounds quite interesting although not quite for the same reason 😉
I would have loved to attend. The Financial Independence London that is! Maybe I’ll make a trip next time if I can get a decent train ticket down.
Haha, I double checked the name of the group and it is indeed “Financial Independence London” sorry about that! Have updated the main text. Thanks.
Many readers attending the FI London meet up tonight?
Hi James,
Yes it was quite a good turn out, around 15 people I would say (although not sure how many came because they saw it on here, I think most were already members of the FB group)
Sorry for the late reply, did you attend (I don’t remember talking to anyone called James but apologies if we did haha)
Cheers
sadly not, I had a meeting in London, that finished by lunch time, and I considered killing an afternoon in a starbucks, but then the money conscious side of me took over and I decided to head home and drink my own coffee!
will defo try to attend the next one though
I do my part by staying off the roads each morning by not going to work anymore. Now that I’m retired early I can lie in bed listening to you fools driving to your places of toil and then home again in the afternoon, repeated five times a week. Ahhhhh the look of self-satisfaction and smugness plastered across my face bahahahahaa.
Haha, no I didn’t detect any smugness at all there Martin? [/sarcasm]
Glad you are doing your bit for the rest of us 🙂
Making me stretch my brain muscles! If everyone would take 3 seconds to think “that person is probably having a totally shit day, so I don’t need to take their rude behaviour personally and add to the aggro”, I think the world would be a better place. Could even end up being a self-fulfilling cycle.
Hi Mrs ETT,
I love this one. It is such a small attitude adjustment but if everyone at least attempted to do this as often as they could then I totally agree with you, wouldn’t the world be such a nicer place?
Thanks, I’m gonna tweet this one!