First post blog freeze addition: Four short essays on my personal life strategy!! (v1.0)

Lightly revised on 6/7/2026 with CoPilot's help. 

After freezing my blog earlier this year, I thought I was done writing. But a few conversations with friends brought up topics that were personal, foundational, and worth capturing — not as new projects, but as clarifications of the life strategy I have followed for decades. These ideas are not novel, but the synthesis is mine, shaped by my experiences, my cultural background, and my reflections over time.

These four short essays cover:

  • Ethics — how I think about values, integrity, and rational living.
  • Institutional ethics — why nations behave differently from individuals, and why I separate my personal ethics from foreign policy.
  • Spirituality — what questions spirituality tries to answer, and why I stepped away from that exploration.
  • Happiness — the models of happiness I’ve observed, and what works for me in my 70s.

These essays are personal, not prescriptive. They reflect how I have navigated life, how I make decisions, and how I think about meaning, purpose, and enjoyment at this stage of life. They also serve as a reference for myself — a compact summary of the principles that have guided me.

1. Thoughts on Ethics

People build their life strategy gradually, and a central part of that strategy is an ethical compass. Ethics provides structure, anchors your decisions, and shapes how you move through the world.

Many people derive their ethics from religion or culture — often called morals. Others inherit values imprinted in childhood that tend to stay for life. My own ethics come partly from childhood values formed in India, and partly from reasoning shaped by interactions with Westerners.

Some thoughts on how values form while growing up: How do values form?

My ethical framework blends Eastern dharmic living (many ideas absorbed early) with Western analytical thinking. For me, ethics has three primary goals:

  1. Always try to be rational, logical, analytical, and dispassionate.
  2. Try to be a better member of society.
  3. Protect your mental equilibrium and self‑image — without remorse and without guilt.

The first goal helps you make sound decisions. The second is essential for society to function; without society, we would be back in caves. The third preserves emotional stability.

Emotions like hate, envy, greed, lust, and anger cloud the mind and distort thinking. They undermine rationality and can trigger actions that damage your self‑image. When these emotions arise, I try to examine them logically to understand what they really are.

Certain positive actions reinforce the three goals:

  • Treat others with respect — including their views.
  • Do not intentionally harm others. Compete fairly.
  • Help those close to you when you can, especially while you still have income and energy.
  • Display integrity. Don’t play politics, but defend yourself if attacked.
  • Take responsibility for yourself and your future.
  • Follow society’s laws and rules.

Many thinkers discuss truth‑telling through a moralistic lens. I view it simply as part of integrity in interactions. But there are three reasonable exemptions:

  1. A lie or omission to avoid hurting someone’s feelings or ego — consistent with “do no harm.”
  2. A white lie to protect your privacy when someone probes into your personal space.
  3. Framing something in a technically accurate but strategically presented way — common in business, and not the same as outright lying.

Ethics, for me, is not about moral absolutism. It is a practical framework for living rationally, contributing to society, and maintaining inner stability.

2. Thoughts on Institutional Ethics

Should we demand ethical behavior from public institutions? Yes. But interactions between nations operate under a different logic.

Within a country, laws place guardrails on individuals and private institutions. Any additional ethics a private institution adopts is self‑imposed to compete better. And as an individual, you can always choose not to engage with a private institution or person you consider unethical.

Foreign policy is different. There is no global referee. The only constraints are agreements created by humans — the UN, ICC, Geneva Conventions, rules of war, and similar frameworks. Morality does not apply unless a nation’s own people impose it on their government. Each nation pursues its own interests, creating forces and counter‑forces. It is a system of interacting equations, not a moral arena.

Because of this, I do not impose my personal ethical compass on foreign policy. Doing so is pointless and clouds understanding of the actual dynamics at play.

I also avoid discussing U.S. foreign policy with overseas friends. They view it through a different lens — often moralistic or judgmental — and the conversation becomes unproductive. They have no reason to agree with or care about U.S. self‑interest, which is perfectly normal.

3. A Perspective on Spirituality

Spirituality is not essential for developing an ethical framework. Ethics answers the question: How should I live? Spirituality addresses a different set of questions:

  1. What is the higher purpose and meaning of life?
  2. How could the order we see in the universe possibly arise?
  3. In Eastern philosophy: How does one find the atman — the true consciousness — and understand its identity with brahman, the ultimate reality?

People meet their need for meaning in many ways. Whatever the approach, the end result is a mental orientation — a state of mind. I have been too busy living life to pursue this deeply, and at over 70, I do not feel the need for it now.

But question #2 is intellectually interesting. My evidence‑driven, science‑based exploration confirmed that order exists in the universe — but did not explain why or how. That is extremely difficult to discern. I paused my exploration at this point:

My Spirituality Probe

I also looked briefly at question #3 — the Eastern philosophical idea of atman and brahman — and left it here:

My Consciousness Probe

For now, I prefer to focus on transient happiness, which is more reachable and more relevant to my current stage of life.

4. Finding Happiness

There are three broad models of how people experience happiness.

Model 1: Happiness springs from within.

Some people are naturally happy — it arises internally and is not dependent on external circumstances. My wife is an example of this. Others strive for a cultivated “state of mind” that produces more lasting happiness.

My own baseline after retirement is different. It is not happiness in the emotional sense, but a peaceful, dispassionate, detached state with no baggage. The election disturbed it briefly, but I returned to normal. This state is not the “inner happiness” people describe, so it is not central to this essay.

For more on the Eastern “state of mind” model: Eastern Philosophy

Model 2: Happiness from interaction with the environment.

This is my model. I find happiness through my interactions with people and with the world around me — especially here in Hawaii and during vacations. Examples from my past:

  • Skiing
  • Playing tennis with my wife
  • Interesting conversations with friends
  • Vacations
  • Family gatherings
  • Beautiful natural settings
  • Exercise (endorphins help)

Model 3: The biochemical/neurology model.

Scientists trace happiness to dopamine and other neurochemicals. Pleasure from sex is partly genetic and wired into the brain. Some people pursue happiness through alcohol or drugs — not my approach. Ultimately, all models map to biochemistry, but that is not how I categorize them here.

Some say happiness comes from purpose. That has not been my experience. Purpose may lead to interesting work, and its results may bring satisfaction later, but I no longer seek purpose after finishing my blogging.

Transient happiness is enough for me. Each person defines it for themselves.

My wife and I will discuss practical, age‑appropriate things we can do in Hawaii. We spend too much time in front of screens — and we are not that old.

We are in our golden years. All life goals accomplished. No purpose now except enjoyment (and maintaining health). Purpose used to drive accomplishments; now enjoyment drives life.

Possible activities for enjoyment:

  • Dining out together
  • Sitting on our lanai
  • Enjoying the beach
  • Visiting the botanical gardens
  • Hawaii‑based or nearby islands based vacations
  • Movies, educational shows, and sports
  • Online travel or health courses
  • Music
  • Fiction reading
  • Regular exercise

These are simple, everyday activities — often the most enjoyable and inexpensive. We each also have our own circle of friends and relatives we enjoy.

Thoughts on family relationships: On Family Relationships

A reminder: health problems can disrupt happiness. Take care of your health. And hopefully, retirement planning was done earlier so finances are not a source of stress.

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