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Comment by ChrisMarshallNY | Hacker News Reader

I like it.

I'd love to see something about ethics, too. I feel there is a need for more ethical behavior, in today's corporate world.

I have a fairly basic ethical litmus test: "If I feel like I can 'get away with it,' it's wrong." Doesn't matter, whether or not it's legal.

Wrong is wrong.

One of the most valuable assets in my life, is my personal sense of Integrity and Honor. It has nothing at all to do with whether or not anyone else is doing it. It's all about whether or not I can shave in the morning.

I'm clean-shaven.

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What's right isn't always legal, often it isn't. And what's wrong isn't always illegal. At the end of the day, I think it's everyone's highest priority to do what's legal, rather than what's "right".

I'm not sure what "At the end of the day" adds, except maybe it allows you to disregard counterexamples. I guess that

> it's everyone's highest priority to do what's legal, rather than what's "right".

is something that can be tested and its truth discovered. Not clear if "everyone" means people in your city, state, country etc. Although "highest priority" seems a bit vague too. Does "highest priority at the end of the day" mean, what people actually do/end up doing? That sounds nowhere near true for me, or the people I know. But maybe I'm misunderstanding you.

People whose behaviour is guided by laws, rather than ethics, stand out as sociopathic jerks, e.g. internet trolls or bullies. "There's no law against it" doesn't say much at all about whether you should be doing something.

You can't shave if you commit a crime? Is this a New York colloquialism?

I think it's a maybe-too-clever variation on "look myself in the mirror". I've never heard it before either.

Yup. I'm a bit on the "weird" spectrum. Some of my pithy sayings make Yogi Berra look like Plato.

What if you think it's right and you think you can get away with it?

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