# Being the kind of person who

It's the idea that's very familiar to anyone in rationalist circles who knows about the Newcomb's problem. https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/newcomb-s-problem

It's also related to many ideas from philosophy, but I barely know anything about philosophy, so let me reinvent the wheel here.

I'm working at my job. I'm going to quit soon, to move to a different country. I'm pretty burned out, and I have enough money to last for a while. I would rather spend my time on myself, on some side projects, on learning the language of the country where I'm going. However, I keep earnestly working and doing my best. Why? This is my situation right now, in real life.

Am I returning the shopping cart? Why? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_cart_theory

Am I trying my best to be honest? Am I fixing the tiny unfairness even when I'm 100% certain nobody will ever know, and the unfairness benefits me? There is no "oh, but what if someone notices and thinks of me worse?", there is no being found out. Just doing the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing. Standing in the middle of a desert, throwing away an empty bottle, missing the garbage can (that mysteriously appeared in the middle of a desert), picking up the bottle and throwing it away properly.

Is there merit to doing these things?

Well, one of the main layers of merit that I believe it, which some might call huge cope, is that just being the "good" person is easier than figuring out when to be one and when not to be. Basically, it's shopping cart theory. If I don't do mental gymnastics every time, it's easy to be good. And if I'm good, people notice, and good things come to me (more or less).

There's a way to relate it to Newcomb's problem, but I might not be smart enough for that. I believed I was onto something there, but I think I just recited the shopping cart theory of ethics. But basically, it's similar to precommitments and rationalist oaths. I say "I'm good". And then I keep that promise by actually being good. "Good" is too narrow of a word here btw.

So my irl problem's answer is that I work because it's the right thing to do. It's right not to abandon the project I worked on, on conditions we agreed on. It's right (in my mind, not objectively) to do my best when I work. Because this way it's much easier to show that I'm doing my best. But I'm not using that reason! I'm not trying to show anything. I'm just a person who does my (limited) best, and others will see it (hopefully), but I would have been doing my best even without it.

Yes. It's cope. I'm naive and I'm coping.