Virtue and Strategy

The virtuous are strategic, and the strategic are virtuous. To be good is to be good in all its definitions.

Photo by Afif Ramdhasuma on Unsplash

If you anticipate how something you’re doing or planning to do will affect me, two things are true about you.

First, you are considerate; you care enough to see how your actions affect other people. You are not just all about yourself. You are a good person. This is virtue.

Something else is also true about you: you know game theory. You don’t just do. You anticipate reaction and response. You refrain from doing what triggers the response you don’t want. You see ahead, many steps ahead. You act to create certain outcomes and avoid others.

You are good; you are skilled.

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I already made this point in a previous essay, but I return to it because I believe it merits a detailed elaboration.

It might be related to the sentiment that ‘how you do anything is how you do everything,’ and thus it is impossible to be good at one thing while being terrible at others, just as it is impossible to be terrible at some things while being excellent at others.

My observation and judgment is that the skilled are virtuous, and the virtuous are skilled, and thus those who aren’t good at one tend to be poor at both.

Selfishness

Nothing illustrates this better than the fate of selfish people. They are, of course, not virtuous. They don’t care for anyone but themselves. They don’t share; they don’t help. They are simply insufferable.

But all selfish people are foolish, and this is even more regrettable. They are myopic and act in a manner that harms their long-term interests.