Book summary “How to Be Perfect”: summary

Introduction

Moral philosophy offers practical toolkits to help you navigate everyday ethical dilemmas, balance conflicting duties, and live a more deliberate life.

You often face small moral dilemmas that drain your energy throughout the day. Choosing whether to buy mass-produced coffee or return a stray shopping cart creates quiet friction in your mind. You want to be a good person, but daily life offers few clear maps for moral behavior.

Michael Schur tackles these dilemmas using frameworks from thousands of years of ethical philosophy. The book breaks down complex theories into usable tools for ordinary choices. You will examine virtues, consequences, and strict rules to find practical guidance for living.

• How do you know if a choice is truly right?
• What do you owe to strangers across the world?
• Can you enjoy art created by flawed people?

1. Virtue Ethics and the Golden Mean

Virtue ethics defines good people as those who cultivate specific desirable qualities to the exact right degree over time. It looks at the character traits you possess rather than focusing strictly on rules or maximizing pleasure.

You cultivate flourishing by developing desirable character traits through constant habituation and finding the golden mean between two vices.

Aristotle argues that while people seek things like money or health for other reasons, happiness or flourishing is desired purely for its own sake as the ultimate goal or telos. Flourishing involves rational thought and virtues of character rather than simple hedonic pleasures.

Virtues are acquired and maintained solely through constant practice and habituation, much like developing any physical skill. Stopping this practice leads to regression.

Rob received a full ride to Ohio State on a bagpipe scholarship after years of practicing the bagpipes.

Every virtue exists at a precise midpoint between two vices: a deficiency on one end and an excess on the other. Aristotle describes the golden mean as the balanced middle spot representing the exact right amount of a quality.

As Julia Annas explains in Intelligent Virtue, deep practice makes a person fluent in a virtue. This fluency allows you to navigate weird and complex new ethical scenarios effectively, similar to how trained improvisational actors respond effortlessly to any prompt.

2. Utilitarianism and Consequentialism

Consequentialism judges actions solely by their outcomes, aiming to maximize overall happiness and minimize pain for everyone equally.

Philippa Foot introduced the Trolley Problem in 1967. A runaway trolley threatens five workers on the tracks, but pulling a lever diverts it to a track with one worker, or alternatively, pushing a heavy man named Don off a bridge stops the trolley and saves five people. Most people agree that pulling the lever is correct, but pushing Don reveals that your moral intuitions change drastically even when the mathematical outcome of one death saving five lives remains identical.

Utilitarianism is a branch of consequentialism stating that the best action is whatever results in the most overall happiness and the least pain. Developed by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill from 1748 to 1873, utilitarianism aims to maximize the greatest happiness principle. It attempts to treat morality like math, arguing that everyone's happiness matters equally. Oskar Schindler lamenting at the end of Schindler’s List that he could have sold his gold pin to save two more human lives demonstrates clear consequentialist moral calculation.

Jeremy Bentham invented a happiness calculator with seven distinct scales to measure the pleasure called hedons and the pain called dolors. You can use these seven specific criteria to guide private or public actions:

• Evaluate intensity to see how strong the pleasure or pain is.
• Evaluate duration to see how long it lasts.
• Evaluate certainty to see how definite it is that it will work.
• Evaluate propinquity to see how soon it can happen.
• Evaluate fecundity to see how lasting it is and what other pleasure it can lead to.
• Evaluate purity to see how little pain it causes in relation to the pleasure it creates.
• Evaluate extent to see how many people it benefits.

Utilitarianism faces severe stress tests because strict calculation can justify horrific actions and produce bizarre conclusions.

If maximizing total happiness is the only metric, utilitarianism can lead to absurd conclusions. An electrician named Steve gets wedged behind a transformer at ESPN during a World Cup match and is continuously jolted, but cutting power to save him would interrupt the broadcast for tens of millions of viewers. Bernard Williams argued that utilitarianism ignores individual integrity by treating morality as a cold numbers game. Jim is vacationing in a town where Sheriff Pete is about to kill ten random residents, but offers Jim the chance to shoot one local himself to serve as the weekly lesson and save the other nine.

3. Deontology and Contractualism

Deontology evaluates the morality of actions solely based on adherence to duty and universal rules, completely ignoring the resulting consequences. Immanuel Kant argued that pure reason must be used to derive specific maxims, which individuals then have an unflinching duty to follow without exceptions.

Deontology requires you to follow strict moral duties and universal rules regardless of outcomes, while contractualism establishes rules no reasonable person can reject.

Immanuel Kant lived such an exact and predictable routine in East Prussia from 1724-1804 that local shopkeepers allegedly set their watches by his walks.

The categorical imperative requires that a person act only according to a maxim that can be willed to become a universal law. If a world in which everyone followed a proposed rule would completely break down, such as a world where everyone always lies, then that action is strictly forbidden.

• Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.
• Derive these maxims using your pure reason.
• Remember that happiness is irrelevant to the moral worth of the action.

The practical imperative dictates that humanity must always be treated as an end in itself and never merely as a means to an end. This formulation prohibits using other people as tools or objects to achieve personal goals or avoid difficult situations. Lying to a friend about an ugly shirt uses her as a means to avoid an awkward conversation or prevent hurting her feelings.

Contractualism provides a practical baseline for ethics by establishing rules that no reasonable person could reject. Proposed by T. M. Scanlon, this theory acts as a quick-start guide derived from Kantian rules, imagining a society where mutually agreeable rules are designed through shared willingness to modify private demands.

• Propose rules for coexistence that can be justified to other people.
• Ensure that all affected parties have the power to veto rules if their objections are reasonable.
• Constrain the pursuit of private interests to the same degree others are willing to constrain theirs.

Ubuntu is an ancient southern African worldview asserting that an individual's existence is fundamentally tied to the community through others. Captured by the phrase "A person is a person through other people," ubuntu treats community health, happiness, and interests as primary concerns rather than mere by-products. Coach Doc Rivers used ubuntu with the 2008 Boston Celtics to help individual star players focus on a collective championship instead of personal glory.

4. Limits of Goodness and Moral Motivations

Kantian deontology and strict consequentialism demand unreasonable levels of self-sacrifice. You cannot realistically rush blindly into burning buildings or turn yourself into a happiness pump. Ethicists must recognize human limits. Trying to achieve moral sainthood makes life barren, dull, and humorless.

You are not morally required to achieve moral sainthood, and true goodness requires acting without craving external recognition.

Jack Lucas was 13 years old when the US entered World War II. He enlisted in the Marines at age 15 after forging his mother's signature and landed on Iwo Jima. At age 17, he jumped on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers and later received the Medal of Honor. Metal including 250 pieces of shrapnel lodged in his body after the explosion, and he died in 2008 at age 80.

Aristotle's golden mean allows for minor vice-like behaviors in moderation. Edith Hall explains that faults like impatience, recklessness, and vindictiveness are fine in moderation because they prevent psychological and emotional deprivation. People who never lose their tempers or show impatience are emotionally stunted and boring.

Humans intensely crave public recognition and gold stars for minor good deeds, exposing the embarrassing reality of moral desert. You often perform small acts of kindness only when you are being watched, seeking praise or avoiding negative judgment.

The author waited until his Starbucks barista turned around before dropping a twenty-seven-cent tip into the jar so the barista would see him do it, on a medium coffee costing $1.73.

Buddhist philosophy teaches that true happiness comes from performing actions with complete mindfulness and no desire for fame, recognition, or reward. Thich Nhat Hanh, born in 1926 and nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 by Martin Luther King Jr., explains that washing a dish or building a temple in the present moment creates boundless merit and genuine joy.

Emperor Wu asked Bodhidharma how much merit he earned by building temples, and Bodhidharma replied none whatsoever because the acts were tied to recognition. William James, who lived from 1842 to 1910 and delivered lectures on pragmatism in 1906, focuses on practical consequences and final results rather than rigid moral categories or pure motivations.

A charity event honored a Hollywood talent agent solely to trigger his competitive rivalry with another agent, resulting in a record-breaking amount of money raised. If a selfish motivation successfully raises millions of dollars for people in dire need without causing harm, the utilitarian outcome outweighs the impure intention.

5. Shame, Exhaustion, and Moral Jaywalking

Daily stress causes moral exhaustion, but moral jaywalking allows you to bend minor rules during exhaustion if you cause no harm.

Living responsibly requires continuous choices regarding products, services, banks, and environmental impacts while simultaneously managing personal crises. By the time you attempt virtue, your internal battery sits at roughly 5 percent, making minor rule-breaking feel like a well-deserved reward.

In 2005 during Hurricane Katrina, the author's fiancée bumped into a Saab sedan in slow traffic. The author tried to crowd-fund donations through an online blog if the car owner agreed not to fix the minor crease, submitting an $836 claim amount for the repair. Although the campaign raised $27,000 for the Red Cross at the end of the saga, public shaming that is wildly out of proportion to the offense remains morally wrong.

Moral jaywalking allows you to bend small rules when exhausted, provided you satisfy strict conditions.

You face choices where following every strict rule all the time is impossible. Ayn Rand promoted objectivism and rational selfishness between 1905 and 1982 across works like the 1172 pages of Atlas Shrugged, but that philosophy treats others merely as a means to an end. Instead, you can practice moral jaywalking during moments like walking an adopted stray dog named Henry in 103 degrees.

You must follow these requirements when bending minor rules:

• Ensure the rules you violate are not obviously harmful to other people.
• Acknowledge to yourself that what you are doing is not ideal.

Perfection remains impossible, so you must distinguish good failures from moral laziness. When you inevitably fail in your moral duties, you must pause and address your shortcomings.

You can handle moral failures using these steps:

• Commit to regular check-ins to note when you morally jaywalk.
• Pin your ethical shortcomings or receipts up in your mind as a reminder of past compromises.

6. Moral Opportunity Cost and Effective Altruism

Every day choices force an accounting of moral opportunity cost. This measures the human welfare and lives you fail to save by purchasing non-essential goods instead of donating to those in extreme need.

Peter Singer argues that distance does not diminish your moral duty to save lives, forcing you to account for the moral opportunity cost of luxury spending.

Michael Schur paid $800 for a Red Sox autographed bat as a Christmas present for his ten-year-old son, then felt immediate guilt because of philosophical arguments about what else that money could have achieved.

In his shallow pond thought experiment, Singer points out that anyone would wade into water to save a drowning toddler even if it ruins expensive Italian loafers. He challenges why you refuse to spend equivalent pennies to save starving children through foreign aid simply because they are far away. Utilitarianism demands that any money spent on non-necessities should be given away to help those who lack the basics for survival.

Singer argues that you can calculate a basic life budget covering food, shelter, leisure, and a safety net for emergencies. Everything earned beyond that calculable total is surplus luxury and morally ought to be redirected to alleviate the suffering of the impoverished. Bill Gates was criticized by Singer for retaining $53 billion despite giving away $30 billion, because that retained fortune still exceeds any conceivable personal need. Jeff Bezos pledged $10 billion over a decade to fight climate change.

Even though Singer's extreme utilitarianism can feel unbearable and guilt-inducing, his uncompromising focus on moral opportunity cost serves the vital function of reminding comfortable people about global poverty and preventing moral apathy. Schur wrote the introduction to the 2019 reissue of Singer's book 'The Life You Can Save', noting that the primary benefit is the permanent removal of complacency. Effective altruists cite statistical odds such as 1 in 4,000 of dying from having only one kidney.

A modern second-level ethical dilemma occurs when your well-intentioned ethical choices unintentionally backfire and draw public shaming. Schur felt like a hypocrite driving a gas-guzzling sedan, replaced it with a Toyota Prius hybrid, and then heard arguments that hybrid battery manufacturing and coal-powered electric grids made alternative cars just as damaging to the environment. His initial midsize sedan achieved 17 miles per gallon in Los Angeles, while the Toyota Prius averaged 38 to 50.

7. Art, Existentialism, and Problematic Affinities

Enjoying art created by flawed people requires holding conflicting ideas simultaneously, while existentialism reminds you that you are entirely free and responsible for your choices.

Loving art or supporting organizations created by morally problematic people creates a deep emotional conflict because these cultural items are often interwoven with your core identities. Giving them up feels less like removing a splinter and more like amputating a limb, leading to moral exhaustion.

Writers on Parks and Recreation argued over whether to boycott Chick-fil-A after its CEO spoke out against gay marriage, while Michael Schur wrestled with his lifelong love for Woody Allen's films despite Allen's personal scandals.

When you cannot part with a problematic thing you love, you must consciously hold two conflicting ideas in your head simultaneously to maintain integrity.

• Keep the idea that "I love this thing" in your mind.
• Keep the idea that "The person who made it is troubling" in your mind at the same time.

Jean-Paul Sartre argued that because God does not exist, humans are condemned to be free. You cannot rely on crutches like religion, tradition, or signs to make decisions, and every choice you make creates an image of human behavior for everyone else. Sartre discussed a former student torn between joining freedom fighters in England to avenge his brother and staying home to care for his grieving mother.

Albert Camus argued that the human condition is fundamentally absurd because you desperately desire meaning from a cold, indifferent universe that refuses to provide it. You have three choices in an absurd universe: suicide, philosophical suicide through manufactured meaning, or simply accepting and existing within the absurdity. Like Sisyphus condemned by the gods to repeatedly roll a heavy rock up a hill, you must find happiness in the singular struggle.

Remaining silent when friends or family express offensive views is an inadequate response, and you should use mildness and proportionate anger to help them feel necessary shame. Pulling Aunt Connie aside after Thanksgiving dinner to discuss her views avoids making a disruptive scene while still encouraging moral growth.

• Pull the person aside later rather than confronting them publicly.
• Explain why their views are wrong or hurtful.
• Get to the root cause of their views to try to change their mind.
• Explain that their words risk damaging the relationship and threaten your sense of integrity.

8. Luck, Privilege, and Apologies

Privilege requires higher ethical effort because unearned luck shapes success, and issuing genuine apologies is necessary to heal moral failures.

The playing field of life is not level. Expecting the exact same ethical effort or output from individuals facing extreme hardship versus those with immense privilege is fundamentally unfair. Basic survival stressors, poverty, and systemic biases deplete the time, energy, and resources people can dedicate to moral reflection.

Privileged individuals who play life on an easy difficulty setting are held to a much higher moral standard. Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family is a courageous act of desperation, whereas a wealthy television writer stealing bread for no reason would be the act of a rich asshole. Meritocracy fails as a concept when participants do not start from the same point of origin.

Robert Frank and Warren Buffett emphasize that talent and hard work must be paired with fortunate starting conditions. Michael Jordan needed his six-foot-six height and birth in America to become Air Jordan. Robert Frank survived a 98 percent fatal sudden cardiac death only because two ambulances happened to be stationed a minute away from the tennis courts.

John Rawls proposes designing a just society from an initial position behind a veil of ignorance. In 1971, the political philosopher published A Theory of Justice at age 50, living from 1921 to 2002.

Recognizing your immense unearned good fortune creates a moral obligation to do a little extra for others. Michael Schur plays low-stakes blackjack in Las Vegas and views his occasional losses as a small sacrifice to the gods of luck for his immense real-world fortune.

Apologizing is the final, embarrassing ascent required to heal moral wrongs. Tom Petty issued a clear, straightforward public apology years later for featuring a Confederate battle flag on his 1985 concert tour stage design, admitting his ignorance and expressing deep regret.

10 Key Ideas

1. Virtue ethics defines good people as those who cultivate specific desirable qualities through constant habituation and find the golden mean between two vices.
2. Consequentialism judges actions solely by their outcomes, aiming to maximize overall happiness and minimize pain for everyone equally.
3. Deontology requires you to follow strict moral duties and universal rules regardless of outcomes, while contractualism establishes rules no reasonable person can reject.
4. You are not morally required to achieve moral sainthood, and true goodness requires acting without craving external recognition.
5. Daily stress causes moral exhaustion, but moral jaywalking allows you to bend minor rules during exhaustion if you cause no harm.
6. Peter Singer argues that distance does not diminish your moral duty to save lives, forcing you to account for the moral opportunity cost of luxury spending.
7. Enjoying art created by flawed people requires holding conflicting ideas simultaneously, while existentialism reminds you that you are entirely free and responsible for your choices.
8. Privilege requires higher ethical effort because unearned luck shapes success, and issuing genuine apologies is necessary to heal moral failures.
9. Perfection remains impossible, so you must distinguish good failures from moral laziness and commit to regular check-ins when you inevitably fail.
10. Recognizing your immense unearned good fortune creates a moral obligation to do a little extra for others while accepting the absurd nature of the human condition.