Being better

My epistemic breakthrough to better living

A year and a half ago, I decided to go completely vegan. Actually, scratch that—completely plant-based. I only went vegan about a year ago¹. It took six months for the reasoning to actually click. It’s kind of like an optical illusion: you know it’s an illusion because it says so, but it still takes you a while to actually see it.

When it did click, I couldn’t unsee it; I couldn’t unthink it. Total paradigm shift. Why contribute to suffering when we—those with privilege, living in modern society—can completely do without it? Of course, most people have yet to even look at this particular optical illusion, let alone experience the illusory unravelment that follows.

Vegans, and to some extent, vegetarians reading this, may already know what I’m talking about. I’m choosing to describe the moment this epiphany occurred, as when I started “being better”. To be clear, this isn’t in a “better than you” sense, but rather, a more holistic betterness—for myself, other beings, and the planet as a whole.

This has by far been the best decision I’ve made for myself—one that has not only improved both my mental and physical health but also opened up my mind to entirely new epistemic frameworks like effective altruism, transforming how I reason about moral responsibility. I have learned to think more deeply.

There’s a lot more I can say, but I’ve found the most powerful lever was moral consistency. Most of us already live by a shared set of moral principles: we condemn abuse and believe causing unnecessary suffering is wrong. Moral consistency is simply about extending that compassion beyond pets and charismatic wildlife to all sentient beings. The values are already there; we just need to align our actions with them.

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