When people discuss morality, the prevailing view is that our moral compass is shaped mostly by culture, tradition, or religion. And while that may be true in an absolute sense, I believe there’s a strong argument that, regardless of cultural influence, anyone can unveil a moral and integrous path simply through logic and reason.

In Christian terms, the disincentive for bad behavior has long been: don’t sin or you’ll go to hell. A powerful motivator for believers and one that has probably done a decent job of confining behavior within socially productive bounds. But as atheism rises, there’s a simpler, more universal approach to moral incentive: recognize that your subconscious is always doing the math. You can’t trick it. Bad behavior, even if hidden from others, always takes a toll on the individual first.

It sounds simple, but this rational approach to morality is oddly absent from our collective wisdom. Take myself as an example; years ago, I made the poor choice to look at something private belonging to someone close to me. At the time, I justified it as a way to confirm suspicions I had, though I knew deep down it was wrong. Within days, the guilt became overwhelming and unbearable. I confessed and sought forgiveness. That experience made me realize: one cannot escape their own subconscious or its capacity to perform the moral math.

So it really isn’t that complicated. Don’t betray those close to you; you’ll never escape the guilt. Don’t steal from your boss; you’ll never escape the guilt. Don’t cheat on your spouse; you’ll never escape the guilt.

Guilt is an extraordinarily powerful force. Filmmaker David Lynch, who built his career exploring the subconscious, illustrated this vividly in his film, “Lost Highway”. A common interpretation of the film is that it takes place entirely within the mind, or dreamscape, of a tormented man who is living in the aftermath of murder his significant other. The result is a disjointed, schizophrenic nightmare: a haunting portrait of how guilt fractures the psyche.

Guilt can be like a slow motion car crash for the mind. And it is naive to think one can use intellectual gymnastics to escape the trauma, unscathed. Sure, some people seem to get away with terrible acts and appear fine on the surface. But how happy are they, really? How intact are their mind, body, and soul? How strong and genuine are their relationships? Because in order to have a veneer of being good while doing bad, it invariably cracks a cohesive sense of self; creating blind spots, emotional numbness, and a diminished capacity for deeply connecting with others.

In one way or another, those who “get away” with bad deeds are almost always living diminished lives; less fulfilling, less joyful, less whole than they might have been otherwise. Hindus call this karma. I call it the inescapable judgment of the mind. Like a video camera, your subconscious records every choice you make, and your missteps never truly vanish; even when buried deep.

Of course, we should still teach children not to harm others for the sake of others. Empathy is fundamental. But we should also make it clear that wrongdoing is deeply harmful to the self. After all, the best way to persuade people is to appeal to their self-interest. If there’s one overarching thread from Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, it’s that aligning ideas with self-interest is the surest path to change.

But “moral math” doesn’t just apply to pivotal decisions that spontaneously materialize. It also very much applies to the bigger picture of our lives. And I posit that unhappiness often stems from a subconscious awareness that the good deeds vs bad deeds in our lives are askew. For instance, a certain person may volunteer once a year at the soup kitchen, but didn’t they also lie on their resume and harbor questionable secrets from their partner? Put simply, it is integral to consider the net positive impact we have on the world rather than fixate on isolated decisions.

A common scenario is those who meticulously recycle but spend their working lives in industries they don’t believe to be good for society. Maybe they work for an insurance company notorious for denying claims, or a fashion brand with questionable labor practices in a developing nation. Such as person then soothes their conscience with small gestures: reusable straws, donations, carbon-neutral water bottles. All these gestures being an attempt to “even things out”. But they are a drop in the bucket and a bandaid solution to a larger deficit of how their time and energy is spent.

Consider this: by age forty, the average person has produced around seventy tons of trash. Has that environmental damage been offset by recycling or 1% of their pay going to Oxfam? Unlikely.

If most people truly had a net positive impact, the world wouldn’t feel palpably like it’s in decline. Yet for most of us: environmentally, socially, democratically, the world does feel in decline. It follows then that many of us, on balance, are indeed taking more from the world than we give. And perhaps that’s why so many people feel an undercurrent of malaise or depression; a quiet knowing that our existence may be net-negative. When life feels purposeless, that feeling may in fact be your subconscious reminding you of your moral imbalance. Your subconscious knows. It’s always doing the math.

The key, then, is to stop tricking ourselves with symbolic acts of virtue while ignoring the rest of the equation. This doesn’t mean abandoning recycling or charitable giving, far from it. It means making a consistent and dedicated effort to be brutally honest with oneself and confront the reality of what one’s net impact may be. And to then be prepared to recalibrate one’s choices, accordingly.

Practically speaking, the largest driver of that moral equation is our line of work. How you feel about your work and the contribution it has to society (or lack thereof), is extremely consequential to your subconscious. It in order to have an inner sense of meaning, we have to believe that how we spend the bulk of our time is a positive influence on the grander picture. Work is, after all, the largest expenditure of time and energy in your waking life.

So while you may diligently compost, buy bamboo toothbrushes, and bike to work, if your career feels misaligned with your values, then fulfillment will elude you. Work occupies too much of life to be morally neutral, let alone negative. The significance of it over your psyche, cannot be overstated.

While this may all sound preachy, this rather obvious piece of wisdom is strangely scarce. And this will likely remain the case unless we start to nudge each other towards a more coherent path. So let’s help each other stay aware of the bigger equation and illuminate these blind spots in one another. If you see others fixate on one good deed, while many bad deeds are swept under the rug, then call it out. Sometimes it takes a friend, a lover, a family member to make us aware of our inconsistencies.

Furthermore, the stakes are even higher for those in positions of power. In particular, so much of humanity’s fate rests on decisions made in private enterprise. I long for a future where executives and managers truly feel the weight of this moral math, and consider how their choices ripple through the world.

And if you yourself are not a manager, then it is your responsibility to make it known to your higher ups when you feel your company can do better. I for one, am a firm believer that ethical decisions are often the smart business decisions. Perhaps not always in the short term, but over time: integrity, ethics, conscientiousness; all build a brand that people can trust. This will attract top tier talent and loyal customers. But above all else, create a brand worthy of spreading via word of mouth.

Silicon Valley has taught us that virality in business i.e. creating something that others have to tell their friends about, is the sure way to conjure something big. What is rare however, is a brand with such depth of purpose and meaning, that its virality is a function purely of it’s mission, rather than it’s products.

People are innately drawn to those with high conviction, for conviction is the enemy of corruption. We all deeply want to stand for something that we can stand behind. So again, it is no only ethical to be acutely aware of creating a net positive for society, it is business smart.

At the end of the day, morality need not be mystified or outsourced to dogma. The compass has always been inside us, quietly calculating. When we align our choices; in work, in love, in how we spend our time; with that inner arithmetic, life begins to cohere. The noise quiets. Purpose emerges. Because fulfillment, in the truest sense, is not found in fleeting pleasure or external validation, but in knowing that, when all is tallied, you left the world lighter than you found it. Your subconscious is always doing the math.

Your Subconscious Is Always Doing the Math

August 24, 2025 · 7 min read — Last Edited August 30, 2025