Excerpt: We are each among the luckiest humans to ever have lived. We live during the best time ever to be alive. If you feel confident about where your next meal is coming from, you are the envy of most humans who have ever lived. You probably do not concern yourself with obtaining clean water either. I suspect you live in relative safety with shelter from most environmental issues too.

If your problems include things like obtaining the latest smart phone, figuring out what you prefer to eat, or you are upset because your favorite sports team lost the big game, you probably live better than the richest kings lived only a short time ago. If life never got any better for either of us, we should celebrate and be grateful nonetheless. I urge you to ponder this point for a moment and return to it often, especially next time you are feeling bad for yourself.

I realize life is not perfect. I accept life will never be perfect. However, life could still dramatically be improved for us both and the billions of others who do not live as comfortable lives as we do. There are many causes of suffering we cannot easily mitigate such as natural disasters and complex diseases. However, we humans are the cause of a great deal of suffering that could dramatically be improved.

Much of this suffering results from humans who are actually acting in a good faith attempt to improve the world. This is good news. We simply need to be more…