After reading the article, I think more likely it is Matthew 24:14 which explains the desire to "hasten the coming of Christ’s return". The verses says, in the NIV, _14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come._ I suppose he is equating "improve the quality of life of every human on the planet" with them hearing the Gospel.
Check out the wide breadth of tuts provided by Digital Ocean. This is just one post, misleadingly titled at that, whereas DO has LOADS of excellent and clearly explained tuts.
What I've read in his essay is that he piloted a flight simulator for most of his life, then read a manual and some things other people who wrote about flying and landing. So, yes, as I said, I prefer flying with pilots who have learned to land, are continuing to learn, and are getting better each time, with bigger planes and more people.
EP did not say he achieved #1; about #2, "I spent much of my
life in this state, and I know all about it."; "I first considered what seemed to be in my best interest, or, more often, gave no thought to the matter at all." is his take on #3; "my normal slouch" in #4; he makes no claim to have gained an eternal perspective, merely quoting others in #5; that "cloud of uncertainty" gives little confidence in #6; being 90, he had little to say about #7 sadly; the reader has to guess whether he was lucky or not in #8; and finally #9 is likewise devoid of actual personal recounting of what he has.
All in all, I find "advice" and "what I've learned" tomes by *older* people to be unhelpful. When someone has spent much other their life living contrary to the advice they are now dishing out, I question it. I prefer advice from someone currently living life, learning and adjusting and growing
now... not at the end when it doesn't matter.
I'm not sure you've understood the idea. While your values include not breaking certain rules of ethics, your value ALSO clearly extends to being offended by others when they do it. So your value isn't purely "don't break ethical rules", but, "observe ethical rules and react when they are broken, by me and by others". I think what the author (not OP) means is that once you are virtuously selfconstituted, your decision about these and what YOU do about it is not easily swayed or pushed around. In this sense, it shouldn't matter that _others_ are breaking rules... obviously it isn't an ethical rule for them... but that you are clear that you wouldn't do the same. Thus, if your activities at work relate to pursuing goals aimed at by these broken rules, then it is _work_, and you do your work.
Another way of interpreting what you've shared is that what you are stressed about is actually _not quite the value you think you have_, otherwise you would have walked away, self-assuredly, emotionally certain in the rightness of removing yourself. But you haven't. So it isn't a set value. Obviously another value like, "I have to eat" preempts this ethical value being broken at work. I'm not saying this is wrong or not, just trying to help you navigate your stressful environment.
Since we are talking about something as fanciful as aliens, consider this perspective: There are no aliens because their existence runs counter to what the Bible says about God.
Assuming the only creation God engaged in was planet earth, how he is described (as never changing) means that his revelation of himself in Christ (who was both human and God, in order that his death would be like our deaths, ((wages of sin is death)), but whose divinity would allow him to rise from the dead ((thereby proving the penalty of sin - death - had been paid for _eternally_ {{being God}})) means that any other creation in the universe would need to be in a similar situation as humanity on earth...otherwise Christ as God/Human is totally senseless and useless on these other planets...which can not be since God does not change. Thus, no aliens, anywhere.
Now before ppl go off screeching about religion, this is in no way an attempt to convert. It is just a perspective made possible by someone who reads the Bible and likes to try to place any modern idea against it, and maybe the same might help someone else grapple with the immensity of It All. It also doesn't mean that there is no need for humanity to keep searching and exploring the stars.