I wanted to start a thread about stoicism for a while and finally decided to do it. I’m not sure if anyone else is interested in this philosophy.
The recent forum drama reminded me how anti stoic I have been acting and I want to use this thread for general discussion and for helping me stay on track with the way I want to act in my own life.
If anyone is interested in some free resources the “Daily Stoic” is my favorite. They send a short email everyday discussing stoicism.
Anyway, if anyone is interested in this topic let me know and I will get the conversation started.
I bought a random audio book 5 or 6 years ago, The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday and it really struck a chord.
The main thing a remind myself daily is to focus on what I can control, which is being the best person I can be. I fall short all the time but I do a pretty good job of getting back on track quickly when I get off course.
Favorite text:
“Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius if you want older text.
My favorite modern text is “Stillness is the Key” by Ryan Holiday.
I’m excited to see this thread pop up and will definitely participate.
10 minutes daily of stoic review is one of my goals and like you I read the daily email, sometimes read the daily passage in Holiday’s Daily Stoic book and have read Meditations a couple times.
While I strive to adopt a stoic mindset and have definitely made improvements, I find myself losing track and getting easily annoyed in online discussions or discussing politics in person. Nothing like the past, but there’s always something to work on.
When learning new languages, I usually check for a stoic podcast in that language as well. So far I’ve found one in Spanish, French, and Portuguese.
I also stumbled onto stoicism because of general wellness practices. I keep my distance from anything labeled “stoic” now, though, a lot of the language of stoicism has been coopted by the toxic masculinity culture. Any video you watch on YouTube about stoicism makes you like three clicks away from men’s rights nonsense.
A Man in Full is a Tom Wolfe novel that has one of the main characters convert to stoicism. It’s a pretty good book.
Stoicism is interesting in that the mindset and mental techniques it teaches is extremely similar to the modern psychological treatment of cognitive behavioral therapy.
Yah, I follow Daily Stoic on IG and anytime he posts something remotely political there’s always an army of right wing morons saying they’re offended and gonna take their business elsewhere. And Holiday himself is not even that far left-leaning, probably a moderate Dem at best. You can see his Hollywood/businessman roots popping up from time to time. But he’s by far the best source for Stoic material, so gotta roll with it.
Managing emotions and managing habits are a part of it but ethical decision making should be number one. I want to be clear again, I fall short of this all the time.
Marcus Aurelius famous quote is “Just that you do the right thing, the rest doesn’t matter”.
Seneca might be the most interesting stoic to me because he was basically the fixer for the Emperor Nero.
From “Stillness is the Key” about Seneca: "Imagine that you spend your evenings writing about the importance of doing the right thing, of temperance and wisdom, and then by day you have to help your all powerful boss justify trying to assassinate his mother. Seneca knew he should walk away, he probably wanted to, but he never did. What is virtue, Seneca would ask. His answer “True and steadfast judgement. And from virtue comes good decisions and happiness and peace. It emenates from the soul and directs the mind and the body.”
Yet when we look at Seneca’s life we get the sense he was the type of man who’s ambition did not provide much peace but instead skewed his decision making. Seneca wrote eloquently of the meaningless of wealth yet came to possess an enormous fortune through questionable means. He believed in mercy, kindness, and compassion but he willingly served two different emperors who were probably psychopaths. It was as if he didn’t believe in his own philosophy enough to put it holy into practice. He couldn’t quite accept that virtue would provide enough to live on. Money, power, fame just seemed a little more urgent."
The bolded hits me hard and I listen to it ever few months or so. (I have the audiobook) I’m not chasing fame or power but I do chase money to some extent and I justify it in several different ways. I know what path I should take but it’s so damn hard, at least I tell myself it is.
This 3 and a half minute video is a cool story about Grant. Cliffs: he was against slavery and inherited one when he was dirt poor. He could of used the help or even the money from selling the slave but instead he freed him.
Many of us probably would of made a different decision in the same circumstance (Obviously not in our modern era where we all know slavery is pure evil. I don’t even like putting animals in a kennel. The thought of owning another human makes me sick to my stomach).
I use stoicism quite a bit in online poker. I still struggle, but it’s much better than the past when I would occasionally break mouses, tilt, and move up to chase losses.
My favorite Stoic quote is from Epictetus:
“Don’t seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.”
I know it’s tough to wish that you go through a 70 buyin downswing, but I believe that now I’m more resilient as a result and understand that it’s just a part of being a poker player.
I also find Seneca’s practice of Premeditatio Malorum to be quite useful.
Basically you envision the worst possible outcomes happening and how you’d respond to each. So in poker I am able to plot out exactly how I’ll respond if I lose 8 buyins quickly, or the biggest fish in history just sucked out on me for a 4 figure pot. It helps because in those scenarios I’m often emotional and unable to make a rational decision, but I’ve already gone over a solution before the situation even happened.
