Stoicism unites key principles of early Christian thinking, Buddhist thinking, and modern humanist techniques for transcending mental illness (CBT/DBT.) It fil

Stoicism unites key principles of early Christian thinking, Buddhist thinking, and modern humanist techniques for transcending mental illness (CBT/DBT.) It filters down from here through almost every bit of psychological self help you can find. (See Scott Alexander's "CBT is in the water supply") - and through it, stoic principles. The modern world confronts us with a planet of people who are better than us at one thing or another and a planet of risks we have no ability to confront. We might work five years on a project that never ships without ever experiencing the gratification of chopping wood to burn that night. I would bet there's a genetic correlation between programmer / good at tech and overthinking / predisposition to anxiety; even if not, humans placed in an environment which causes our brains to run wild will look for some sort of peace. We find this from many sources - especially through addictions (legal, illegal, television, refreshing HN) - prescription medications (different from addictions? sometimes!) - but the idea of being able to train ourselves out of our internal agony is quite appealing. Stoic philosophy itself is the foundation of the ideas which come to us through every part of culture, so people who are into tracing the source are liable to find it sooner or later.