4 ms·

The problem with stoicism, is that it's providing you with a lot of concepts, and zero way to apply them. It's like saying "to win the race, run faster". Doh.

mcv 7y ago
It's a useful guideline to keep in mind for people who may be overcome or distracted by circumstances and forget to run faster.
lm28469 7y ago
Have you read Seneca's letters? I can't think of anything more straightforward and applicable. Live simply, don't value external things, have principles and stand behind them, think in term of "long term happiness" not "short term joys", be nice to your fellow humans, being rich in material things is nice but not sufficient while having virtues, knowledge and a strong community is necessary. It really isn't rocket science, especially compared to other/newer philosophical movements. It's life, no one is going to hold your hand and lead you to your happy place. Educate yourself, read the masters, follow the ones that seems aligned to your beliefs and move on if you find something better. I really like these: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_1 https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/L... https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_22 https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/L... https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_28 https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/L... https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_96 https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/L...
- sametmax 7y ago
  Of course I did. I even tried to follow some things to the extreme. E.G: one letter advice to have "poverty days" so that you never get afraid of being poor. So I went to sleep in the street from time to time. But most of the content is not that straight forward. Take for example: "Therefore, Lucilius, do as you write me that you are doing: hold every hour in your grasp. Lay hold of to-day's task, and you will not need to depend so much upon to-morrow'" Yeah. How do you do that ? It's nice to say "carpe diem" or "focus on what's important". "Do the hard things first" and all that. You can also tell a fat guy to eat less calories. Great. Now what ? That's why I prefer philosophy when it comes with a method. Meditation. Wim Hof method. Intermittent fasting. Psilocybin retreat. Whatever. But something to actually help you apply a thereory that otherwise get completely uncorrelated from one's life.
  - lm28469 7y ago
    Well these advices are thousands of years old so obviously you can't take it as a step by step guide for the 21st century. The principles behind them are usually simple to understand but hard to practice if you don't self reflect and actively try to better your life. > Yeah. How do you do that ? Look at your life, everyone is wasting time, maybe you're fine with it or maybe you feel like shit every evening when you look back at your day and notice that you could have done much more / spend your time doing something better. Want to start a business but watch 3 hours of netflix a day ? Maybe something is wrong. Spend all your life in a job you don't like because it pays well ? Are you sure you value money that much ? Are you always thinking about the next weekend, vacations, retirement to rationalise doing tasks you don't value ? Imagine being 60 and looking back at your life, did these X000 hours/year of netflix / video games / whatever bettered my life ? Or did they made my shitty life slightly more tolerable by occupying my mind outside of work ? Did I have a plan or did I just went through whatever life through at me without thinking about it? > You can also tell a fat guy to eat less calories. Great. Now what ? Telling him is not enough, it has to come from the fat guy himself. Once he truly want to lose weight he'll find a way (unless he has some medical conditions preventing it). It's the same with life, you can read every single book about how to be happy and successful, if you don't truly want it and invest serious time and efforts in it it's not much better than reading fiction. > That's why I prefer philosophy when it comes with a method. That's all good too, but I wouldn't be surprised if you eventually feel the urge to take your life in your own hands and follow less strict regimen at some point. Meditation or psychedelic drugs are a good example, at first you want a very safe and guided thing and once you kind of know what you're doing you experiment. You can spend 10k to spend a week in a monastery or on top of a mountain in underwear, if you come back and fall in the same patterns as before you just blew 10k for vacations. > that otherwise get completely uncorrelated from one's life. Or maybe our current way of living is so convoluted and disconnected from our origins that we lost the ability to understand the most basic principles.

mcv 7y ago

It's a useful guideline to keep in mind for people who may be overcome or distracted by circumstances and forget to run faster.

lm28469 7y ago

Have you read Seneca's letters? I can't think of anything more straightforward and applicable. Live simply, don't value external things, have principles and stand behind them, think in term of "long term happiness" not "short term joys", be nice to your fellow humans, being rich in material things is nice but not sufficient while having virtues, knowledge and a strong community is necessary. It really isn't rocket science, especially compared to other/newer philosophical movements. It's life, no one is going to hold your hand and lead you to your happy place. Educate yourself, read the masters, follow the ones that seems aligned to your beliefs and move on if you find something better. I really like these: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_1 https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/L... https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_22 https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/L... https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_28 https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/L... https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_96 https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/L...

sametmax 7y ago
Of course I did. I even tried to follow some things to the extreme. E.G: one letter advice to have "poverty days" so that you never get afraid of being poor. So I went to sleep in the street from time to time. But most of the content is not that straight forward. Take for example: "Therefore, Lucilius, do as you write me that you are doing: hold every hour in your grasp. Lay hold of to-day's task, and you will not need to depend so much upon to-morrow'" Yeah. How do you do that ? It's nice to say "carpe diem" or "focus on what's important". "Do the hard things first" and all that. You can also tell a fat guy to eat less calories. Great. Now what ? That's why I prefer philosophy when it comes with a method. Meditation. Wim Hof method. Intermittent fasting. Psilocybin retreat. Whatever. But something to actually help you apply a thereory that otherwise get completely uncorrelated from one's life.
- lm28469 7y ago
  Well these advices are thousands of years old so obviously you can't take it as a step by step guide for the 21st century. The principles behind them are usually simple to understand but hard to practice if you don't self reflect and actively try to better your life. > Yeah. How do you do that ? Look at your life, everyone is wasting time, maybe you're fine with it or maybe you feel like shit every evening when you look back at your day and notice that you could have done much more / spend your time doing something better. Want to start a business but watch 3 hours of netflix a day ? Maybe something is wrong. Spend all your life in a job you don't like because it pays well ? Are you sure you value money that much ? Are you always thinking about the next weekend, vacations, retirement to rationalise doing tasks you don't value ? Imagine being 60 and looking back at your life, did these X000 hours/year of netflix / video games / whatever bettered my life ? Or did they made my shitty life slightly more tolerable by occupying my mind outside of work ? Did I have a plan or did I just went through whatever life through at me without thinking about it? > You can also tell a fat guy to eat less calories. Great. Now what ? Telling him is not enough, it has to come from the fat guy himself. Once he truly want to lose weight he'll find a way (unless he has some medical conditions preventing it). It's the same with life, you can read every single book about how to be happy and successful, if you don't truly want it and invest serious time and efforts in it it's not much better than reading fiction. > That's why I prefer philosophy when it comes with a method. That's all good too, but I wouldn't be surprised if you eventually feel the urge to take your life in your own hands and follow less strict regimen at some point. Meditation or psychedelic drugs are a good example, at first you want a very safe and guided thing and once you kind of know what you're doing you experiment. You can spend 10k to spend a week in a monastery or on top of a mountain in underwear, if you come back and fall in the same patterns as before you just blew 10k for vacations. > that otherwise get completely uncorrelated from one's life. Or maybe our current way of living is so convoluted and disconnected from our origins that we lost the ability to understand the most basic principles.