When faced with a difficult problem one trick is to ask how you would view your choice in hindsight a year later. I use that technique a lot and find it helpful

When faced with a difficult problem one trick is to ask how you would view your choice in hindsight a year later. I use that technique a lot and find it helpful. It seems as if there are many ways to attain objectivity about decisions, which casts doubt on the notion that illeism has any special magic. Moreover, the argument that speaking in 3rd person made at least Caesar wiser seems doubtful. Caesar's writings are historically interesting but also considered artful propaganda hidden under apparently plain speech. [1] There's no particular reason to infer that Caesar used this device otherwise. As transmitted by Sallust, he referred directly to himself ("magna mihi copia est memorandi..."--"I find ample opportunity to mention...") when arguing against hastily putting conspirators of Cataline to death. [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentarii_de_Bello_Gallico#Motivations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentarii_de_Bello_Gallico#M... [2] http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Sallust/Bellum_Catilinae*.html http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Sallust/Be...