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How to Be a Stoic (2016)
- anonytrary 5y agoBeing stoic is overrated. Much prefer when we actually talk about ideas and don't just sit there mysteriously.
- albatruss 5y agoThe article concerns philosophers who loved talking about ideas, not the colloquial usage of the word stoic.
- Trasmatta 5y agoThat's not what stoicism is at all.
- vitiral 5y agoBe sure to use capital S when talking about the philosophy. The dictionary definition and the philosophy seem to be not actually related, inversely related in many places in fact
- dataduck 5y agoThat speaks volumes about the people who write the dictionaries.
- ByteJockey 5y agoAll of the major dictionaries are descriptivist. They describe how people are using words, they do not try to control how words are used.
- grzm 5y ago(2016)
- dang 5y agoAdded. Thanks!
- wowhelp 5y agoSlavery has existed for all of humanity. Unfortunately it will never go away. Slavery is intensely misunderstood. One thing we could all do to improve awareness is to acknowledge that the concept of slavery is not a racial issue but a wealth issue. Only people with wealth owned slaves throughout history. It is a terrifying thought that nobody wants to realize.
- giantandroids 5y agoI don't understand this: "Much of Epictetus’ advice is about not getting angry at slaves. At first, I thought I could skip those parts. But I soon realized that I had the same self-recriminatory and illogical thoughts in my interactions with small-business owners and service professionals. When a cabdriver lied about a route, or a shopkeeper shortchanged me, I felt that it was my fault, for speaking Turkish with an accent, or for being part of an élite. And, if I pretended not to notice these slights, wasn’t I proving that I really was a disengaged, privileged oppressor? Epictetus shook me from these thoughts with this simple exercise: “Starting with things of little value—a bit of spilled oil, a little stolen wine—repeat to yourself: ‘For such a small price, I buy tranquillity.’ ” Does this mean ignore it still ‘For such a small price, I buy tranquillity'? EDIT: OK, turns out this is a repost of an article from 2016 where the same point above was already discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13730657 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13730657
- mindhash 5y agoMy dad lived in a small town in India for most of his life. When I come across stoicism and read about it, I realized he has been living like a stoic his whole life. His way of approaching life is so aligned with the concept. And yet he has never read or heard about Epicteus. I have been reading a lot of books about philosophy lately, but I realise the most you can learn is from people around you. The books are often contradictory. In the exact same situation, a book titled why zebras don't get ulcers, the author claims venting out is much healthier to reduce stress. There was a study done which indicated people who vent out on the spot are less likely to be stressful (less stress harmone). Observing how others deal with situations and picking the best out of them works out well for me. When I come across a friend who managing a heated argument and is calm after ward, I try to learn from him. Understand why he is able to do so.
- atoav 5y agoI think a thing to consider is also the effect your actions have at others. E.g. venting in front of others who can do nothing to change the thing that made you angry can also negatively impact their day. Granted — if one is the type who has no sense of how one impacts the people around oneself this is not a metric this type of person would consider. But it exists and there are people who are unhappy their whole life without realizing how much of it is the fallout of the effects they have on their environment.
- mcbishop 5y agoA title of a Ryan Holiday book about stoicism has been a helpful mantra for me: The obstacle is the way.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- PradeetPatel 5y agoIs it just me or is stoicism been heavily commercialised over the last few years, along with vipassana meditation. There's absolutely nothing wrong with getting employees to live healthier and more resilient lives, but the skeptic in me thinks that there may be other motives.
- wsinks 5y agoNot just you, there's definitely been some sort of hook to stoicism that I've seen at a few different levels. "what's in your control and what's not?"
- Renaud 5y agoIt has. People have rediscovered its importance and some have decided there was an opportunity to cash on it. Like anything else that has some success, it attracts some opportunists. It shouldn't detract anyone from looking at stoicism though. You can get everything you need from it for free, although a few books and helping the Patreon of a few philosophers who work on making it accessible is still a worthy cause to spend some money on.
- bserge 5y agoIt's on the fad carousel of the self-help market, kind of like all the diets out there.
- LatteLazy 5y agoIt's one of the few religious/philosophical systems that offers actual practical answers to real world problems. You can't blame people for rehashing it, branding it and selling it. Well, you can, and I sort of do, but it's better to just accept that that is what happens (like bottled water)...
- dakial1 5y agoYes, and i think the one to change for this is politics. The divisive state of politics in the last year's (thank you Facebook!) Had taken a toll in a lot of people, and stoicism is a way of dealing with that. I was always kind of a stoic (even before knowing what it was) and while i still discuss politics sometimes I don't bother getting angry or upset at everything I see I'm that field. I don't ignore it, I take note, but don't worry about it. My wife is the other way around, she suffers a lot for things out of her control and I'm trying to teach her to be more rational and less emotional about everything. "What you're worrying about? If there something you can do then do it, if not, stop worrying as it won't help anyone."
- GoodJokes 5y agoStoicism seems to be the in vogue philosophy for software developers insecure about their impact or non-impact on the world. An escapist ideology at its core that usually leads people to er the stock market.
- dang 5y agoPast threads: How to Be a Stoic (2016) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279613 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19279613 - March 2019 (79 comments) How to Be a Stoic - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13728197 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13728197 - Feb 2017 (237 comments)
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 5y agoStoicism always reminds me of the Disillusioned Sensible Man from CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: > (2) The Way of the Disillusioned "Sensible Man."—He soon decides that the whole thing was moonshine. "Of course," he says, "one feels like that when one's young. But by the time you get to my age you've given up chasing the rainbow's end." And so he settles down and learns not to expect too much and represses the part of himself which used, as he would say, "to cry for the moon." This is, of course, a much better way than the first, and makes a man much happier, and less of a nuisance to society. It tends to make him a prig (he is apt to be rather superior towards what he calls "adolescents"), but, on the whole, he rubs along fairly comfortably. >It would be the best line we could take if man did not live for ever. But supposing infinite happiness really is there, waiting for us? Supposing one really can reach the rainbow's end? In that case it would be a pity to find out too late (a moment after death) that by our supposed "common sense" we had stifled in ourselves the faculty of enjoying it.
- hpoe 5y agoSee that is an interesting point I've discovered while learning about stocism, and I find the same line of thought from what I understand of Buddhism. It seems that they are focused on taking away desires, just stop wanting things so much, stop trying to avoid pain and seek after pleasure. Which I agree in large part much of the misery we encounter in our daily life seems to stem from failure to adequately control our more reptilian impulses, but it also seems like the whole philosophy is about completely detaching from things, and as a wise man recently said "The only way to take the grief out of death is to take the love out of life." I get that it can be less painful, but why optimize for avoiding pain instead of maximizing joy?
- tugberkk 5y agoStoicism is actually similar to Buddhism in some ways. However, it is about being content. Rich means that you don't want anything else other than you own. This is being content. Stoics say that you have your mind and "reason"; which is the most important thing you can own. Therefore, why do you want some other things? Especially, if its not in your control.
- trabant00 5y agoThe older I get the less wisdom I find in any philosophy that means to teach how we should live and particularly how to avoid pain and unhappiness. The short of it is: nothing is good or bad, but things can be too much or too little. Where the line is depends or circumstances and is different every time. And the correct answer is mostly only available in hindsight if it is at all. Pain is useful. We know physical pain is because there are people who don't feel any and they injure themselves all the time. I find no reason or evidence emotional pain is any different. I saw perpetually and unconditionally happy people. In a mental asylum. Enough said. Trying to give up desire? Then what would motivate you do do anything at all? "money, health, sex, or reputation" are good things. You might exaggerate in these desires but that's a "too much of anything" problem, not a desire problem. Taking examples from the article: getting angry with a service provider can convince him not to try to wrong you in the future and save you unhappiness this way. Getting angry with people on the street giving you dirty looks doesn't work because they are many and different every time. But still, that anger can convince you that you should move. And maybe you should.
- ejolto 5y ago> The short of it is: nothing is good or bad, but things can be too much or too little. Where the line is depends or circumstances and is different every time. And the correct answer is mostly only available in hindsight if it is at all. That sounds like a very stoic point of view, reminds me of Marcus Aurelius's meditations. It's worth a read.
- trabant00 5y agoThankfully somebody did the research for me, I just had the vague knowledge that his actions where not exactly matching his writing. https://marcusaureliusmeditations.weebly.com/index.html https://marcusaureliusmeditations.weebly.com/index.html The case can be made that he mostly wrote what he thought of as ideal and how we would like to see himself, but often failed to apply it in practice because as I propose life is more complex than any particular philosophy.
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- bullen 5y agoNothing that ever reaches you is out of your control, because you always have to decide what you think about it. The only way to be a "stoic" is to use sunlight that hit a tree millions of years ago, that really belongs to your children. You are in control, and my tip is don't burn that energy unless you really really need to, even if it feels good. That and don't respond to criticizm with "what about you". Responsability and respect, learn to use them, towards everything.
- daseiner1 5y ago“You desire to LIVE "according to Nature"? Oh, you noble Stoics, what fraud of words! Imagine to yourselves a being like Nature, boundlessly extravagant, boundlessly indifferent, without purpose or consideration, without pity or justice, at once fruitful and barren and uncertain: imagine to yourselves INDIFFERENCE as a power—how COULD you live in accordance with such indifference? To live—is not that just endeavouring to be otherwise than this Nature? Is not living valuing, preferring, being unjust, being limited, endeavouring to be different? And granted that your imperative, "living according to Nature," means actually the same as "living according to life"—how could you do DIFFERENTLY? Why should you make a principle out of what you yourselves are, and must be? In reality, however, it is quite otherwise with you: while you pretend to read with rapture the canon of your law in Nature, you want something quite the contrary, you extraordinary stage-players and self-deluders! In your pride you wish to dictate your morals and ideals to Nature, to Nature herself, and to incorporate them therein; you insist that it shall be Nature "according to the Stoa," and would like everything to be made after your own image, as a vast, eternal glorification and generalism of Stoicism! With all your love for truth, you have forced yourselves so long, so persistently, and with such hypnotic rigidity to see Nature FALSELY, that is to say, Stoically, that you are no longer able to see it otherwise—and to crown all, some unfathomable superciliousness gives you the Bedlamite hope that BECAUSE you are able to tyrannize over yourselves—Stoicism is self-tyranny—Nature will also allow herself to be tyrannized over: is not the Stoic a PART of Nature?... But this is an old and everlasting story: what happened in old times with the Stoics still happens today, as soon as ever a philosophy begins to believe in itself. It always creates the world in its own image; it cannot do otherwise; philosophy is this tyrannical impulse itself, the most spiritual Will to Power, the will to "creation of the world," the will to the causa prima.” - Nietzsche
- LatteLazy 5y agoNietzsche was so affected by the indifference and injustices of life that he suffered a mental breakdown and died aged just 55. Perhaps he would have benefitted from practising a little more stoicism. If there is one thing the stoics were right about, it was knowing when to quit...
- manmal 5y ago