
An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video] - donjohnr
http://learn.donaldrobertson.name/p/stoicism-in-five-minutes/
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arey_abhishek
This book by Ryan Holiday: "The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom,
Perseverance, and the Art of Living: Featuring new translations of Seneca,
Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius" is a good intro to the topic.
[https://www.amazon.in/Daily-Stoic-Meditations-
Perseverance-t...](https://www.amazon.in/Daily-Stoic-Meditations-Perseverance-
translations-ebook/dp/B01KAFIQE6?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1&ref_=dp-kindle-
redirect)

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s3r3nity
I double this recommendation - I read a chapter each morning on my commute to
work.

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brndnmtthws
A great book on the subject is called "A Guide to the Good Life", by William
Irvine. It's a great read, and a good introduction to stoicism.

I read it while recovering from surgery when I was unable to walk for a few
weeks, and found it to be very helpful in keeping sane.

~~~
snowcrshd
I second this. "A Guide to the Good Life" is a fantastic introduction to Stoic
principles.

I also read "Stoicism and the Art of Happiness", but did not enjoy it as much.
I think Irvine's book is more to the point.

I've found that stoic practices help me in things I would not have thought of:
job interviews, for example. Doing negative visualization, imagining
interviewers asking me stuff I don't have complete knowledge of, and imagining
how I'd respond to it was _extremely_ helpful recently.

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walkingolof
Best intro to Stoicism I've seen:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seLLJP3H1FU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seLLJP3H1FU)

Massimo Pigliucci also have a great web site, how to be stoic
[https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com](https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com)

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ams6110
Do you know where that video was recorded? I'd swear that's Bobby Knight at
12:36.

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Pamar
I maintain a small page about Stoicism here: [http://pa-
mar.net/Main/Lifestyle/Stoicism.html](http://pa-
mar.net/Main/Lifestyle/Stoicism.html)

I believe that the Stoicism's appeal (for modern tech people) is that it is
basically a very rational approach to life and its problems. It is also very
adaptable to modern day culture: it downplays Religion but respects Society,
for example.

Last but not least, the image of dour, ascetical, judgemental party poopers is
a bit off mark, I think. The ideal Stoic is of course quite restrained in
everything, but feeling somehow superior, a part of some elite is a mistake in
itself.

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colordrops
Why is Stoicism the philosophical flavor of the month amongst tech people?

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bykovich2
Because being in tech is life-ruining and only can only be propped up by
ascetic myth-making, lol.

I suspect stoicism also appeals strongly to a personality that enters tech at
a disproportionate rate -- like bodybuilding, nootropics, hackathons and life-
hacks, it presents rigid, rationalized mastery of the self as both desirable
and achievable. I'm hesitant to attempt to characterize the personality order
to which this so strongly appeals, but it seems observable.

~~~
Barrin92
>like bodybuilding, nootropics, hackathons and life-hacks, it presents rigid,
rationalized mastery of the self as both desirable and achievable.

This is a good observation. It reminds me of some kind of digital
protestantism on steroids. The same kind of displayed humility, work obsession
and so forth.

I think it's very self-aggrandising in a way.

~~~
bykovich2
So you want to live “according to nature?” Oh, you noble Stoics, what a fraud
is in this phrase! Imagine something like nature, profligate without measure,
indifferent without measure, without purpose and regard, without mercy and
justice, fertile and barren and uncertain at the same time, think of
indifference itself as power – how could you live according to this
indifference? Living – isn’t that wanting specifically to be something other
than this nature? Isn’t living assessing, preferring, being unfair, being
limited, wanting to be different? And assuming your imperative to “live
according to nature” basically amounts to “living according to life” – well
how could you not? Why make a principle out of what you yourselves are and
must be? – But in fact, something quite different is going on: while
pretending with delight to read the canon of your law in nature, you want the
opposite, you strange actors and self-deceivers! Your pride wants to dictate
and annex your morals and ideals onto nature – yes, nature itself –, you
demand that it be nature “according to Stoa” and you want to make all
existence exist in your own image alone – as a huge eternal glorification and
universalization of Stoicism! For all your love of truth, you have forced
yourselves so long, so persistently, and with such hypnotic rigidity to have a
false, namely Stoic, view of nature, that you can no longer see it any other
way, – and some abysmal piece of arrogance finally gives you the madhouse hope
that because you know how to tyrannize yourselves – Stoicism is self-tyranny
–, nature lets itself be tyrannized as well: because isn’t the Stoic a piece
of nature? . . . But this is an old, eternal story: what happened back then
with the Stoics still happens today, just as soon as a philosophy begins
believing in itself. It always creates the world in its own image, it cannot
do otherwise; philosophy is this tyrannical drive itself, the most spiritual
will to power, to the “creation of the world,” to the causa prima.

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mcguire
Ok, who wrote that?

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bykovich2
Me.

It's actually Nietzsche -- "Beyond Good and Evil," Part 1, §9. I have very
serious reservations about Nietzsche, but he doesn't pull his punches.

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nicolashahn
My favorite Stoic book is called A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of
Stoic Joy. Extremely accessible compared to original Stoic texts and honestly
changed my outlook on life for the better, especially how I view expectation
and disappointment.

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brndnmtthws
I came here to mention this. You beat me to it.

~~~
jamiek88
This is the third time I've seen this book recommended this week, time to
download I think!

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nickjj
One of the best books I ever read was from a dude named Seneca (a stoic Roman
philosopher).

The book is called On the Shortness of Life: Life is Long if You Know How to
Use it[0].

[0]: [http://amzn.to/2klxZky](http://amzn.to/2klxZky)

~~~
perilunar
Written in 49 AD, so out of copyright, and available free online.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Brevitate_Vitae_(Seneca)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Brevitate_Vitae_\(Seneca\))

~~~
nickjj
Even better, although I like having a physical copy.

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milhouse1337
This makes me remember this TED talk, that was the first time I heard of
Stoicism.
[https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_ferriss_why_you_should_define_...](https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_ferriss_why_you_should_define_your_fears_instead_of_your_goals)

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afinlayson
I really enjoyed this talk.

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FRex
>Title: Stoicism in Five Minutes.

>Duration: Approx. 10 min.

Is it some meta stoicism to react stoically to that?

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coconut_crab
I like the principle of Stoicism. But I don't see how can that help with the
suffering of the people I care about. I am fine with losing my job, my home or
my social position (or at least so I think), but what about my spouse? my
children? How can I still feel calm when I fail to support them?

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snowcrshd
I don't think the point is feeling completely calm when things are going bad.

For me, at least, one of the points of stoicism is learning how to take a step
back and look at the situation through more rational lenses, and then figure
out how to deal with it.

Take the situation you mentioned: failing to support for one's family. I think
someone who strives to practice stoicism would do something like this:

\- What are the reasons I'm failing to provide for my family? Am I spending
too much? Is my salary too low? Is the place I live too expensive? Does my
family spend too much money?

\- Of those reasons, which ones do I have full control of? (This is were you
can actually act on).

\- Which ones do I have _some_ control of? If your family is the cause of
financial distress, there are some actions you can take (like talking to them
and explaining things have to change), but you can't fully control their
actions and thoughts.

\- Which ones do I have no control of? Don't worry about these, there is
nothing you can do anyways. But here is the catch, you are eventually going to
worry about them. This is what people fail to get about stoicism. It is not a
silver bullet that is going to take away all your worries. It is an instrument
to help you overcome them, with reason. It takes some practice to get good at
it.

~~~
reality_hacker
Overspending is the first class citizen problem, there are many other problems
can happened.

Billions of people live surrounded by crimes, wars and poverty.

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celias
I enjoyed this podcast about stoicism
[http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/stoicism.htm](http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/stoicism.htm)

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falsedan
stoicism++ but I did a double-take at the site: it's a personal vanity site
but styled as a MOOC? Ah, it's a hosted Teachable site on a custom CNAME.

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Crontab
I wish I could be truly stoic. Or a Vulcan. Instead, I constantly walk on the
edge of a panic attack.

