For someone who cites Seneca, this author sure doesn't seem to get stoicism.
You could make yourself uncomfortable by donning a mail gauntlet and punching yourself in the face every thirty seconds until you die. So what? What good does that do for anybody, yourself included?
It's this intensely epicurian take on stoicism. It's like, the purpose of becoming hard, tough, and a badass is to sit there enjoying that you are a hard, tough, stoic badass.
What are you going to DO with that? Answer that question and I'll tell you what you are. If you have no answer, you just told ME what you are.
Am I going to lose any sleep over that? Nah. What good would it do for me to be angry over some fool's self-absorption? If I have nothing better to do than fret over that, it's an indictment of me and I ought to attend to that lack in myself.
Be uncomfortable if it serves a purpose. If, like Seneca, the purpose is 'not to get too out of touch with regular people', that's fine, if that matters to you. I play drums and lift weights. I don't like the weights, but when I sit down to play drums (or carry firewood etc) I'm not helpless thanks to the discomfort. Purpose transforms all this. Purpose is nice. It's the point of the exercise, not just sitting there contemplating your badassery.
Lifting weights has added so many little moments to my day to day where I say “wow that’s not as heavy as it looked”. I decided to prune a couple of trees in my front yard and haul the branches to the curb, not even a little sore the next day.
I didn’t start with a particular purpose but I knew I wanted something a little different. Now when I go to the gym and it’s a day I’m just not into it, I drag myself in there anyways.
Hahaha I’m a pretty scrawny build… throwing a chainsaw around and all that for a few hours and carrying the limbs would’ve definitely had me at least a little sore prior to working out
Agree. The idea that suffering/being uncomfortable with no purpose brings wisdom would suggest the disabled are the wisest people alive and we're definitely not.
> It's like, the purpose of becoming hard, tough, and a badass is to sit there enjoying that you are a hard, tough, stoic badass. What are you going to DO with that?
I mean, yeah, kind of. The purpose of things like this, imo, is general durability. It falls into the same category for me as lifting, or cardio, or even non-specific math. It may have no immediate purpose or intent, but it has a positive impact on everything else you _do_ have a specific purpose for.
In the same way that it's never a benefit to be weaker, or out of breath, or slower at math, it's never a benefit to be less mentally durable than you otherwise could be.
Counterexample: I powerlifted myself into a couple of abdominal hernias. The price of hitting a 3x bodyweight deadlift. It would've been a benefit for me to stay weaker, but I wanted that number.
While being somewhat strong is good I argue there are no general qualities past your 'beginner gains'. When you hit that wall you'll need to optimize, which is the same as saying you will become worse in other areas to progress. Efficiency is opposite to robustness.
My paternal grandfather was a military man. He was as hard and stoic etc etc as they come. He was not an emotionally available person and died estranged from the whole family for no reason. There are tradeoffs to becoming too good at something, so we better have a good reason for going that distance.
You could make yourself uncomfortable by donning a mail gauntlet and punching yourself in the face every thirty seconds until you die. So what? What good does that do for anybody, yourself included?
It's this intensely epicurian take on stoicism. It's like, the purpose of becoming hard, tough, and a badass is to sit there enjoying that you are a hard, tough, stoic badass.
What are you going to DO with that? Answer that question and I'll tell you what you are. If you have no answer, you just told ME what you are.
Am I going to lose any sleep over that? Nah. What good would it do for me to be angry over some fool's self-absorption? If I have nothing better to do than fret over that, it's an indictment of me and I ought to attend to that lack in myself.
Be uncomfortable if it serves a purpose. If, like Seneca, the purpose is 'not to get too out of touch with regular people', that's fine, if that matters to you. I play drums and lift weights. I don't like the weights, but when I sit down to play drums (or carry firewood etc) I'm not helpless thanks to the discomfort. Purpose transforms all this. Purpose is nice. It's the point of the exercise, not just sitting there contemplating your badassery.