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_...
An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
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Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#12This 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_...
I really enjoyed this talk.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#13This 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...
I double this recommendation - I read a chapter each morning on my commute to work.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#14Why is Stoicism the philosophical flavor of the month amongst tech people?
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 t…
>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.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#15My 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.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 t…
>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.
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.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#17Why is Stoicism the philosophical flavor of the month amongst tech people?
Brainstorming some ideas.
The name. 'Stoic' sounds cool. ('Ubermensch' just doesn't sound good. (Ahem. Was tempted to write "sounds like a Jewish thing".)
It's reassuring for those who feel they have no real control over their lives.
A strong resonance with a puritan loathing for the impure world.
Apatheia is the emotion for the modern world.
Edit: the four fold cure of Epicureanism is too easy: Don't fear the gods, don't worry about death, what is good is easy to get, and what is bad is easy to endure.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#18Why is Stoicism the philosophical flavor of the month amongst tech people?
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 t…
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Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
The stoicism movement has been going strong for more than a year (on HN and elsewhere).
Why, though? What has produced that effect?
I feel like it might be related to the interest, in the US at least, in Buddhism (like the secular version that people talk about with regards to meditation and yoga classes etc). I'm not sure where that started though.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#20Why is Stoicism the philosophical flavor of the month amongst tech people?
There are probably a number of aspects:
- Rejection of the cult of personality & "cult of the founder": Stoicism promotes rejection of ego and constantly finding points for growth and adaptivity
- A reaction to current events in politics and tech: Stoicism promotes grounding yourself in what you can control, and not worrying about what you can't (such as the past, increasing complexity in social networks, whether or not North Korea or Trump is going to drop the bomb somewhere, etc.)
- Big names with big platforms like Tim Ferris have been promoting the philosophy lately
...though this is anecdotal and probably doesn't encompass all the reasons.