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].
An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
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Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#42Why is Stoicism the philosophical flavor of the month amongst tech people?
It's not just tech people, and stoicism (and its brethren in Buddhist philosophy) have been around for a very, very long time. I suspect it's just a right place and right time coincidence as it shares a lot of similarity with CBT, which itself is gaining traction as a psychiatric treatment.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
My opinion is that the popularity of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has brought the attention to Stoicism. I reached Stoicism by reading about CBT, and started reading about CBT because I wanted a proven tool to improve and modify my psychological state. I would not call myself Stoic but there is a lot of wisdom there. I particularly like Seneca and Epictetus. The best modern book for me is "A New Stoicism" by Lawrence…
Is CBT seeing significantly increased interest amongst people in tech? I haven't noticed that, but I also haven't been looking.
I actually happened upon Stoicism through both CBT and researching meditation. I had some anxiety issues that I more or less learned to control by implementing CBT on myself alongside meditation. Those issues aren't gone, but I now have the mental tools to manage them such that it doesn't affect my life.
Later, I found that if I tweaked those techniques, they were also useful for staying focused and clear-headed in stressful startup situations, as well as compartmentalizing work and life, and a number of other things. In practice it meant that by adopting certain mental exercises, I was able to sleep better, work better, take care of myself better, etc. I didn't encounter the term "Stoicism" until several years after, and I found that its practices aligned pretty well with what I was already doing.
I don't call myself a Stoic because it's really not a religion or philosophy to me. It's more of a set of mental practices that help me go about my life with a clearer head. However, if you dig through Stoic writings, there's a ton that resonates.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#44Why is Stoicism the philosophical flavor of the month amongst tech people?
I studied Philosophy at Harvard decades ago while working for Unitarians in Emerson's old church, had the privilege of paying Brad Cox's salary for a few years and now read Pali Buddhist Suttas, Stoics and Christian Scripture. 1) Stoics had huge impact on both pre-Christian Hellenized Jews and then centuries of early Christians. They distributed Epictetus' Enchiridion with "Jesus" penciled in for "Socrates." Most literate forefathers enjoyed some of that education. I even went to a Latin School. Stoicism runs DEEP in linguistic DNA like Aristotle. 2) Buddhism overlaps tightly with Stoicism and not by accident. Buddhists were all over the Silk Road alongside Stoics and Platonists for centuries surrounding O CE. Buddhism is also increasingly popular and the #2 religion in CA ahead of Islam. 3) Stoicism brings us back to personal regimen ethics components of philosophy most Philosophers of Math, Science And Language abandoned for a few recent centuries. 4) Smarter literate people are turning to Philosophy or High Orthodox philosophy-friendly religious traditions in rejecting Nationalist political ideologies. Traditionally "politics" was City-State local or School Cosmopolitan. City State politics are still quite strong here in DC or in NYC, BO or SF. Techies loving global protocols and online conversations are akin to Cosmopolitan Philosophical schools. We can think of geometry, applied maths and maybe Jupyter Notebooks soon as our Lingua Franca of sorts. Nation States are VERY recent Western fetishes that are less and less the focus of civilian political ambitions for overlapping good reasons. As a Sutta loving Stoic Cosmopolitan happier software engineering denizen of Christendom I judge that turning away from battle flags hopes very wise.
[edits. Sorry for typos.]
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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.
> protestantism on steroids "Protestantism on steroids" (Puritanism / Calvinism) did conquer the world, so maybe there's something to it.
Weber made the early connection between protestantism and capitalism so it is surely no surprise that it would manifest again in modern tech hubs.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#46Earlier 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 guess some books and talks from people who discovered stoicism i.e. maybe by reading Albert Ellis and put around some modern day self-help stuff. William Irvine, Ryan Holiday, Tim Ferris and so on. Stoicism as a label and some nice quotes from ancient authors and their stories make up for a good sell.
I still think stoicism is interesting but you are better off reading the original texts especially Epictetus and some books from historians about that time-frame for some context and criticism.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
My opinion is that the popularity of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has brought the attention to Stoicism. I reached Stoicism by reading about CBT, and started reading about CBT because I wanted a proven tool to improve and modify my psychological state. I would not call myself Stoic but there is a lot of wisdom there. I particularly like Seneca and Epictetus. The best modern book for me is "A New Stoicism" by Lawrence…
Is CBT seeing significantly increased interest amongst people in tech? I haven't noticed that, but I also haven't been looking.
The fact that our brains have "bugs" and biases has seen a significantly increased interest, so I suppose that methods to solve those bugs has seen an increased interest too.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#48This 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...
Great book - I listen to it as an audio book.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#49Best intro to Stoicism I've seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seLLJP3H1FU Massimo Pigliucci also have a great web site, how to be stoic https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com
Do you know where that video was recorded? I'd swear that's Bobby Knight at 12:36.
Re: An introduction to Stoic philosophy and resilience-building [video]
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is CBT seeing significantly increased interest amongst people in tech? I haven't noticed that, but I also haven't been looking.
I actually happened upon Stoicism through both CBT and researching meditation. I had some anxiety issues that I more or less learned to control by implementing CBT on myself alongside meditation. Those issues aren't gone, but I now have the mental tools to manage them such that it doesn't affect my life. Later, I found that if I tweaked those techniques, they were also useful for staying focused and clear-headed in s…
How would you best summarize those mental practises?