The Daily Stoic - Always Consider the Unconsidered Consequences | Think About It from the Other Person’s Perspective

Episode Date: March 15, 2021

“A little while back we talked about the bold stroke—inspired by the Stoics—which struck down Julius Caesar and his reign on the Ides of March. This moment has always been judged ambiguously by historians. Yes, Caesar was a tyrant… but did the ends justify the means? And what were the ends? Were they successful? Were things better or worse?”Ryan explains why you must think it all the way through before you act, and reads this week’s meditation from The Daily Stoic Journal, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.This episode is brought to you by Public Goods, the one stop shop for sustainable, high quality everyday essentials made from clean ingredients at an affordable price. Everything from coffee to toilet paper & shampoo to pet food. Public Goods is your new everything store, thoughtfully designed for the conscious consumer. Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order with no minimum purchase. Just go to publicgoods.com/STOIC or use code STOIC at checkout.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke podcast early and add free on Amazon music download the app today Welcome to the Daily Stoke podcast each day we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stokes Illustrated with stories from history Current events and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week we try to do a deeper dive setting a kind of stoke intention for the week something to meditate on something to think on something to leave you with to journal about whatever it is you happen to be doing. So let's get into it. Hi I'm David Brown the host of Wanderer's podcast business wars and in our

new season Walmart must fight off target, the new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts. Always consider the unconsidered consequences. A little while back we talked about the bold stroke, inspired by the Stoics which struck down Julius Caesar and his reign on the Ides of March. This moment has always been judged ambiguously by historians. Yes, Caesar was a tyrant, but did the ends justify the means and what were the ends?

Were they successful? Were things better or worse after he was assassinated? Because in destroying a dictator, the conspirators created the emperor Augustus. It's funny how that works. Blowback. That's what they call it. Unintended consequences. And so it's not that a stoic is risk averse. It's that a stoic has to be because of our understanding of history, humble. We have to have some humility. We have to think about blowback. We have to think about the worst-case scenario. That's one of the lessons in my book, Conspiracy, a true story of power, sex, and a billionaire's secret plot to destroy an emperor, which draws not only on Peter Teal's

conspiracy, but all the timeless plotting and schemes of history where so often they ended up going sideways. Teal was successful in destroying Gokker, but he ended up creating a playbook that has been and will be used by others, for ends he doesn't likely agree with, and who would say that the media has gotten better in recent years? Just that you do the right thing, Marcus Reles said, in a less complicated world, that would be all you need to consider. Good intentions would always lead to good outcomes. But the world is complicated. If action A, then action B, then result C, we think, but it never plays out that way.

Along with good intentions in this world, we need intellectual humility. We need to look before we leap. We need to keep in mind what Senaqa said about fortunes habit of dashing all our plans and intentions to pieces. This is not to talk you out of taking action. Of course not. It's just a nudge to always consider blowback, to ask questions like, what could the unintended consequences be? Is it possible that I might make things worse? Think about it from the other person's perspective. We tend to assume the best about our own intentions

and the worst about other peoples. Then we wonder, my life is so full of conflict. The Stoics flipped this habit around, reminding themselves to be suspicious of their own first reaction and approach others first with sympathy. Powerful people are often surprisingly terrible at behaving this way, but Marcus Aurelius, the most powerful man on earth during his reign, was renowned for his humanity in dealing with others. He told himself always to take a moment to remember his own failings, and to contemplate how another might see the situation. He reminded himself

as we should that most people are trying their best, even though that's easy to lose sight of in the rough and tumble of daily life. Let's remember that today and think about each interaction from more than just our own point of view. That's the daily stoic journal weekly entry. And we've got some quotes from Marcus Aurelius here. He says, whenever someone has done wrong by you, immediately consider what notion of good or evil they had been doing it. For when you see that, you'll find compassion

instead of astonishment or rage. For you yourself may have had the same notions of good and evil or similar ones, in which case you'll make an allowance for what they've done. But if you no longer hold the same notion, it'll be more readily gracious for their heir. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 726. And then he says, when your sparring partner scratches or headbutts you, you don't then make a show of it, or protest, or view him with suspicion,

or as plotting against you. And yet you keep an eye on him, not as an enemy or with suspicion, but with a healthy avoidance. You should act this way with all things in life. We should give a past of many things with our fellow trainees. For, as I've said, it's possible to avoid without suspicion.

For hate. You know, I tell the story and still this is the key, I open part one, the perception part of the book, the story of Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy and Khrushchev face off over some nuclear ballistic missiles placed on the island of Cuba. And what's so remarkable about this moment, why look at Kennedy and why I think he embodies what Marcus really is talking about in both senses, both in the why do they do this, what are they trying to do? And also, you know, people are not great, they're going to try to cheat or pull one over on

you, but you can't let that break you or make you bitter, you've got to be cognizant and aware of it. Kennedy thinks not just what he's going to do, but he's conscious enough to think what is Khrushchev going to do? What is Khrushchev trying to do with this? And in fact, Khrushchev's real fatal calculation is that he doesn't have a good read on Kennedy. He'd sort of bullied Kennedy at a conference, had seen Kennedy bungle the Bay of Pigs. He thought he knew Kennedy, and he thought he knew America, but of Pigs. He thought he knew Kennedy and he thought he knew America, but he didn't. He couldn't conceive of how America would react to these

missiles right on that island. And Kennedy, though, realizes, especially when his military advisors are telling him, you got a bomb, Cuba, you got to bomb the shit out of Cuba, is going to be, you know, we got to go into a void world for three. Kennedy knows that to do that, he thinks about cruise chief, how they're in the same position. They're both leading these sort of loose coalitions and with divergent interests and, and, and our human beings, but, but also heads of state, he, he's really able to think about cruise chief's position. And he says, look, I'm not worried even about what cruise chief's going to do in response to what I'm going to do. I'm worried

about like step six or seven in this chain of escalation. And so we think about things from people's perspective, not just because empathy is good, not just because justice is important, but strategically it's essential, right? I talked to when I was in public relations, you would see people get so consumed with the truth of what they had to say or their own experience or their own point of view, it couldn't concede that the reporter has their own interests, that the public has their own interests in position. You have to effectively navigate the world to be successful.

You've got to understand other people's perspective. You've got to think about what's going on with them. And this allows you to not only be more patient, more forgiving and more gracious as Marcus says, but it also allows you to be more effective and successful at whatever it is that you are doing. So I urge you today to spend some time practicing what's called strategic empathy will make you better, but most importantly, as we saw in the Kennedy and Cuban Missile Crisis example, it may well save the world. It makes

the world a better place if we are more empathetic with each other. As As Senka said, we're all wicked people in a wicked world. If we can understand this, we can be kind and patient and tolerant and understanding. We will all get more of what we want and need. Conspiracy is a different book for me. It's not like my stoic books, but in a way, I think it's my best book. It's, I was really a challenge for me to write. I'd read something like 10,000 pages on legal documents. I had to interview these people, I was intimidating and scary for me to write. I'd read something like 10,000 pages of legal documents. I had to interview these people, was intimidating and scary.

I wasn't sure I could do it. But in a way, I'm most proud of it, and it's gotten the most unique response of all my books. It's the first one that's likely to be turned into a movie. It's being adapted by Charles Randolph, who wrote the big short and bombshell about Fox News. I'm really proud of this book. If you want to check it out, conspiracy, a true story of power sex and a billionaires secret

plot to destroy a media empire, check it out anywhere. Books are sold and I hope you enjoy it. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts.