The Daily Stoic - The Whole Point Is To Not Fit In | No Time For Theories, Just Results

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

The Stoics stood out in Athens. They stood out in Rome. Whether it was Cato walking around barefoot or Cleanthes proudly doing manual labor. Whether it was Seneca practicing his poverty or Marcus Aurelius reading during gladiatorial games, the Stoics were different.It was obvious. It was intentional.If I wanted to be like the mob, Chrysippus once said, I would not have become a philosopher.---And with today's excerpt from the Daily Stoic, Ryan explains the importance of prioritizing real action over thinking about what could happen.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You're listening ad-free on Wondery Plus. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wondery's podcast, Business Wars. And in our new season, two of the world's leading hotel brands, Hilton and Marriott, stare down family drama and financial disasters. Listen to business wars on Amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts.

[♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Friday, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the Daily Stoic. My book, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance in the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful collaborator, translator, and literary agent, Stephen Hanselman. So today, we'll give you a quick meditation from the Stokes with some analysis from me, and then we'll send you out into the world to turn these words into works.

The whole point is to not fit in. The Stoics stood out in Athens. They stood out in Rome, whether it was Cato walking around barefoot or a client that is proudly doing manual labor. Whether it was Ceneca practicing this poverty or Marcus really reading during the gladiatorial games, the Stoics were different. It was obvious and it was intentional. If I wanted to be like the mob,

Chrysipus one said, I would not have become a philosopher. I want to be like the red thread, a grippinus told a friend, the thread that stands out and makes the garment beautiful. The Stoics knew that each of us was born inherently unique. Well before an understanding of the science of DNA, they explicitly grasped that never before and never again will our combination of genetics exist, that we are singular. So why would they try to become like everyone else? Why would they unquestionably do what everyone else did? Why would they mute their colors, conform their thoughts, fearfully submit to someone else's rule?

They stood apart, they stood tall, they stood proud, and so must you, because you are you never to exist again, not part of the mob nor the crowd, but a philosopher. When we think of sports stories, we tend to think of tales of epic on the field glory. But the new podcast Sports Explains the World brings you some of the wildest and most surprising sports stories you've never heard. Like the teenager who wrote a fake Wikipedia page for a young athlete and then watched as a real team fell for his prank. Diving into his Wikipedia page we turn three career goals into 11, added 20 new assists for good measure. Figures that nobody would, should, have believed. And the mysterious secret of a US Olympic superstar killed at the peak of his career. Was it an accident? Did the police screw up the investigation? It was also nebulous.

Each week, Sports explains the world. Goes beyond leagues and stats to share stories that will redefine your understanding of sports and their impact on the world. Listen to Sports Explains the World, on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Sports Explains the World early and ad-free on Wondry Plus. No time for theories, just results. This is the August 11th entry in the Daily Stuck. I hope everyone is doing well. When the problem arose for us whether habit or theory was better for getting virtue, if

by theory is meant what teaches us correct conduct, then by habit we mean being accustomed to acting according to this theory, Musonius thought habit to be more effective. That's an excerpt relayed to us from Musonius Rufus, which is listed in his lectures, but I prefer the quote from Hamlet. There are more things in heaven and earth ratio that are dreamt of in your philosophy. in heaven and earth, Horatio, that are dreamt of in your philosophy. There is no time to chop logic over whether our theories are correct. We are dealing with the real world here. What matters is how you're going to deal with the situation in front of you. Whether you're going to be able to move past it or on to the next one. It doesn't say that anything goes, but we can't forget that although the theories are clean and simple, the situations rarely are.

Mark's really says a version of this, waste no more time arguing what a good man should be be one. He says, don't go around expecting Plato's Republic. You don't live there, right? We live in reality. And I talk about this a lot on the podcast so often philosophers ask these abstract questions I just talked about this in my episode with Paul Bloom which is coming up. He talks about how you know We discuss the trolley problem or do we live in a computer simulation? We talk about these ideas

when in reality It's much more practical life and stoicism like you get accidentally C. C. Don emailing one of your coworkers says something Not nice about you. Are you gonna let that go or you're gonna blow it up? Right? Your orders messed up at a restaurant Are you gonna try to think about the person who did that? What's going what their life is like? Or you're gonna go full-caron Right? You're tired and exhausted and your kids are being a nightmare

How do you respond? Right? That's what stoicism is to me. There's no room for these app like, there is an element of physics to the stoics and there's logic too. But the stoics tried to apply the philosophy to what they actually did to their lives as people, which is what we're trying to do. I've talked about this before too. You watch what's happening in the news and you go, oh, why can't this politician, why isn't this person voting this way?

They're just trying to keep their job blah, blah, blah. And then it's like, when was the last time you ever risked your job, right? How often do you do things that are in your financial best interest, but maybe not in the interest of the world? It's there that stoicism is supposed to be applied, right? Stoicism is not a standard we hold other people to. It's not a game. It's not a lens through which we debate things.

This is not like a sports show where they go, who's the best? Is it LeBron James or is it this? Could Kevin Durant good? Cause he only won a championship with Golden State and hasn't anywhere else? No, it's how are you as a teammate, right? Are you achieving in doing your best? Are you a team player, right?

It's about you. It's, you can spend all your best? Are you a team player, right? It's about you. It's, you can spend all your time thinking and debating and questioning, you can, you can waste your whole life doing that, but who cares? You have enough problems, whole life, you have things you should be dealing with. That, to me, is what stoicism is, right? That's what we're trying to do.

That's what I want this podcast to be about. That's why I pick up meditations by my side of my bed. I go, oh yeah, I was doing that today. I don't want to do that anymore. That's what I flip through the record. That's what I'm writing. I'm not only writing to accomplish that, hopefully, for other people, but that's what I'm looking for as a writer.

That's what I'm trying to do. I hope that's what you take from this podcast to no time for theories, just results is habit or theory better habit is better. Man, habit, make the stuff a habit. That's what we're trying to do. Make it a practice, build it into the muscle memory, make it part of who you are. Try to get to a point, ideally, where nobody even knows that you study philosophy, but when they look at your actions ago, that lines up, right? That lines up with the code.

And I think if you look at Marcus Realis' life, you don't have to know he studied philosophy to get the sense he was a philosophical guy that he lived according to those four virtues. That's the most powerful thing he said about courage, tempered justice, wisdom, was how he lived. And so it goes for you, and so I tried to make it go for me. None of us are perfect at it. The theory is much more interesting, the theory is easy, but in the day it doesn't matter one bit compared to the actions. 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 on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today,

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