How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness)
This week’s book:
Discourses and Selected Writings
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.
Epictetus was born a slave around 50 ad. His owner was Epaphroditus, a rich freedman who was once a slave of Nero. Though he was a slave Epictetus was sent to study philosophy under Musonius Rufus.
Epictetus was lame and there are some stories it was caused by his master and others that it was caused by disease.
He was a freedman when all philosophers were banished from Rome in 89 by the Emperor Domitian. He then started his school in Greece, and had many students. He did not leave any writings from his lessons, but one of his students, Flavius Arrian, took notes and wrote the Discourses.
Epictetus did not marry, had no children, and lived to be around 80-85. In retirement, he adopted a child that would have been abandoned and raised him with a woman.
He died sometime around AD 135.
He is my favorite Stoic teacher. I love his bare bones and very straight forward approach.
Following is a paragraph-by-paragraph discussion of one of his lessons. Epictetus’s text appears in bold, my replies are in normal text.
OF TRAINING
We ought not to take our training in things that are unnatural or fantastic, since in that case we who profess to be philosophers will be no better than the mountebanks(snake oil salesmen). For it is a hard thing also to walk a tight-rope, and not merely hard but dangerous too. Ought we also for this reason to practice walking a tight-rope, or setting up a palm, or throwing our arms about statues?[1] Not a bit of it. Not every difficult and dangerous thing is suitable for training, but only that which is conducive to success in achieving the object of our effort.
When I was in the Marine Corps, we wanted our training to be harder than the real thing. When we went to the field for artillery, we would shoot and move an absurd amount on very little sleep in order to endure the actual hardship of shooting howitzers in combat. When we had our physical training, it was harder than the physical fitness test we had to take semi-annually. If the training had been easy, it would have been worthless.
And what is the object of our effort? To act without hindrance in choice and in aversion. And what does this mean? Neither to fail to get what we desire, nor to fall into what we would avoid. Toward this end, therefore, our training also should tend. 5
It can be more difficult to practice mental fortitude than physical hardness.
For since it is impossible without great and constant training to secure that our desire fail not to attain, and our aversion fall not into what it would avoid, be assured that, if you allow training to turn outwards, towards the things that are not in the realm of the moral purpose, you will have neither your desire successful in attaining what it would, nor your aversion successful in avoiding what it would. And since habit is a powerful influence, when we have accustomed ourselves to employ desire and aversion only upon these externals, we must set a contrary habit to counteract this habit, and where the very slippery nature of sense-impressions is in play, there we must set our training as a counteracting force.
When working on mental toughness, if I don’t stick to reality and focus on external things then I might as well practice for running 3 miles in 20 minutes by walking twice a week. Instead, I need to focus inwardly to control my reactions. I am still controlling my reaction to being unable to run and with practice and focus that has gotten easier. I remind myself that I am thankful I can walk the dogs every day and that is helping them to behave. During the time I was couch bound, the husky was becoming a giant pain in the ass.
I am inclined to pleasure; I will betake myself to the opposite side of the rolling ship, and that beyond measure, so as to train myself. I am inclined to avoid hard work; I will strain and exercise my sense-impressions to this end, so that my aversion from everything of this kind shall cease.
I am naturally lazy and since I retired from the Marines, I have not been consistent with my workouts. I am using my ankle injury as a “scared straight” event to encourage me to not quit this time. I have been in the habit of going to the gym and running reliably for a few months and then not going for around 6 months. That is not a good plan for success. I think that not being strong helped my ankle to get hurt, so I am trying to prevent a reoccurrence somewhere else.
“I have been in the habit of going to the gym and running reliably for a few months and then not going for around 6 months.”
Ron is my lost brother, clearly.
I would never do something like that!
/looks around at various hobbies that have been ignored for a while
Brothers!
Yeah, I’ve gotta up my game, too.
Military training can be tricky. You don’t want to game the system, but you also expect to have access to some things. But it’s better to get there and have it be better than you expected than the other way around. A lot of stuff we’ve been doing lately across all services is operating without GPS…gotta get back to basics. If you’ve already trained for the worst case scenario, you know your options.
Finally done with all this packing shit. This has been nuts for <30 days from orders. Report to Norfolk Monday morning. Flight may not be till first week of Oct, should be able to confirm this week.
Gotta clip a few more branches I cut yesterday, make a run to the dump and one more run to the storage unit and I'm about done in the house for the next 3…ish years. Thankfully, got a good coworker/reservist who's gonna rent and already signed a lease (friends from church managing property).
Hurting now…need to get in the gym in Norfolk – hopefully some good workouts if I'm there TDY with nothing else to do for a couple weeks. I'll text you Ron.
Also, just read MLW’s post. Re: blind casting…I’ve been meaning to watch the Ianucci directed “Life of David Copperfield” since I first saw the trailer – just keep forgetting about it. May pick up soon.
“lot of stuff we’ve been doing lately across all services is operating without GPS…gotta get back to basics.” Have you swabbies been training with astrolabes, compasses, and signal lights?
I always assumed Russia or China could disable our GPS system in a real conflict.
Kamala will be gracing my region today and making my commute home a giant shit sandwich. The interstate will be closed for hours during the Friday after work rush. This will create a mess on all of my normal side roads as normal interstate traffic tries to bypass the closing. Then the entire city will be locked down.
That will require me to transverse a two mountains and a river valley to bypass all of the backups.
Trying to remain stoic.
Think of the greater good, not yourself.
😛
I was selfish and should of thought of the people first. Can I take off the dunce cap and thumb screws now comrade?
The Greater Good.
That’s so brat!
In ur kitchen, savin ur lifes
The next time you shop for a cooking stove, the gas versions might show a health warning label similar to those on tobacco products.
Because a stove’s blue flame releases air pollution into your kitchen, California lawmakers have passed a bill that would require such warning labels on gas stoves for sale in stores and online. Gov. Gavin Newsom has until the end of September to sign the bill into law.
Them things’ll kill ya.
If they just pass the right law, all danger can be averted.
When do they come for my natural gas furnace?
Why would you need one? Global Warming (r) will remove all need for that!
Locally…
EPA awards NE Ohio organizations $17M to help replace gas stoves with electric
Fucking monsters. They can take my gas burners from me when they pry it out of my cold dead hands. Now, if they wanted to give me a stove with gas burners and an electric oven, I’ll go in on that.
First step toward a mandatory gas stove “buyback”. Maybe they’ll be rebranded as assault stoves.
No one needs high capacity ovens.
Well, except the Germans.
I hate cooking on electric stove tops. And I think they’re dangerous. They stay hot way too long and it’s easy to put your hand or something flammable on the burner without thinking about it.
My mom has melted kettles, plastic bowls, and set aprons on fire due to these flat top burners. They don’t have much of a visual indicator that they might still be on or hot. They essentially have a single red LED.
Heh. Back in the partying days, I knew a guy who tried to light his cigarette on one, not realizing that he was turning the wrong burner one, and proceeded to burn himself. He though he was so clever.
I’m liking our induction stove but would not switch if the house had gas or propane. Did require a new set of pots and pans.
Charles CW Cooke was able to demonstrate that electric stoves are, in fact, racist, as more African Americans both in total and as a % die from fires caused by electric stoves than gas stoves.
It was a comedy bit, but using the Left’s language against them is all you have sometimes.
If your gas stove is emitting enough CO to set off an alarm, it just might be broken.
Also doesn’t a professional chef have some kind of hood to exhaust all of those cooking gasses you create when browning and cooking food?
Coming soon: does browning food with your electric range and oven create harmful indoor pollutants. The CPSC recommends boiling your food to avoid potential health risks to children, women, and minorities.
example of the future:
https://youtu.be/Mb0CkGOZUWo
I think the tests that were run to create recent scare stories about gas stoves were in small, sealed kitchens with no ventilation. And most of the indoor pollution comes from the stuff you are cooking, which will probably be given as a reason to ban meat.
Omg, carcinogens!
Are you sure those pollutants aren’t what’s causing all the obesity and diabetes problems we’re seeing, huh hot shot?
A blue flame indicates near 100% combustion, pretty good for humans in doors.
Did they at least call it Protecting Losers Against Themselves and their Health Act?
I have a glass top electric stove and I actively loathe it. Bit we are renters, so…
Getting a pot of water to boiling point is a wait worthy of a doctor’s office, and even then it doesn’t get to a rolling boil. It’s not hot enough. Even the electric stove on my old POS house was better than this.
My one rule for renting (and eventually buying) was that I needed a gas range. Being able to quickly adjust temps, and put out enough BTU to get things going is important to me.
For getting water to a boil though, we’ve switched to a cheap electric kettle. Gets the water up to a boil faster than even the microwave will.
Gas stove top here. Wouldn’t have it any other way. The government can pry it from my cold dead fingers. I have a massive power boil burner that makes life easy.
Induction stoves suck. On boiling water I put a lid on it now to get it up to temp quicker.
Ron, good stuff as always. And I just wanted to say, you made a comment earlier this week on how you read for an hour before sleep, and that made you “weird” Well, I do the same thing. We read different things, but it is the same way of ending the day: restfulness combined with thoughtfulness.
I have to ensure that there are no electronic devices by me, as I will get distracted, so only physical books, but it has been great. I used to read around 150 books a year -divorced, no TV, and managed a bookstore, and while I will never get back to that level of reading, I still get the raw pleasure out of it.
Also a before-sleep reader.
I’ve been wearing the blue blocking (orange) glasses at sundown. It’s made a significant difference in my sleep, particularly as I read on a Kindle before bed.
I enjoy reading at bedtime, too. The distractions can be difficult to overcome, though. Between the conversations on here and other online communities, interesting YouTube vids, and my wife making bedroom eyes at me, its sometimes slow going.
I’m reading an interesting book right now. I had never heard of the indian captive genre of literature until recently. I picked up a very late example (from 1941 instead of 1741) recently and started reading it. It’s written for children (themes and language are kept at an appropriate level for a middle schooler), but not in a way that makes it boring.
Catching up from morning links
Oregon has good produce, grains, and seafood. It doesn’t have good restaurant food. McCarthys is good whiskey, Oregon Spirits and Rogue are not, others fall in between, Lots of garbage whiskies all over, and more that won’t meet your particularly palate.
Removing taxes on overtime would be a nightmare of trying to figure out what is overtime and what isn’t. Just fucking cut taxes across the board.
Similar with tips. Income is income, fuck you, cut spending and rates
a nightmare of trying to figure out what is overtime
So a jobs program for HR, accounting, and the IRS.
And tracking hours/type of hours worked and reported to the IRS, not just total wages. Fudging on your tie card now is a federal offense*, not just a firing one.
*i remember when federal offense used to be a major crime
I enjoyed Crux in Bend. Also Three Creeks in Sisters. Good beer and nice people. Also, the pot stench was way down from the last time I was there.
It’s replaced with forest fire smoke this time of year.
ODOT has royally fucked up Hwy 20 between the two and is actively making it worse. Year round parking lot instead of just during summertime.
It’s literally broken out separately on pay stubs…
Extra box on a W2?
Those are employer definitions. Not every hourly employee works 8 hour shifts 5 days a week.
For tax purposes, is it
Time over forty hours
Time over 8 hours daily
Time over scheduled shift
Time worked on a day off
Any time paid at more than your regular hourly rate
All of those may be considered overtime now. None are reported to the IRS with breakdowns, just gross taxable wages.
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/overtime
FWIW: I’m not really for the proposal, but I’m not entirely against it either.
Right, so people getting overtime other than 40+ hours will get fucked over by Trump.
Just lower the rates across the board instead of making it more complicated. Post card tax returns.
If employers were voluntarily paying OT using another calc method, why would they stop, assuming proposal is for income tax and not payroll (SS/Medicare) tax?
As of today, everyone is on salary. No overtime pay for anyone!
Assuming they don’t stop, that overtime would be taxed at regular income rates so they’d consider themselves fucked by Trump because they’re still paying tax on overtime hours.
I liked the previous Trump cuts. Increase the standard deduction. The SALT cap was chefs kiss (and I live in a high income tax state).
Tax code has too many gimmicks.
They are running a $3 Trillion a year deficit. At this point, what difference does the tax rate make?
If your gas stove is emitting enough CO to set off an alarm, it just might be broken.
Or maybe you’ve got one of those new fangled airtight energy saving houses.
AI smart building are the answer. See it implemented via the BOFH
https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/13/bofh_2024_episode_17/
“Sssh,” he repeats. “And the plate will overheat… and there we go – a tiny bit of smoke. Oooh, a bit more smoke, because someone…” – the PFY glances at me – “has left the packaging from their new Bluetooth headset stacked against the heating plate… AND THERE’S FIRE!”
“Fire?!” I gasp.
“And there goes the Boss, heading for the door at speed.”
“Isn’t he going to grab the exting-”
“A door that will not open because he has no bhajis or Macallan…” the PFY continues. “Oh, and now his AI has kicked in and he’s going for the extinguisher. THE CO2 EXTINGUISHER.”
“Ah!” I say, finally understanding the domino effect, as the Boss pulls the trigger on the extinguisher.
“And as we know, the damper isn’t working, the room is occupied, and the CO2 levels are WELL past a critical threshold, which means…”
“The windows will open.”
“And as we only have full height pivot windows in our office – right where the Boss is standing…”
“DANGER WILL ROBINSON!”
…
“Uhhhhh… was standing,” I correct, noting the large office window pivoting closed.
Damn it! I missed a new BOFH dropped today.
/goes off to read it
The campaign for warning labels is part of a larger climate effort to get consumers to switch to electric appliances that don’t burn fossil fuels. Commercial and residential buildings account for about 13% of heat-trapping emissions, mainly from the use of gas appliances.
Stop[ it. You’re killing me.
Electricity comes from the hoses and pipes sent from the windmills and solar panels.
This has got to be sending physicists to the looney bin. The idea that it’s better to convert fuels to heat to turn a turbine that has friction and send it miles away through transmissions lines that have resistance to then produce heat in the most inefficient use of electricity, is superior to just turning fuel directly into heat, is preposterous.
Wood is not a fossil fuel and is renewable. Everyone wins !
I prefer a fire using redwood or Joshua trees timber for my cooking, I find that using an endangered species for cooking adds a certain zest to the flavor that you’ll never get from an electric stove.
Head to California. They are cutting down the Joshua trees to make room for solar panels.
Some politicians get it, just not ours.
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-approves-four-westinghouse-reactors-nuclear-power-plants-2024-08-29/
These are getting better and better.
*sings along*
I love that guy. Glad he covered this.
Fucking beautiful
Hey hey, a solid song based on Trump’s eating the pets claim:
https://x.com/TheKiffness/status/1834585071875158502?
Pretty solid tune.
Well damn, an hour late and a dollar short.
Not as solid as the tune Tundra posted. :-p
My guess is that these memes are helping Trump.
Oh, yeah. They’re a punchy way to pose the question (which is otherwise verboten) “Do we really want these people living here? Tell me again how having a bunch of Haitians/Somalis/[insert foreigner here] makes my life and my community better.”
Well, maybe people shouldn’t have voted for open borders. Oh, wait . . . .
Cheaper goods and services? Actually being able to find someone to pour a sidewalk?
I hadn’t noticed that the massive influx of immigrants over the past few years has been accompanied by lower prices.
Ah, but what WOULD they have been without the influx?
Just like Obama created or save like a billion jobs.