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.
To those who read and discuss for the purpose of display Part II
After all, what do you think? Don’t these very same persons secretly despise you? 15When, therefore, a person who is conscious of never having either thought or done a good thing finds a philosopher who tells him, “You are a genius, straightforward and unspoiled,” what else do you suppose the man says to himself but, “This man wants to use me for something or other”? Or else tell me; what work of genius has he displayed? Look, he has been with you all this time, he has listened to your discourse, he has heard you lecture. Has he settled down? Has he come to himself? Has he realized the evil plight in which he is? Has he cast aside his self-conceit? Is he looking for the man who will teach him?—He is looking, the man says.—The man who will teach him how he ought to live? No, fool, but only how he ought to deliver a speech; for that is why he admires even you. Listen to him, and hear what he says. “This fellow has a most artistic style; it is much finer than Dio’s.”[2] That’s altogether different. He doesn’t say, does he, “The man is respectful, he is faithful and unperturbed”? And even if he had said this, I would have replied: “Since this man is faithful, what is your definition of the faithful man?” And if he had no answer to give, I would have added: “First find out what you are talking about, and then do your talking.”
Flowery words and delivery are impressive to some people. Obama was very good at this and had my mom convinced he was a genius. I have never understood believing in someone just because they gave a good speech. To quote Thomas Sowell: “Barack Obama’s political genius is his ability to say things that will sound good to people who have not followed the issues in any detail — regardless of how obviously fraudulent what he says may be to those who have.”
Just because someone sounds good in what they say, it is vital to look at what they actually do. Anyone who obviously lies with the intent to flatter is untrustworthy. I much prefer the honest truth, even if it is something I don’t want to hear.
When you are in such a sorry state as this, then, gaping for men to praise you, and counting the number of your audience, is it your wish to do good to others? “To-day I had a much larger audience.” “Yes, indeed, there were great numbers.” “Five hundred, I fancy.” “Nonsense, make it a thousand.” “Dio never had so large an audience.” “How could you expect him to?” “Yes, and they are clever at catching the points.” “Beauty, sir, can move even a stone.”[3]
If many people think a person is smart and correct, that does not make it so. Focusing more on people fawning over you instead of having the correct message is meaningless. If I think what I am writing or saying is very intelligent, than I can say with certainty that the people that listen to me are very intelligent.
20There are the words of a philosopher for you! That’s the feeling of one who is on his way to do good to men! There you have a man who has listened to reason, who has read the accounts of Socrates as coming from Socrates, not as though they were from Lysias, or Isocrates! “‘I have often wondered by what arguments ever’—no, but ‘by what argument ever’—this form is smoother than the other!”[4] You have been reading this literature just as you would music-hall songs, haven’t you? Because, if you had read them in the right way, you would not have lingered on these points, but this is the sort of thing rather that would have caught your eye: “Anytus and Meletus can kill me, but they cannot hurt me”;[5] and: “I have always been the kind of man to pay attention to none of my own affairs, but only to the argument which strikes me as best upon reflection.”[6] And for that reason who ever heard Socrates saying, “I know something and teach it”? But he used to send one person here and another there.[7] Therefore men used to go to him to have him introduce them to philosophers,[8] and he used to take them around and introduce them. But no, your idea of him, no doubt, is that, as he was taking them along, he used to say, “Come around to-day and hear me deliver a discourse in the house of Quadratus”![9]
Trying to be a famous philosopher in Ancient Rome by being more popular would have been very tempting for those with the gift of oratory. Maybe because I have always tended to be plainspoken, I never appreciated someone who was a smooth talker. That is a big part of why I like Epictetus’s style. He is definitely not impressed with empty words no matter how smoothly they were spoken.
Why should I listen to you? Do you want to exhibit to me the clever way in which you put words together? You do compose them cleverly, man; and what good is it to you? “But praise me.” What do you mean by “praise”? “Cry out to me, ‘Bravo!’ or ‘Marvellous!'” All right, I’ll say it. But if praise is some one of those things which the philosophers put in the category of the good, what praise can I give you? If it is a good thing to speak correctly, teach me and I will praise you.
While I will not be impressed by a pretty speech, I do enjoy honest speech. How can I help anyone if I am more concerned with how my presentation looks than the content I am I am delivering.
25What then? Ought one to take no pleasure in listening to such efforts? Far from it. I do not fail to take pleasure in listening to a citharoede; surely I am not bound for that reason to stand and sing to my own accompaniment on the harp, am I? Listen, what does Socrates say? “Nor would it be seemly for me, O men of Athens, at my time of life to appear before you like some lad, and weave a cunning discourse.”[10] “Like some lad,” he says. For it is indeed a dainty thing, this small art of selecting trivial phrases and putting them together, and of coming forward and reading or reciting them gracefully, and then in the midst of the delivery shouting out, “There are not many people who can follow this, by your lives, I swear it!”
I hate to keep harping on Obama, but he is the clearest representation of flowery speech and empty words I have seen. I remember when he had people swooning at his speeches, not from heat exhaustion, but because they were overcome by emotion from listening to him. When my mom would bring him up during his first campaign, she would be astounded that I was not impressed. I tried reading parts of his speeches to her and asking her what that meant, because it was empty politician speech. Her response was always along the lines of, “I know what he meant”, or “He knows what he is doing”. I gave up after a few tries and just made fun of him whenever she would bring him up. It was easy to point out that anytime he was left to his own thoughts instead of reading a speech, he was full of ums and ohs and stutters. That got her to quit.
On a personal note, I have not been very stoic this week. I have been getting angry easily and it took a few days to see the pattern and figure out my real problem was a lack of sleep. I had been unable to sleep one night because I had a bumping headache and that got my sleep schedule all messed up. I would be in a fog at work, come home and sleep on the couch right after I sat down. This would make me cranky when my husky wanted to play fetch and wrestle. At night I would have trouble sleeping because of my couch nap. I would start the day cranky and repeat the cycle again. Not a good plan. Doing better now, I didn’t enjoy the last week and I know my wife wasn’t particularly happy with me either.
Obama ain’t exactly got the market cornered on flapping his gums ’bout stuff he knows nothing ’bout and ain’t a-gonna do nothing ’bout
his main offense, other than being a leftist, is that he’s pretty and is good at it
and on the heels of Shrub paints quite the contrast:
dead cat bounce situation
I wasn’t trying to say he was tho only one, but he is the best recent example where it was so obvious he was an empty suit, but had the gift of oratory.
At least I was told he had that gift, I never saw it.
He could deliver a prepared script as well as anyone I’ve seen. But it’s no different than a good actor. He had absolutely no gift for conversational or extemporaneous speaking.
Can you imagine him doing three hours with Rogan?
“I mean, you got the first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
The irony that Jesse Jackson could really do everything with classical rhetoric. His message may have sucked, but he really could deliver it.
Obama looks like a genius and fount of substance compared to Biden and dont get me started about Harris. Holy shit that woman gives new meaning to ’empty suit’.
What was interesting about Obama was how he absolutely fell apart when he had to speak off the cuff. He was absolutely helpless.
I admire good speakers because it really is an art.
Sorry about the sleep thing. It’s the worst. I’ve had decent success wearing those blue blocking glasses at night when I watch TV or am on the computer. May be worth a try.
It was just a bad sinus headache kept me up all night so I ended up going to work on about 2 hours sleep.
Younger me could do it with minor issues, but this old guy needs his rest.
I remember the TOTUS account mocking his inability to speak without a teleprompter.
Whatever else he is, speaking off the cuff’s never been a problem for OMB.
I hate to keep harping on Obama, but he is the clearest representation of flowery speech and empty words I have seen.
He carried on the grand tradition of the tent show revivalist.
“a most artistic style; it is much finer than Dio’s”
I saw him in 84, his art was finer.
https://youtu.be/46dHRqfTC18?feature=shared&t=270
Even at 64 he still could rock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G6NtIVZhRE
His voice wasn’t where it used to be, but it was still great.
To quote Thomas Sowell: “Barack Obama’s political genius is his ability to say things that will sound good to people who have not followed the issues in any detail — regardless of how obviously fraudulent what he says may be to those who have.”
People love to have their feelings tickled. Appeals to emotion are almost always more successful than logic.
That’s because logic – despite what so -called rationalists assert – fails to account for the pesky human being problem. Appeals to emotion are the best way to persuade real people.
When some politician or preacher starts pulling at people’s emotional strings, it’s definitely time to get skeptical. As an example, I give you Hitler. Listen to any of his speeches.
Obama’s speech voice and cadence always sounded like he was trying to imitate a black televangelist. Put my guard up and made me assume it was all bullshit, which it was.
As soon as I hear that breathy expansive tone, my BS filters go into high gear.
I always thought Vivek was imitating Barak.
At least Vivek’s ideas make sense, but he is very polished.
Also Vivek is very good off the cuff.
Yeah, Vivek was better off the cuff than Barak.
And I realize my comment makes it sounds like I don’t realize Barak was imitating others. He was. I knew that.
Vivek’s ideas, given his delivery, just reminded me more of Barak and the Boston area Progressives I knew. They ate Barak up and thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Force majeure
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Wednesday that the stimulus spending signed into law by President Joe Biden to aid the U.S. recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic may have contributed “a little bit” to the country’s subsequent inflation woes.
But the widespread rise in prices that marred the Democrat’s administration was mostly “a supply-side phenomenon” caused by the pandemic itself, Yellen told CNBC’s “Money Movers” in an exit interview before leaving her role.
There were “simply huge supply chain problems,” she said, adding that shortages of critical goods “started pushing up prices a great deal.”
Yellen said she believed the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill and other spending was necessary, and she did not answer directly when asked if she has any regrets about it.
Instead, she urged Americans to recall that the pandemic was “raging out of control” when Biden took office, with thousands of people dying from the virus each month and a high unemployment rate threatening livelihoods.
It’s not as if those supply chain problems and “high unemployment” were directly caused by the government. They just happened.
The pandemic was basically over by mid-2021. How it could cause supply chain issues one, two, three years later, she oddly doesn’t specify.
Yellen also argued that the Biden administration prioritized deficit reduction, and she pushed back on critics who point to facts such as ballooning U.S. deficits that hit $1.8 trillion in the last fiscal year.
“Interest rate increases have led to higher costs of servicing the outstanding debt. That’s one factor that’s been involved,” she said. “But discretionary spending is at historically low levels.”
She said that without promptly bursting into flame?
I am disappoint.
“But discretionary spending is at historically low levels.”
I don’t see a single chart here that supports that claim:
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R48164
I don’t know, doesn’t the first figure show discretionary spending (as a percentage of GDP) at 5-6% after a steady-ish decline from 10%-ish in 1962? Not that it particularly matters if one is just pushing discretionary spending into the mandatory bucket at a furious pace. But it does allow one to be technically correct.
Humpty Dumpty has pronounced – who are you to demand data?
Putrid, you are correct. I was looking at the wrong color.
We shouldn’t have warned them. They’re ready for us now.
Pretty sure we already have military bases on Greenland…staging grounds.
Sled dogs! That’ll show him!
Aww! hoos a good boy!
Sled dogs! That’ll show him!
They still use M1917 rifles.
Stick a fork in Britain:
https://x.com/WestReform/status/1877716448019206548
Are forks banned there yet?
Only professionals may possess them?
1) cripple production
2) create shortages
3) dump monopoly money into the economy
4) prices rise
shocking
who could have foreseen this?
One more gift for us from Uncle Joe:
https://x.com/BrandonLRichard/status/1877780206603366757
Another one of those temporary government programs.
I would hope an extension by administrative fiat can be revoked by administrative fiat.
Probably not, though.
That only goes one way R C.
Pretty sure Venezuela emptied their jails and sent them all North.
No snow to report yet in Key West. I’ll let you know if I see any snowflakes.
MBAs ruin everything
“Imagine paying $354 for a single day lift ticket only to spend nearly an hour in a lift line, navigating overcrowded trails, and discovering that most of the mountain is closed.”
So begins a recent video from finance content creator and J.P. Morgan employee Cameron Galbraith. Titled Did Private Equity Ruin Skiing—The Park City Meltdown, Galbraith’s video addresses the patrol strike head-on.
——-
Sports business analyst Joe Pompliano, in a recent YouTube upload, called the strike “one of the most interesting business case studies I have ever seen.”
Pompliano, entering similar terrain as Galbraith, says the real story of the strike revolves around “private equity’s corporate consolidation of ski towns placing a premium on margins, destroying customer loyalty while wreaking havoc on the slopes.”
While renewed by the strike, these concerns aren’t entirely new.
In 2023, Slate ran an article titled Epic Fail with the subheader “How a corporate duopoly ruined skiing.”
This “conversation” has been going on for decades. When I worked at Sun Valley in the early ’90s it was already well underway. Vail Associates has just brought the process to its inevitable end result.
It won’t be global warming that drives the final nail in skiing’s coffin.
It won’t be global warming that drives the final nail in skiing’s coffin.
Here it will be I-70
“J.P. Morgan employee Cameron Galbraith”
Is there a more perfect name for a JP Morgan employee?
Scrooge McDuck?
Employee, not owner.
Gordon LaForge, the article’s author, begins by recalling fond experiences skiing at Arapahoe Basin, Colorado, where, he writes, “there was camaraderie, freedom, community, and lots and lots of fun.”
The picture he paints of the contemporary skiing landscape is less rosy. LaForge laments the rising costs of housing, single-day lift tickets, and ski school—these developments, he argues, have caused mountains to lose their culture as local workers and ski bums feel mounting financial pressure.
A Basin was fantastic in the late ’70s and early ’80s. People would just camp in the parking lot for days (weeks, maybe) at a time. You’d probably get thrown in jail for that now.
Compare Telluride c. 1990 with today. Once Billy Joel, Christy Brinkley, and Oprah began moving in, the place gentrified to the max.
Jackson says hi
Did they get Highway 22 west out of Jackson reopened?
3 weeks after the slide, I believe.
They get shit done in WY!
laforge like the star trek character?
Obama was very good at this and had my mom convinced he was a genius.
Had the same “problem” with my dad. In 2007/8 he was convinced that Obama was “the answer”, largely on the anti-war rhetoric. I can see that to some degree – hell, there was no way I was going to vote for McCain – but that doesn’t mean I was going to vote for Mr. Empty Suit either.
I could not see how one could listen to Obama and think – “Inspiring! Intelligent! Wise!”; I just heard “empty meaningless rhetoric and platitudes, Chicago machine politician, so corrupt and grifter; philosophically bankrupt.” Of course my dad also had an “I’m a constitution voter” bumper sticker right next to his “Bernie” bumper sticker. Unironically.
I did have my “revenge” though when he admitted half-way through the term that he’d been fooled by ‘that piece of shit’. I didn’t rub it in. Unfortunately, I think he pulled out whatever copy of the constitution he has and voted Green in 2012 and wrote in Bernie in 2016.
After he got elected, my mom mentioned she was surprised by what he was pushing for.
I don’t remember which specific policy it was now, but I told her that it was exactly what I had told her he might do.
She never wavered in supporting him, but she wasn’t as vocal about it after that.
I didn’t vote for him, but I was hoping that he would have been better than Bush with regards to our civil liberties. Boy was I wrong. Not only did he wipe our civil liberties with his ass, but he also ramped up Bush’s programs to the point where even John Yoo was complimenting him for taking it to the next level.
What really opened my eyes about the Left though, was for eight years they complained that Bush was eroding our civil liberties but was quiet or even defending Obama when he crapped all over them. It was then when I realized that the Left could care less about the boot on the neck as long as the boot was worn by one of their preferred favorites.
Obama was the most destructive president of my lifetime.
I had bumper stickers created for Obama’s second election campaign.
Barak Obama: Dumber than Carter; Dirtier than Nixon.
quiet or even defending Obama
For all our disagreements, I will give my father credit for that at least. He stuck to his principles – even if said principles often seemed to me to be orthogonal to each other – and did not shy away from dumping Obama when he didn’t follow through on his anti-war stuff and started (I would say continued rather than started) crapping on civil liberties.
I don’t recall Obama ever being anti-war. He was against Iraq but campaigned on an Afghanistan surge, if I recall. Which he promptly followed through on once elected.
I think it was largely the ‘promise’ to close Guantánamo Bay prison, and the anti-Iraq position vs. a genuine anti-war commitment. I’ve honestly forgotten where Obama was policy wise on US military adventures – given who he is probably completely Amorphis (or amorphous if you prefer). Which of course allows one to project whatever they want onto him and with a willing, nay kneeling with mouths wide open, media, that anti-war persona was definitely projected to the left.
I have never understood believing in someone just because they gave a good speech.
Some people don’t understand “Don’t judge a book by its cover”.
Did they get Highway 22 west out of Jackson reopened?
I think so.
The dreaded “home from work” couch nap, they are so inviting but often mess with my evening plans and sleep schedule
‘couch nap’ IS my plan.
Exclusive: Meta kills DEI programs
The Zuck really has no fucking principles. However a good chunk of the employees there should have an epic meltdown.
“Elections have consequences.”
They’ve shown what an absolute weasel Zuckerberg is for sure.
I’m sure the left will take the wrong lesson from it and say that it just needs the right people in the right places.
Z isn’t the only weathervane trying to be atop the barn. Look for a bunch more businesses to kill off DEI shortly. It’s nice to have flexible principles, isn’t it?
mindyourbusiness:
A certain “moral flexibility”, one might say?
Dude literally has fuck you money but didn’t have the courage to say fuck you to those who tried to erode our civil liberties.
My guess is that he was a true believer in the DEI horseshit.
He is only changing course now because he is smart enough to see the hazards of fighting the changing winds.
Yeah, money doesn’t give you balls. It can make it easier for your balls to do the talking, though.
It is less about courage and more about revealed preferences.
Principles
Among the changes, Meta is ending the company’s “Diverse Slate Approach” of considering qualified candidates from underrepresented groups for its open roles. The company is also putting an end to its diversity supplier program and its equity and inclusion training programs. Gale also announced the disbanding of the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) team, and she said that Meta Chief Diversity Officer Maxine Williams will move into a new role focused on accessibility and engagement.
Several Meta employees responded to Gale’s post with comments criticizing the new policy.
“If you don’t stand by your principles when things get difficult, they aren’t values. They’re hobbies,” one employee posted in a comment that got reaction from more than 600 colleagues.
That was part of his letter of resignation, right?
RIGHT?
You bend with the wind. I watched a movie recently called Hotel Sahara. In the North African desert, WW II; they kept swapping out flags and political portraits, depending on which army was “occupying” their little hotel.
Too many youngsters who’ve never been fired before and have never looked for work in a serious economic downturn.
This could easily be remedied though.
Reality always wins in the end.
Biden officials ‘screamed’ and ‘cursed’ at Meta execs to take down vaccine posts, Mark Zuckerberg tells Joe Rogan
So we caved and now can only talk about it.
Trying to remain stoic while someone in the neighborhood practices the bagpipes.
Scottish, Irish, …?
People who focus on the optics of the internal process instead of the product itself seem to me to be by definition superfluous.