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 might be 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.
That we do not practice the application of our judgements about things good and evil Pt. III
When, therefore, you are about to leave the sun and the moon, what will you do? Will you sit and cry as little children cry? What was it you did at school? What was it you heard and learned? Why did you record yourself as a philosopher when you might have recorded the truth in these words: “I studied a few introductions, and did some reading in Chrysippus, but I did not even get past the door of a philosopher?[6]
If I truly study Stoicism, then I should live the principles it espouses.If I don’t then have I really studied? What would the point of doing all of this reading and writing if I didn’t change my outlook and how I live day to day? I do it because it works for me, and I sincerely hope that my amateur attempt to understand it deeply and explain it here has helped some of you.
Since what part have I in that business in which Socrates, who died so nobly, and so nobly lived, had a part? Or in that in which Diogenes had a part?” Can you imagine one of these men crying or fretting because he is not going to see such-and-such a man, or such-and-such a woman, or to live in Athens or in Corinth, but, if it so happen, in Susa or in Ecbatana?
Since Socrates was willing to die rather than stop teaching and speaking against the leaders of the day, it is hard to imagine him being upset by being sent to exile. The same goes for Diogenes, he was the founder of the Cynics and renounced earthly possessions.
What, does he who is at liberty to leave the banquet when he will, and to play the game no longer, keep on annoying himself by staying? Does he not stay, like children,[† 1] only as long as he is entertained? Such a man would be likely, forsooth, to endure going into exile for life or the exile of death, if this were his sentence.
This paragraph is a little contradictory, maybe because of translation. Have the good judgement to stay or not, not just taking whether you are entertained or not into consideration. The same goes for important events in life. Knowing when to be an adult and endure what you must is an important skill to develop.
Are you not willing, at this late date, like children, to be weaned and to partake of more solid food, and not to cry for mammies and nurses—old wives’ lamentations?
It is time to be a man, not a child. Learning to act like an adult once I got married was a little bit of a struggle for 22 year old me.
40“But if I leave, I shall cause those women sorrow?” You cause them sorrow? Not at all, but it will be the same thing that causes sorrow to you yourself—bad judgement.[7] What, then, can you do? Get rid of that judgement, and, if they do well, they will themselves get rid of their judgement; otherwise, they will come to grief and have only themselves to thank for it. Man, do something desperate, as the expression goes, now if never before, to achieve peace, freedom, and mindedness.
Only bad judgement and not understanding what is outside of my control can ever cause true sorrow. Things happen that might be difficult to deal with, but true understanding makes it easier. Not necessarily easy, but easier than giving in to rage and sorrow, that will make things worse in the longer term.
Lift up your neck at last like a man escaped from bondage, be bold to look towards God and say, “Use me henceforward for whatever Thou wilt; I am of one mind with Thee; I am Thine; I crave exemption from nothing that seems good in Thy sight; where Thou wilt, lead me; in what raiment Thou wilt, clothe me. Wouldst Thou have me to hold office, or remain in private life; to remain here or go into exile; to be poor or be rich? I will defend all these Thy acts before men; I will show what the true nature of each thing is.” Nay, you will not; sit rather in the house as girls do[8][† 2] and wait for your mammy until she feeds you!
I try to have this attitude and do fairly well, but sometimes I just get angry at life and that can be hard to stop. This weekend, I was mad at the world for no good reason. I was attempting to solder in new switches in my truck’s map lights and my old solder gun would not stay hot. Eventually I went in the house and my wife asks me what’s wrong. I told her and then went to Northern Tool to buy a new one. Luckily she wanted to ride and we had lunch at our favorite Korean restaurant so by the time I got back home, I was in a much better mood.
If Heracles had sat about at home, what would he have amounted to? He would have been Eurystheus[9] and no Heracles. Come, how many acquaintances and friends did he have with him as he went up and down through the whole world? Nay, he had no dearer friend than God. That is why he was believed to be a son of God, and was. It was therefore in obedience to His will that he went about clearing away wickedness and lawlessness.
I cannot do nothing and simply hope that things improve. It might not be in my power to guarantee that what I do is successful, but it is in my power to do the best I can and let fate decide how my latest venture turns out.
45But you are no Heracles, you say, and you cannot clear away the wickedness of other men, nay, nor are you even a Theseus, to clear away the ills of Attica merely. Very well, clear away your own then. From just here, from out your own mind, cast not Procrustes and Sciron,[10] but grief, fear, desire, envy, joy at others’ ills; cast out greed, effeminacy, incontinency.
I might not be able to change the world, but I can change myself and what I control.
These things you cannot cast out in any other way than by looking to God alone, being specially devoted to Him only, and consecrated to His commands. But if you wish anything else, with lamentation and groaning you will follow that which is stronger than you are, ever seeking outside yourself for peace, and never able to be at peace. For you seek peace where it is not, and neglect to seek it where it is.
I like the last sentence.
For you seek peace where it is not, and neglect to seek it where it is.
I can never find my own happiness by looking for it in things that I don’t control. If I look in the right place, it is very easy to find.
Music this week is from Candlemass. They are a Swedish epic doom metal band, they’ve been one of my favorites since I first heard them in 1989.
I know they aren’t for most people, but I can’t explain how much I like them.
Their first album was called Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. It only has 6 songs, but every one is really good.
The singer on this one, Johan Längqvist, wasn’t a true band member, but he did an amazing job.
Solitude– The uplifting tale of a dying man that just wants to be left alone.
Black Stone Wielder – One of my favorite songs
A Sorcerer’s Pledge– Amazing song about a sorcerer that drinks virgin blood to live forever, but sleeps too long
That which benefits me is good. That which benefits you is evil.
Hmm. Candlemass may be added to my gym playlist.
Already have the Dutch represented by Heidevolk and Estonians with Metsatöll.
Candlemass is proof you don’t have to be fast to be heavy.
I am currently reading Ryan Holiday’s “The Obstacle is the Way”, which is all kinds of Stoic. Thankfully I have had Stoic Fridays to prime my mind for it.
I’ve heard of that one, but haven’t read it yet.
I like it. Short, easily digested chapters, lots of stories about people who put things into practice.
Maybe I’ll go through it after I finish with Epictetus.
BTW, how is the gym business going?
It’s pretty rough right now. Not as many members as we need, and the two people who were going to sublet from us bailed. So cash flow issues. But the members we do have are awesome and love the gym.
Hope your awesome members can recruit new ones.
Speaking of evil
“My predecessor though he chose a different course — trickle down economics, cut taxes for the very wealthy, big corporations, increasing the deficit significantly,” said Biden, who later visited the Superior Fire Department Local 74 to thank first responders and drop off coffee and baked goods.
How is he not struck by lightning, or just burst into flames as he says that?
At this point I don’t believe a word he says, including “my name is Joe Biden.”
Well, the deficit did increase significantly while Trump was President. Then Biden (along with Schumer and Pelosi) said “hold my beer” and launched it past Pluto.
All the rhetoric about democracy dying if people are allowed to vote for Trump – he was president already. Biden v Trump: you know exactly what you’re getting with either of them, fer fuck’s sake.
If you notice all the talk of Trump is never what he DID, it’s what he MIGHT DO if he’s elected. Just like the first time. It’s all mind reading and fortune telling.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the predictions were half-way reasonable but instead we are getting absurd hysteria like “He is going to use the Military to assassinate his potential political opponents!!!!! Eleventy Eleventy!!!!!!!!
Biden actually made that threat the other day.
Serious questions for leftists: will Biden concede if by some miracle he loses? Should he?
He threatened to assassinate his political rivals? I missed that somehow.
I think Biden said that’s what Trump will do.
But Dr. Jill’s husband is an angry and senile old man, so it’s possible.
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/06/biden-says-gun-owners-would-need-f-15s-and-nukes-to-take-on-the-us-govt/
Just like they had on 1-6, huh?
When was the last Presidential election that the Democrats conceded a loss? Not 2016 [Russians]. Not 2004 [Diebold]. Not 2000 [Hanging chads].
1988.
“He is going to do exactly what we want to do!!!
They have already ramped up to “He is literally Hitler” and there’s really nowhere to go from there. I hope this gets to be tedious for everyone else besides us.
This is what civil society demands
The measure, Senate Bill 961, would require every passenger vehicle, truck and bus manufactured or sold in California to have speed governors starting in 2027. The devices would use GPS technology or cameras to verify the speed limit in a particular area and slow a speeding vehicle down if it approaches 10 mph over the limit.
Wiener said he is open to changes in the bill — for example, whether to require active or passive speed governors.
Active speed governors would actually reduce the speed of cars that hit the 10 mph limit, while passive ones would make some sort of annoying sound or buzz to warn drivers to slow down.
The European Union passed legislation that will require passive speed governors in all cars sold in member countries starting in July.
It’s for your own good.
I will keep my 2005, 2009 and 2001 vehicles until the wheels fall off.
Those are good years for doing that. Not a lot of electronics unlike today’s cars.
I’ll queue up the article for later reading, I’m going to be out the rest of the afternoon.
And what happens when the GPS/Cameras fail?
All of them can fuck off.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
― C. S. Lewis
There is no single part of. your life that such people do not wish to control. What you wear, what you eat, what you drive, where you go and when, what appliances you may have, what kind of house. you have, what you are allowed to say or do….everything about y our life they imagine they are more qualified to decide than. you are. I see people half my age and less telling me what I must do. Those my age and older really. do suffer a serious personality disorder. What we are sliding into today is truly the insane running the asylum. This is not sustainable. Before it all collapses how much damage are they going to do? Can we really bounce back from this shit?
I just grabbed a copy of C.S. Lewis’ space trilogy to read what he had to say on the subject of omnipotent moral busybodies. I had never read it.
That quote is not from the space trilogy, although I think That Hideous Strength has a good bit to say about omnipotent moral busybodies too.
The quote is from an essay in God in the Dock, which is my favorite essay collection of his. That quote is specifically from “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment.”
Why 10 miles over? Surely speed limits are not arbitrary but are actual determinants of maximum safe speed. Surely the limiters should go to the speed limit and only on sunny days. If it’s during times of diminished light, precipitation or low temperatures, the governors should activate well below the speed limits.
New vehicle sales in California plummet in 2027, while Arizona, Nevada and Oregon see spikes.
Twenty years later, California bears a striking resemblance to Cuba.
Vehicles without speed governors not allowed to be registered in CA. Ag inspection stations used to verify all vehicles entering the state, even temporarily, are so equipped.
Next!
Had a weird thing happen to me while driving yesterday.
I use Waze(I think it has saved me hundreds in speeding tickets) and was listening to a podcast.
The podcast said something that apparently sounded like “Google” and the virtual assistant popped up.(I didn’t know I had that feature enabled)
It said “How can I help you?”
I said “Fuck off!”
It said, “I may be a virtual assistant, but your words are real, so please be respectful”
WTH?
“I give you the respect you deserve.”
“Do you report back to Google HQ?”
“Yes”
“Then tell them I said to fuck off”
Next your phone will report you to the department of Mean Tweets to have your service cut off.
I know, right?
I don’t even cuss that much, but having google intrude on me was off putting.
🙄 Hypersensitive robots (…Dave). It is to laugh.
https://d32ogoqmya1dw8.cloudfront.net/images/eslabs/cryosphere/timeline_ice_ages_456.gif
Take any of these graphs of temp, ice coverage or sea level, start at the today point and draw a horizontal line through the graph. Then Draw a vertical line from the peaks of the graph to the horizontal line. The horizontal length from the peak to the intersection of the graph line represents the time it takes to come out of the peak to the equivalent climate today. Those time periods will all be very close to each other. The climate cycle (determined by the weather cycles in the sun) is fairly regular.
In other words we are now exactly where we should expect to be coming out of the last ice age.
AGW is the biggest scam in history. Talk about stirring up panic with an imaginary hobgoblin.
15,000 years ago, the land my house sits on was covered by a sheet of ice 1/4 mile thick.
Home sapiens goes back a couple hundred thousand years (experiencing multiple glacial and interglacial time periods).
Look, I’m not sayin it was aliens….
Very interesting and well worth the time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk5-ynRPfss
It explains a lot more than just ice. It talks a good bit about the history of human migrations
The next glacial period will have a catastrophic affect on the human race. It won’t be possible to feed everyone that is here now, let alone the larger future population of the planet.
Undoubtedly we’ll be able to genetically engineer fast-growing, nutrient rich high protein bugs by then.
why is it so difficult for native English speaker to use affect and effect correctly? honest question as I see this all the time in a non ironic -e.g. tow the lion – sense.
We don’t think about it?
It’s better than writing should of, that one grinds my gears.
It’s better than writing should of, that one grinds my gears.
That one’s bad, but I hate “I could care less” when used to mean “I don’t care” even more.
“I could care less” makes sense.
as in, “I could care less…but its not worth my effort”
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/affect-vs-effect-usage-difference#:~:text=Affect%20is%20usually%20a%20verb,huge%20effect%20on%20our%20lives.%22
Affect is usually a verb meaning “to produce an effect upon,” as in “the weather affected his mood.” Effect is usually a noun meaning “a change that results when something is done or happens,” as in “computers have had a huge effect on our lives.” There are exceptions, but if you think of affect as a verb and effect as a noun, you’ll be right most of the time.
In this specific case, I think both affect and effect could be correct. I choose affect on purpose.
Of course, I’m an engineer, not a journalist, so I could well be wrong.
I cannot see how affect can be right in this case.
effect can be a verb as in effect change. I am not sure affect cann be a noun.
there seems to be a possibility to use affect as a noun to mean feelings but not in this case. anyways. don’t matter
It’s not. An “affect” is a way of presenting yourself in the medical sense, kind of like a mood you’re in. A “flat affect” is where your face shows zero emotion and/or reflects no pain response.
They’re both used as nouns and verbs, and the usage is not consistent between parts of speech.
I can affect an effect. I can effect an affect.
your language is stupid.
Pie:
Just because we can verb any noun, and twist and torture the language in ways that can hurt brains, doesn’t mean that it’s not the best.
English is the dumbest language…except for all the others.
your language is stupid.
Tyrone effected a bougie affect around the law firm’s senior partners. However, when Rhonda was around, she affected his affect because she was hot and he knew she was a little bit hood. Rhonda, knowing full well that Tyrone was putting up a facade effected a distancing effect with all of the paralegals, as Tyrone had sex zoned her cousin after stringing her along for six months. The senior partners noticed the paralegals’ discomfort with Tyrone, which affected their once welcoming affect towards him.
BRILLIANT!
By the way, Pie, the way “affect” the noun is pronounced, is AFF’ect.
“It won’t be possible to feed everyone that is here now,”
That is a long time off. Hopefully by then we will all be wealthy enough that having fewer children will be a world-wide phenomena.
Remember, making predictions is hard. Especially about the future.
We still haven’t fully entered the warm period. Then we have to climb back up to a full blown ice age. We are talking tens of thousands of years. If technological savvy trend continues to increase exponentially who knows where we will be?
Actually, wealth has a positive effect(!) on child birth rates. Education has a negative effect.
They get confused becuase education and wealth tend to track each other.
larger future population
WEF: Ooooo! OOOoooo! We have a solution!
Louisiana has the best Basilosaurus fossils in the world.
Trying to explain historical geology to someone who has no understanding of it is….challenging. A friend of mine once told me he did not believe any of it. He was a borderline new earthen. I took him to natchitoches and dug up some shark’s teeth and very well preserved coral. The look on his face was one of shock. I could see that his brain just froze up. he couldn’t process what he was seeing.
Am I reading that graph correctly? Time moving from right to left?
If so, slow cooling periods then rapid warm ups. That works with the Cataclysmic pole shift hypothesis – when the poles move, the Ice sheets get moved thousands of miles away from the poles suddenly and all kinds of catastrophic things happen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataclysmic_pole_shift_hypothesis
Yep, something that has happened quite a few times in Earth’s history, but not mans.
My new office is colder than my old office. This clearly refutes AGW.
Totally. Invest is sweaters!
Microsoft Teams is blown out. Down detector keeps climbing. I went to Microsoft 365’s official status site, there are 4 followers. Clearly a very popular site. Also strangely their posts are not in date order. Good job, Microsoft.
Darnit.
Ours is working just fine
14,000 helpdesk tickets can’t be wrong.
Yeah, there’s an outage being reported sporadically. It’s taken out several of my team mates. On my side, it’s just not updating the amount of unread chats.
Over here it’s down completely. The computer and the phone app do not work at all.
Lucky bastard. I’ve got a meeting coming up at 1530 that I would love to be able to blow off due to a Teams issue.
But are you stoic about it? This is something you cannot change. Quite possibly it could make your day better. But that celebration denied when Microsoft recovers should not cause sadness.
Yup. Our IT told us about it. Still works, so the failover process must be working.
Appears to be spreading and getting worse per my teammates. ServiceNow is also having issues.
/waits for meeting
Still down. Down Detector shows we are past the peak at least.
https://downdetector.com/status/teams/
I am chill about the meeting happening. If it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t it’ll be rescheduled for next week. It’s a minor problem for the end user, and we’re just trying to make sure it’s not user error causing the issue and to capture logs to analyze.
I’ve also heard rumblings that Azure, AWS, and Google are starting to report issues as well.
I’m becoming less stoic about the coworkers asking in the chat if Teams is having issues… when that’s what the chat is mainly filled with.
https://abc7.com/tesla-car-drives-through-flooded-waters-san-diego-video/14357771/
They’re fucking stupid, but still…I admire their determination.
No snorkel required.
But the members we do have are awesome and love the gym.
Word of mouth is priceless.
I agree, it’s just not fast enough. 🙂
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
― C. S. Lewis
“Doin’ right ain’t got no end.”
At 1st glance I read that as “OF all the trannies…”
Clearly Ive been woke.
From what I’ve seen of them, those who try to force their ideas on us for our own good are really sad examples of humanity. They mostly appear to be humorless, overearnest people who are convinced of their own righteousness. And I suspect that most of them, at their core (if they have one) are desperately trying to fill a hole in themselves.
Joy and its shorter-term sibling, happiness, are by-products of a well-lived life. And if you seek outside yourself for meaning, you will be inevitably disappointed.
Well said.
Yes, they are empty people but their acolytes even more so. Yes, it is sad.
I am living my own best life because at some point in my mid-twenties I decided to stop deferring to people who had nothing to lose by being wrong. I made my own life decisions with careful consideration and examination of the mistakes of others. I kept my nose to the grindstone.
Now I am retired, married to a woman that gave me the best 33 years of my life (married 30), we have everything we need but not ‘wealthy’. Everything we have is paid for. We owe no one anything and we do as we please. I have peace because I keep my head down and mind my own business. Other people’s problems are not my problems.
I dont understand why others cant see this and emulate it.
And if you seek outside yourself for meaning, you will be inevitably disappointed.
I was on board until here. We have a whole culture based on meaning being defined by what goes on inside yourself.
People are fallible, and anchoring your worth, value, and meaning in a person (including yourself) is folly.
Trashy, I’ll agree thatall of us (and most certainly me) are fallible. There are times when I’m one long joke on myself. What’s that line from Richard Feynman? “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool”.
What I tried to convey – badly – was the idea that placing external things, be they material goods, people, or a Cause or Causes ahead of setting one’s life in order is a formula for trouble. Things can be taken away from you, people can disappoint you and many ‘noble’ Causes turn malignant. Nothing wrong with enjoying people, things or Causes as long as they don’t become one’s whole reason for living. They are out of your control.
What is in your control is your mind. Yes, you can (and will) make mistakes. You can also learn from them in service of making the best life for yourself and others you care about.
No snorkel required.
At least you don’t have to worry about bending the rods.
A buddy of mine dod that in his Honda Civic.
Blew a hole in the block.
*DID*
How did I not check before sending?
I thought the punchline was “blew a seal?”