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.
What is the position of the layman, and what that of the philosopher?
The first difference between a layman and a philosopher: The one says, “Woe is me because of my child, my brother, woe because of my father”; and the other, if he can ever be compelled to say, “Woe is me,” adds, after a pause, “because of myself.”
This is a good reminder for me on Thanksgiving. I woke up feeling a little out of sorts this morning. My wife is in Okinawa for another 3 weeks, my car will cost $2600 to put a new clutch in, and my ankle decided today was a good day to stiffen up. It is too easy for me to focus on the negative.
In doing that, I ignore being thankful for a happy marriage that lets my wife see her family for the first time in 6 years. Also ignoring the fact that my truck has been reliable, even though I don’t like daily driving it in traffic. Sure, my ankle is bugging me, but I am mostly healthy and in good shape for being 52 years old.
I will enjoy the fact I can sit in my nice house looking at the lake while my husky pushes his nose into me and yells at me for ignoring him.
For nothing outside the sphere of the moral purpose can hamper or injure the moral purpose; it alone can hamper or injure itself. If, then, we too tend in this latter direction so that, whenever we go amiss, we blame ourselves, and bear in mind that nothing but judgement is responsible for the disturbance of our peace of mind and our inconstancy, I swear to you by all the gods that we have been making progress.
As I stop feeling sorry for myself, I can feel my mood improve. I think before I started studying and following Stoicism, I would have talked myself into a worse mood as the day went along.
But as it is, we have taken a different course from the start. Even while we were still children, our nurse, if ever we bumped into something, when we were going along with our mouths open, did not scold us, but used to beat the stone. Why, what did the stone do? Ought it to have moved out of the road because of your childish folly?
I try not to blame the obstacles in my way, they have no malice for me. It is part of life to have problems. How I deal with outside issues shows more about me then them.
5And again, if we when children don’t find something to eat after our bath, our attendant never checks our appetite, but he cudgels the cook. Man, we didn’t make you the cook’s attendant, did we? but our child’s. Correct him, help him. So, even when we have grown up, we look like children. For it is being a child to be unmusical in things musical, to he unlettered in things literary, to be uneducated in life.
Childishness is never a smart option. Sometimes it is tempting to wallow in misery from “bad luck”. This is never a productive choice, and can easily exacerbate a depressed mind and make everything seem insurmountable. While some issues are truly life threatening, nothing I am dealing with is close to that level.
Hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving weekend.
Thanks Ron, always a good reinforcement.
Went to the local grocery, perfect, place was empty. Did my Black Friday shopping. I am still learning.
Stoic or not?
Antarctic luxury cruise passengers go on hunger strike over engine failure
Stuff happens. Looks like they prorated the cost over how long the voyage lasted. But it does seem like they are being cheap.
So, the warranty expired and it just went kaput?
https://www.indmar.com/indmar-marine-engines-now-built-ford-tough-indmar-ford-announce-engine-supply-agreement-sema/
Have you driven a Ford lately?
Big marine diesels are interesting. Also the trend is single engine on big ships. Allegedly better reliability, but it makes me scratch my head there. The cost part I understand.
Jokes at Ford aside:
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/helsinki-shipyard-floats-out-hybrid-diesel-electric-expedition-ship/
Not sure if it’s a true battery hybrid (diesel locomotives have been “diesel-electric” when they were introduced)
Daily. Mechanically it’s sound.
Not stoic? Kidding aside, I understand why somebody in his position is incredulous.
NYC fruit vendor, 74, who sold banana devastated after it became viral $6.2M artwork: ‘I am a poor man’
When I see shit like the $6.2M duct-taped banana, I am more convinced than ever that the art world is just a big money laundering operation.
Hunter Biden certainly agrees.
I forget if it was a Parker or a McGee book, but one that I’ve read explained several reasons why people in the 70’s were accumulating art, stamps, rare coins, and other collectables. One of the stated reasons was tax avoidance, portability was another reason, stable prices (that would scale with inflation), and easily transferable.
At times I think the crypto market is just the modern equivalent.
Pollock “paintings” have been selling for millions for over 50 years.
Things really started going downhill once the impressionists were allowed to get away with it.
@UCS, YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!!
I never “got” Pollack until I saw an exhibition in person. And then I realized how great his stuff was.
Aww, Rich Little seems like a decent enough guy (for a Canadian.)
OMWC, please expound.
“then I realized how great his stuff was.”
*facepalm*
OMWC, please expound.
Not sure how to verbalize it. It was a powerful, visceral experience.
Just seeing pictures in books and magazines, I had no real reaction to his work. In person and in context with a lot of other pieces from different stages in his development as an artist, something clicked, and I understood why it was great.
I would analogize this to Sun Ra. I knew no-one who liked his music when they only heard recordings. But 100% of the time when I’d take them to a live show… “Oh my god, I SEE,” and they were hooked.
Box Thanksgiving preps have begun. The small turkey breast is in the oven. When it is done and has rested, I’ll whip up the rest of the grub, all from boxes, jars, cans, or packets. XX requested a pumpkin pie and luckily, I’ve got one pie crust in the freezer.
USAF awarded the Legion of Merit to one of the key Pearl Harbor attack planners a mere 21 years after.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoru_Genda
Like having a member of the Al Queda leadership on the South Lawn getting decorated by Biden in current year. Mountbatten wouldn’t allow any Japanese representatives to his funeral in 1979.
Was Fred Korematsu asked for commentary at the time?
Another 20 years for US citizens.
The scene is on point. I feel like it’s a Hollywood accident like Gekko’s “Greed is good.”
https://www.outkick.com/culture/landman-oil-viral-scene
He is half right. If all oil stopped today a year from now at least half, probably more, of the population of the world would be dead. All electric is not a thing and never will be.
There are some things electric motors are well suited for and some things IC engines are well suited for. Switching them around either way is impractical and not economically feasible.
We were supposed to run out of oil back in the mid sixties. That isn’t going to happen in the foreseeable future. We have gas, oil, coal and clathrates will keep us in hydrocarbons for probably thousands of years.
The watermelons are grifters dead set on destroying human prosperity, that is all. Dont listen to them. Their ‘ground water use is going to throw the balance of the earth off’ bullshit is just as serious as the rest of their nonsense. The only way to respond to them is with a hearty ‘fuck off’.
It’s Hollywood. Same thing with the Gekko soliloquy.
After 3 weeks of counting votes, the democrat has pulled ahead for a California house seat by 105 votes
https://x.com/Babygravy9/status/1861819004504965222?s=19
Votes that come in early are traditionally democrat heavy. And votes that come in late are democrat heavy.
This is known.
There is no reason to suspect that, knowing the number of votes needed, party activists went out and found a few thousand votes that didn’t exist as of election day.
The house should expel any member elected under such suspicious circumstances until these electoral irregularities go away.
Uncivil: see my comment below. Pols are grifters. Your concerns, morals, principles are a joke to them and you are just a sucker.
Take a white pill and we’ll reconvene next week.
Ya don’t say.
We have made a mockery of our votes. If you make remarks about how our ancestors fought and died for that right you get hand waived away by the very people that have made a mockery of it.
When I see shit like the $6.2M duct-taped banana
My art belongs to Dada.
***WILD APPLAUSE*** 👏😆
Interesting article for those in corporate America.
The Most Hated Way of Firing Someone Is More Popular Than Ever. It’s the Age of the PIP.
First, the no shit.
A PIP is…
Now the normal way in my experience.
And what I just learned.
Warty tells the amusing story of a former co-worker who was so unbelievably stupid and clueless, he actually got excited about getting a PIP. “They want to support my development!!!”
I seem to remember him mentioning that. Classic.
I had a coworker react that way once as well.
We had one assistant who was repeatedly very late. HR called her in on Friday and told her that if she was late one more time, they would have to fire her. This was her last chance.
On Monday she was 2 1/2 hours late.
It really does turn it into “people fire themselves.
She subsequently filed a racial discrimination suit.
I think Neph told us a story like that on the Zooms.
Call them into a meeting and have IT lock them out of the system while you inform them that security will be escorting them out of the building.
At a previous employer, I had to put a guy on a PIP.
We had a meeting with him, me, a manager who had volunteered to be the project manager on the project he’d try on the PIP, and HR.
When the meeting was done, everyone shook his hand. I offered my hand. He grabbed it, pulled it down to the table, and said “I’ll get even.”
HR called me later and asked how I interpreted that statement. I said it was a threat. HR said “That’s all we need” and fired him there and then.
So in that sense, the PIP was useful.
***WILD APPLAUSE*** 👏😆
,/em>
I stole it from Tom Stoppard.
Find somebody you admire in this story.
Woman’s life ruined after finding son’s father was undercover police officer, inquiry told
The poor kid?
The real hero is the one that writes the stunning and brave funding plea at the bottom:
No.
I would, but I don’t want to.
It’s Hollywood. Same thing with the Gekko soliloquy.
If that’s what I think it is, somebody (mojeaux, maybe) linked it a day or two ago. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the person who wrote that bit of dialogue heard it in his head as utterly wrong and stupid and criminal; on the level of a period piece southern sheriff ranting about the inherent inferiority of the nigras. it’s just more bullshit propaganda from Big Oil designed to murder us.
Yep, was me.
The only thing I didn’t like was that he said we’re going to run out of oil soon, which I don’t believe. We WILL run out of governments who will allow the oil companies to drill for it.
Point one: You are correct
Point two: I like to think there is a point where people wont put up with that kind of nonsense any longer. That point hopefully is before mass starvation and the kind of deprivation that destroys those governments and the societies they ‘govern’.
Last week I attended Artificial Intelligence Clean Energy Summit (AICES) in Seattle.
Attendees and speakers were in the utility industry, and while they all want eventually to go “green” or “carbon neutral” 🙄 eventually, they all agree we need fossil fuels at least for a good while longer if not forever.
One issue is that AI is going to increase demand on the grid by 30% in the next few years. All that computing hardware is power hungry!
So, sure, let’s make the fossil fuel plants as non-polluting as possible, but they will be around for a while.
(Also, where do these people think plastic comes from?)
She subsequently filed a racial discrimination suit.
Getting to work on time is acting white. Why do you want her to deny her culture and heritage?
It worked for this lady.
The only thing I didn’t like was that he said we’re going to run out of oil soon, which I don’t believe.
There were a few things I bristled at, that being a big one.
the tumultuous years of the first Trump presidency
I read something earlier which referred to the BOTCHED PANDEMIC RESPONSE dropped in Poor old Joe Biden’s lap.
It was botched. alright, but not in the way this person meant.
Math, work ethic, discipline, responsibility, objective reality, honesty, etc…all white patriarchy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpsuDb6s5MI
There is no citing when or where and no context but at the very least it is proof that he gets it.
I think I have more of a problem with the people who cant see through it than the ones pushing it.
When two assholes meet!
https://www.reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars/comments/1h2p3ih/oc_whos_the_biggest_idiot/
Given the “fuck you” I’m going to take my own sweet time backing up here with no signals move, I’m really torn. It is however an awesome performance by both.
I take it back. Momentary possible signal. Still ridiculous.
Anyone that gets worked up over a parking space is an asshole, but this one looked like assholes in unison.
Once as I was backing into a space, I had people walk behind me in a dark parking lot at night. These people then yelled at me for not seeing them.
Honestly, I think it depends on where you live and the frequency.
In crowded cities the daily fights over parking just wear on you. In areas where it happens a few times a year or holiday stuff, I’m with you Ron. Life is too short.
The traffic in my area is very, very light. I never have to wait or look for a space. When I stop at stop signs it is a technical stop as I almost never have to wait for an opening. I also have to drive 40 miles to get anything beyond the most basic necessities.
People ask me why I live in such a place.
“I see what you mean. I would rather live amongst 20 million assholes packed together like sardines where I am forced to interact with them on an hourly basis. Yep, sounds like heaven.”
When two assholes meet!
What are the odds she was trying to program her car to back itself into that spot?
It was mentioned in the comments.
Auto park on many brands is slow as hell. Possibly why Ford dropped it on many models for low use.
Perhaps I’m being a bit stoic in regards to my kidney stone. Well. Since the diagnosis eight days ago, I’ve dealt with daily worry of a ~day-long, jarring speed bump with grace and aplomb. Still 5mm and hasn’t passed yet. Apparently, this situation may not always be a big deal. (So it may be a big deal.) I read renal rocks may take 6 weeks if they’re bigger than 4mm. Bigger than 6mm may ‘take’ a year.
(Anyone else have any experience? Apparently smaller ones can be dormant for a long while, no issue.)
I haven’t had any bowel rumbling in a day-plus. Before I felt I could quasi-tell where it was. I’m been pissing free and clear, no issue, for a week. (Literally starting the same day I was told of this obstruction.) It hasn’t once barked at me. Nausea, particularly feeling like “I have to puke or take a massive shit” was the biggest symptom. That hasn’t struck in a bit.
So far, I am also quite pleased to be handling it with quiet dignity. There is the likely future where it passes through with vigor, or possibly something far worse. I’m going to call the clinic and see if I can/should schedule an appointment, which they do have. It’s by far the safest, most sane route forward. It also adds the further dignity of ignoring my inner, competitive Short Fry within me. Ain’t always easy. (See also: I’d say most of my broken bones.)
I’d rather not ‘randomly’ learn it’s passing through. Must find med shortcut.‘Tis difficult for me, but inner Nicole is there to tell Knave and Short Fry to fuck off with their nonsense. Slow and steady is far more boring and eschewing short-term pleasure for a far larger reward. (Just not as shiny.)
The shiniest toy is rarely the best one. (They can be, though. Keep your eyes open. Just don’t be a child and leap at any/every sliver of a possibility. You idiot.)
This Raiders/Chiefs game is a rather low-scoring affair so far…
3-3 with 4 minutes left in the 2nd quarter.
A less than auspicious end of the half for the Raiders.
Yep.
Momentum is definitely with the Chiefs.
Charges? We don’ need no steenkeen charges
As Democrats engage in post-election self-flagellation, and pundits point to poor messaging and an inability to quell voter concerns about inflation to explain Kamala Harris’ loss, everyone seems to be ignoring how President Joe Biden’s biggest mistake by far cost the Democrats not just the presidency, but the House and Senate too.
Inaction at the border? The Afghanistan withdrawal? Not resigning the presidency?
All enormous errors, but not his worst. No, his worst error—and the thing that will forever stain what was otherwise an admirable presidency—was his failure to arrest former President Donald Trump on Jan. 21, 2021.
That’s how you save the nation from authoritarianism.
Tech’s up 17-0 at halftime. Not able to watch it, but just looking in on the score occasionally. Surely this glitch in the Matrix will be righted shortly, but for now it’s nice to see.