Holiday: Ancient Stoicism was repetitive practice for crisis, not abstract theory
“We tend to think of philosophy as, like, theoretical and abstract and very high-minded, but for the ancients, it was this kind of thing that you practiced and you went over, over, and over again so that, like, in big moments, like, when you have a big life dec…”
Holiday: Productivity content serves as an entry funnel for philosophical ideas
“When I make one that's like 10 stoic strategies for, you know, owning the day, that's going to reach more people and that You can't talk to them about the social justice side of things until they've heard of it first.”
George Mack: Stoic Negative Visualization Holds a Billion-Dollar Product Idea
“So I think negative visualization is a tool from stoicism, but I think there's probably a billion dollar idea in.”
Ryan Holiday: Dissecting past blame distracts from choosing immediate action
“How I got here is separate and independent from the fact that I currently am here. I might need to, at some point, examine those causes so I can learn from it, but my impulse to dissect And blame and question what has happened is actually just a really conveni…”
Holiday: Journaling is to Stoicism what meditation is to Buddhism
“Journaling is to stoicism as meditation is to Buddhism. It is the practice of having a conversation with yourself about your thoughts, and beliefs, and values, and actions”
Holiday: Stoicism teaches processing emotions rather than suppressing them
“And so I think, to me, Stoicism is a set of exercises and insights and practices to help you understand those emotions, process those emotions, and not be ruled by those emotions.”
Holiday: Stoic joy is resilient flourishing amidst adversity, not superficial cheerfulness
“And I think when the Stokes thought about joy and happiness, they were thinking about a more resilient form of that emotion, not Fun smiling, cheerfulness, happiness, but like a happiness of a person who is surviving the blows of fate and flourishing as a huma…”
Holiday: Stoicism centers on responding to uncontrollable events with four virtues
“Stoicism is built actually around the same cardinal virtues as Christianity, courage, self-discipline, justice, and wisdom. And the idea was that we don't control what happens to us in life, but We can always respond to what happens to us in life with those vi…”
Holiday: Stoics engage in public life by default unlike Epicureans
“The distinction in the ancient world, the two rival schools are Epicureanism and Stoicism. And Seneca, one of the great Stoics, is saying, like, an Epicurean will get involved in public life if they have to. And he says, a Stoic gets involved in public life un…”
Wolfe: Mindfulness harms societal progress, which requires bitter, driven people
“Society benefits from everybody being plagued by these kinds of things, because it leads to human progress and, you know, woe to the
Bay Area, you know adherent to mindfulness and meditation, you know, to find calm and peace.
Like we don't get peace from pro…”
Holiday: Wisdom governs how and when to apply all other virtues
“Wisdom is not just the pursuit of knowledge and understanding. But particularly the almost intuitive sense of, like, how much courage is required, how much temperance is required, right? What is the right thing? So wisdom, the final virtue is the virtue that k…”
Sherman: Stoic philosophy centers on interconnectedness and cosmopolitanism, not isolated grit
“In fact, a very prominent theme in stoicism is that we are coordinated, we're connected, and we live in a cosmos that's makes us cosmopolitan citizens of the universe, a global world.”
Sherman: Passive Stoic acquiescence is pernicious rather than virtuous
“I am not the kind of stoic that says accept and acquiesce by any means. I think that's pernicious. I'm very much about exerting my agency and will to change the world as much as I can, but when it comes to those that are near and dear to me and have their own …”
Sherman: Finding self-compassion requires adopting an external loved one's perspective
“The stoic lesson here is that he's got to take on the perspective of someone else to become his own friend, to find self-compassion.”
Irvine: Stoicism and Zen Buddhism share identical goals despite opposite methods
“First surprise was they are headed at approximately the same grand goal in living. And that is a life that's full of to the extent possible of positive emotions like delight and even joy and relatively without negative emotions like anger and anxiety. And regr…”
Irvine: Stoicism books for general audiences appear over once per day
“And at present, there are books on Stoicism Written for general audiences coming out at the rate of more than one per day.”
Irvine: Stoicism is popular because its practical techniques are easily hacked
“I can give you the reason why stoicism is popular, and that is because it's very hackable. And I hate the word hackable, but it's hackable. It gives you specific psychological techniques that you can use to change the way you're living your life. There's a han…”
Irvine: Negative visualization should be a brief flickering thought, not dwelling
“So it's a flickering thought that you have, and you can fill in some detail on that flickering thought. So imagine that you've lost your job. Then you allow yourself to kind of think about that for a sec, fill in some of the details, and then snap out of it an…”
Irvine: Teenage years are prime time to develop Stoic coping strategies
“Your teen years are just a prime time for you to develop stoicism, because that's when you really have to deal with your fellow human beings up close. You can't get away with them. You're stuck with them. You encounter them every day, and then you can have sto…”
Puri: Stoicism is the result of calming the mind, not the method
“Stoicism is almost a state you get to after you learn how to calm the mind. It's not the method you use.”
Drori uses stoic worst-case analysis to handle startup crises
“And for me, the thing that I always go back to is stoicism or stoic philosophy. And I always ask myself, what's the absolute worst thing that can happen? So, you know, in that moment I said, okay, well, worst case scenario, people don't get charged. It's one w…”