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 italicized in bold, my replies are in normal text.
To those who have set their hearts upon living in peace
Remember that it is not merely desire for office and wealth which makes men abject and subservient to others, but desire also for peace, and leisure, and travel, and scholarship. For it makes no difference what the external object be, the value you set upon it makes you subservient to another.
As long as I set my sights on an external goal I am not in control of the result. Lately I have been fighting with myself over my inability to go to the gym because my knee decided to swell up and hurt for the past month or so. It is a worthwhile goal for me to get back in shape. Getting frustrated does not change the fact I am currently the weakest and heaviest I have been in my life. I am mostly keeping this feeling under control, but it still bothers me.
What difference, then, does it make for you to set your heart on the senate, or on not becoming a senator? What difference does it make to desire office or to desire not to hold office? What difference does it make to say, “I am in a bad way, I have nothing to do, but am tied to my books as though I were a corpse,” or to say, “I am in a bad way, I have no leisure to read”? For just as salutations and office-holding are among things external and those which lie outside the province of the moral purpose, so also is a book. Or for what purpose do you wish to read? Tell me. If you turn to reading merely for entertainment, or in order to learn something, you are futile and lazy. But if you refer reading to the proper standard, what else is this but a life of serenity? However, if reading does not secure for you a life of serenity, of what good is it?
I read for many reasons: to educate myself, entertainment, and relaxation. I think all three reasons are valid, but if it didn’t help me relax and added stress it might not seem so worthwhile. this is no different than any activity that is supposed to be good for me. If it becomes an obsession that causes inner turmoil then is it really good for me?
5—Nay, it does secure me serenity, one says, and that is why I am discontented because I am deprived of it.—And what kind of serenity is this which any chance comer can impede, not merely Caesar, or a friend of Caesar, but a crow, a flutist, fever, thirty thousand other things? But no feature of serenity is so characteristic as continuity and freedom from hindrance.
Serenity is an underappreciated goal in our modern life. I have it for the most part, but with my wife being in Okinawa for another 3 weeks, I do not have as much as i usually do. I caught myself getting angry when I was putting a powered subwoofer in my truck last weekend, so I had to take a break and reset my mentality.
At this instant I am being called to do something;[1] at this instant I shall go home with the purpose of observing the due measure which I ought to maintain, acting with self-respect, with security, apart from desire and avoidance of things external; and in the second place I observe men, what they say, how they move, and this in no malignant spirit, nor in order to have something to censure or ridicule, but I look at myself the while, to see if I too am making the same mistakes.[2] “How, then, shall I cease to make mistakes?” There was a time when I too made mistakes, but now no longer, thanks be to God. . . .[3][† 1]
I definitely still make mistakes and get frustrated by the things I claim to enjoy. I strive to not make the same mistakes I always have, but I have been more stressed the last few weeks than I am used to being. I don’t seem to have enough time to do things. After work, I have to go grocery shopping, then I have to make dinner. After that I clean up the kitchen and leftovers. Suddenly it’s bed time. I don’t like being single but I try to be glad that my wife is able to help her family while her dad recovers from surgery.
You think it is over, you think you have won! But kiss my green ass, I shall see you in hell!
Seek medical treatment for that gangrene.
Why is your ass green?
Too much self firsting?
That’ll make you go blind you know?
Why is your ass green?
Perhaps he is using ‘green’ in the colloquial sense of untried or untested rather than the sense of an actual color?
Sorry for the immediate OT – but I had a much needed internet free day yesterday. Did our own TOK get into an auto accident? Sounds like he’s OK since he was posting, but banged up.
He was hit while stopped in traffic and now has a mild concussion and a totaled car.
Dealing with insurance just for property damage (no injuries) will test anyone’s stoicism.
Thanks for the info!
Yes, I am here, taking my second day off. I was on the way home from hockey practice Wednesday night at 11:30pm, on a highway. Traffic was stopped, and the other guy ran into me at high speed. Hit the back right of my car, spun it around 180, and sent me into the concrete median. I went to the ER yesterday, I have a mild concussion and the Honda symbol burned into my right hand from the air bag. I’m not sure about the other guy’s insurance or sobriety situation. I’ve been on the phone doing all the things, including contacting a lawyer. Thank you for asking!
Glad you’re OK.
I have very much mixed views on airbags. Do you think it needed to go off? And do you think your hand controls played any part in giving you a scar you can talk about at parties?
Me too, but when my wife got hit and it totaled the Corolla, she and her friend came out of it with no injuries.
I was impressed because both cars were going around 40mph.
It wasn’t head on, the other lady turned left into my wife as she went straight through a green light.
Glad your okish and will recover!
All the airbags went off. But because I spun around, I didn’t go into one face first. My glasses flew off but they were unharmed. I do remember that burning smell, and the loud noise. Probably didn’t need to go off, but still not a really bad experience. If there were other people in the car, the side airbags would have helped them. But props to Honda, the back of the car especially was really crumpled, front bumper gone, and one of the rear tires gone, but the trunk space and the passenger area were very much intact.
The burn is on my right hand, and my left is on the hand controls, so that spared me an injury on both hands.
Thanks Ron.
All that crumple is by design. It takes the energy and dissipates it into the crumpling instead of transferring it to the occupants.
Sorry the non-thread is messing with brain – TOK, not Ron.
I wish I could share pictures of the car. It was BAD. But when we got all my stuff out of it, the interior was hardly touched. Amazing engineering.
Yup – they are designed to crumple until they reach a point where they want to be as strong as possible so as not to crush the occupants.
You can thank computer simulation for that.
https://nhsjs.com/2024/finite-element-methods-application-in-vehicle-safety-design/
A mild concussion is one that happens to someone you don’t know.
Is it like being a little bit pregnant?
Lately I have been fighting with myself over my inability to go to the gym because my knee decided to swell up and hurt for the past month or so.
That’s gonna shame my ass into getting to the gym. I’ve slack off a couple of days and I have much less of an excuse than you.
I hope your knee gets better.
I’m not limping anymore, at Honey Harvest it was pretty bad and being cramped on the plane made it worse.
I think Monday I should be able to get back at it.
Hah! I’m still limping and will forever but we have to play the hand we’re dealt.
A lot of my shooting coaches say this. Usually phrased as, “Focus on the process, and let the result take care of itself.”
I was always a good shooter, but better at practice or steel ranges that we shot for fun.
On qual days I would get too worked up.
I still got low expert or high sharpshooter(which is still good), but it always bothered me that I knew I was better than that.
One of my worst memories on the pistol range:
Started from the 25 yard line and was pretty close to perfect.
Went in to grade and tape my target, had the thought enter my mind “This is the best I’ve ever shot for qual”.
Back at the 15 yard line for the next series and proceeded to overthink it and wound up right at my average score.
That was so frustrating because I knew without a doubt that it was my mental weakness that cost me.
The mental aspects of shooting are huge, even shooting for time.
I’m curious, Ron, if you’ve ever read Lanny Bassham’s With Winning in Mind? I’d love to hear your take on it if you have.
It looks interesting, but I had never heard of it before.
Yes, in a five shot group yesterday, for where in a beautiful dime sized cloverleaf, and when I noticed this, and then went for the fifth shot, opened it up to a half dollar. You start thinking about the shot, and not the process.
Jesus. Four were, not for where.
“I read for many reasons: to educate myself, entertainment, and relaxation”
Same-same here. I’d read the back of cereal boxes, the list of ingredients on a loaf of bread. The most important thing I’ve done in life is learning to read.
Now, I didn’t say understanding or comprehension but I need to read.
“I’d read the back of cereal boxes, the list of ingredients on a loaf of bread. The most important thing I’ve done in life is learning to read.”
Me too, Ill bet you read all of the manuals as well.
Learning to read is hands-down the most important skill anyone can learn. Doesn’t count innate shit like ‘walking.’
Proud reality I use in my ‘What makes me me’ short-list: In Singapore, I taught kids to read in English before they could read in their native language. I’ve never wanted to be a parent, but it was massively rewarding to share that slice of it. Without a̵n̵y̵ most of the other bullshit parents have to deal with.
Thank you, ‘civilization,’ for making it a priority in modern life. Go fuck yourself, Govt Schools, for ‘graduating’ illiterate kids and not caring after ya get the kids in for a day in the fall and one in spring so you can count the kids in your stats for more funding.
And it just gets ignored. Mom was a public teacher for ~20yrs. She can’t turn the blinders off to give a shit that govt ed is fucked. Everything else would be so much worse, is obviously her ‘answer.’ Yeesh. Uh huh. I always point out the Fed Dept Edu didn’t exist until ’80/ ’81 and how people got educated ‘just fine’ before it. Silence somehow echoes back. *shrug* People are religious about it. Don’t poke their sacraments.
This week has been an exercise in Stoicism for sure. Ron, I have thought about you and these posts a number of times. The latest is, my youngest talked to my oldest and got the story of why she left our house. Seems the oldest met a guy from Tennessee online, he’s up here now, they are engaged, and they are moving to an apartment in South Bend. She already blew money on a new iPhone. It just gets crazier and crazier.
But everything that happened this week is a bold reminder that we are not in control of these external things. Anything can happen. And all you have is yourself, your character, and how you handle things. At the end of the day, can you look yourself in the mirror? (How did I do Ron?)
Hard to keep in mind sometimes, but that is the essence of it.
The problem is things you “think” you can control, but can’t. Sometimes I think, if I just hadn’t switched lanes, I wouldn’t have been in that accident. But mostly this has been an in-your-face lesson of things that are clearly not controllable.
TOK, my daughter got married yesterday for the third time. Good thing she’s not a baseball player.
Your daughter will be fine, she’s young, broken hearts are mendable at that age.
It’s tougher on the parents because we worry too much and want our kids to be happy.
We are actually worried about someone taking her money and doing her physical harm. That doesn’t seem to be the case, at least not yet. To me it’s more a case of her needing serious help with her mental health but rejecting it. So there is a concern for her safety. But again, not in my control.
At the end of the day, can you look yourself in the mirror?
[ Pie runs from room sobbing ]
Internet,
You Won
The latest is, my youngest talked to my oldest and got the story of why she left our house. Seems the oldest met a guy from Tennessee online, he’s up here now, they are engaged, and they are moving to an apartment in South Bend. She already blew money on a new iPhone. It just gets crazier and crazier.
What could possibly go wrong?
I’m sorry.
Is that the unemployed guy?
No I think this is a different guy.
Detach, detach, detach.
You cannot help people that do not want to be helped.
You can accept that in your mind and still feel terrible in your soul as you watch someone crash and burn.
@Ev, another thing I asked ChatGPT is “Why do I hate sunshine?” It asked me questions about whether it’s emotional or physiological.
Anyway, narrowed it down to “it makes your eyes hurt, get fl-41 glasses”
I did and I am wearing them and they are lovely.
::starts to whistle “La Vie en Rose”::
Man, I never knew how wonderful rose-colored glasses were!
I hate sunshine because it makes me sweat, hurts my eyes, and burns my skin. It is too bright.
♫⋆｡♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.Sunshine on my anus makes me happy. ♫⋆｡♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.
What the *bleep* is wrong with you?
Thanks, Mo. The Vent Box does fascinate me. When I get my own unfettered time, I’ll dip a toe in and see what ripples forth.
As for the anti-sun folk, uh. Huh. The sun is glorious, but I’m a Night Owl. Not because of the sun, but because there are fewer people and fewer eyes. And of course, when more established, all the fun people come out at night to do all the fun things. Daytime is for Serious Things. The Shadow Realm is much more inviting. Oddly, far more honest.
Leaning in to it . . . .
https://www.euronews.com/business/2025/10/24/how-the-louvre-jewel-robbery-gave-a-german-ladder-firm-a-golden-lift
German lift manufacturer, Böcker, turned to social media when they spotted their ladder used in the Louvre theft. In a post, the firm said: “The Böcker Agilo transports your treasures weighing up to 400kg at 42m/min — quiet as a whisper.”
🙄
Hey, when an advertising opportunity drops into your lap, you might as well take it…
Böcker gave the thieves a lift, so the thieves gave them a boost.
That’s funny, I don’t care who you are.
But I need an expensive truck that can’t tow anything of size more than 100 miles!
Ford to End Production of Failed F-150 Lightning
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-end-production-failed-f-141523184.html
This is my shocked face: 😐
My boss is pretty happy with his, once they fixed the plug in adapter and the gear selector.
He never tows with it and mostly drives it to work and back.
I think for some purposes it makes a lot of sense.
A stripped down low model that never materialized would also make a ton of sense. An example would be local commercial services with low speeds and the ability to return back to a lot and charge overnight. My guess is they couldn’t make one at the original $40k price they claimed.
If I still lived in a decent sized city or had a defined commute, I would look for some sort of hybrid like a BMW i3. In other words, a glorified golf cart. But, living in a small town and constantly being out and about, I will stick with my Frontier.
I’ll probably with a hybrid civic or prelude as a commuter car in a couple of months. Driving a manual through traffic is killing my ankle and we go to 5 days in office next year. I’m just waiting to see how Honda prices the Prelude. If they go too high for what is essentially a civic coup, I’ll just get a civic hatchback.
Ford to End Production of Failed F-150 Lightning
Failed? It’s an engineering marvel.
Sometimes an engineering marvel makes a market for itself that no one new existed . . . see the iPhone.
Sometimes, the market yawns and turns its back on the engineering marvel . . . hello lightning; goodbye lightning.
*looks at iPhone*
*realizes that we really didn’t need it after all and it was a net negative for the widespread adoption of ‘smart’ phones*
*slaps roof*
You can fit so many government subsidies in this baby.
Don’t tell TOK’s daughter
President Donald Trump has ordered an aircraft carrier strike group to the Caribbean, a major escalation of warships in the region as the U.S. attacks alleged drug-running boats and increases pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
More gunboat diplomacy.
Ok that’s a mess. It looked like Ford was heading to the Middle East, now it’s going back West. Right now there are no carrier groups in the ME. That may or may not be part of the plan. Meanwhile Nimitz could go back to the ME, or stay near China, or even go to the US West coast and attack cartels. Or it could come home as it was scheduled.
I’ve been following these deployments of course, and this just looks dumb.
Any Stoic advice for when you just don’t feel like working? Maybe I just can’t fight the feeling anymore and I can’t remember what I was fighting for. Maybe I should crash through the door and go touch some grass outside.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpOULjyy-n8
That grass did NOT Consent!
Have you considered that it’s time to bring this ship into the shore?
And throw away the oars, forever?
Yes. Yes I have. Thank you for being a candle in the cold.
Having “fuck you” money is sweet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XamC7-Pt8N0
Fuck you, pay me? No thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4nYgfV2oJA
ABC’s breathless headline:
“At least 2 historic magnolia trees, Kennedy Garden appear to have been removed to make way for Trump’s White House ballroom”
OMG…
For it’s current run – absolutely.
Although I imagine Ford learned quite a bit. But that knowledge didn’t come cheaply. They are going likely going to need at least one BEV in their line globally.
How did that get there? It’s like a reverse Brooks!
That was Brooks below.
That used to be called a Gilmore, but I haven’t seen him an a few years.
Oh no! Not historic magnolia trees!
I think for some purposes it makes a lot of sense.
I suspect there are a lot of Ford shareholders who might disagree.
Dancing truth to power
In Washington, a poodle and a chicken danced to drum music with three dinosaurs next to the National Gallery, a short walk from the U.S. Capitol. Scott Rohrbach, a senior optical engineer at NASA, came dressed as a unicorn. It was not his first choice.
“I would have come as a frog, but I couldn’t find a frog,” said Rohrbach, disappointed that all the frog costumes were sold out.
Rohrbach said he came to protest because he fears that under President Trump, future elections may not be fair. He wore the costume to counter the Republican narrative that protesters like him are hate-filled, anti-American radicals.
“One of the things fascists can’t handle is humor,” said Rohrbach, who added that fellow protesters posed with him for selfies and kids gave him high-fives.
President Trump has said repeatedly that he is neither a fascist nor a king and dismissed the rallies.
I was waiting for the funny part.
He got one thing right, the fascists cannot handle humor. That’s why they are dressed up as unicorns with stupid signs protesting because Trump keeps posting sombrero memes.
Hank Hill could send them running for the hills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XK_wGS8z78
Image no possessions because I threw yours in the trash for being a jackass.
“ One of the things fascists can’t handle is humor,”
Self own?
And I’m supposed to feel sorry that these people are being furloughed…
No, they’re just emotionally immature, self-obsessed idiots…
At the risk of doxing myself further, I have worked with that dude (Rohrbach), fairly extensively over the course of roughly a year maybe 10 years ago.
I say that to emphasize that, despite the sheer stupidity people seem to exhibit on the political and philosophical front, they can – and often are – decent, funny people on a personal, day to day level. Smart, hard working, and dedicated even. Personally I can’t fathom how someone like that can exhibit such complete cognitive dissonance, but here we are.
Would Scott be willing to jail “the fascists”? Put them up against a wall? I don’t know. I would hope not, but one also has to be realistic about what people, even those one knows personally to be decent and hard working in other aspects of life, are capable of when they are in a certain mind set. And I’m very saddened that we seem to be stuck in a society where such questions have to be asked, rather than just leaving each other alone and enjoying each others company. And I also try to be aware that people like Scott may be saying exactly the same things about me, so I have to be very careful about where my convictions might take me, or whom they might lead me to “have to” support.
Everybody is smart about something.
Nobody is smart about everything.
People who are smart about one thing often think that they’re smart about everything. This is dumb.
Looking at you, Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
Although I have read that he’s not as smart at astrophysics as he tries to sound.
I never thought much about him one way or the other until he made that God-Awful show Cosmos that went out of its way to mock religion and conservatives.
It looked like it was going to be an interesting show, but we bailed halfway through the second episode.
He is no Carl Sagan.
Neal followed the standard commie ploy of skin-suiting someone else’s hard work so his stink would not be so visible.
Trump has claimed, without evidence, he is neither a fascist nor a king.
We all know better, don’t we?
Meanwhile in Japan, they practice gaman*.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5-jwnHd4U0
gaman = patience, determination, politeness, tolerance, perseverance
gamashite = endure it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcAr0-RA4lk
I impressed the psychiatrists at a Florida mental hospital for 2 weeks this month with my language knowledge.
I’m very saddened that we seem to be stuck in a society where such questions have to be asked, rather than just leaving each other alone and enjoying each others company.
In the greater scheme of things, I don’t care if those people dress up and have a street party, any more than if they were all down at the playground playing pick up basketball, as long as they leave me alone. As far as the “no kings” part goes, people seem to need something or somebody to oppose and feel superior to.
True and that’s my view. I’ll argue with them, call them a fucking idiot. And then go have a beer with them assuming they’re interesting, decent people (beyond being fucking idiots), and are willing to extend me the same courtesy.
The problem is the difficulty in distinguishing people who will ultimately leave you alone from those who will stand by or even actively participate in throwing you into the grinder for ideological impure.
It used to be that you could be friendly with people that had different political views.
The modern progressive mindset has rejected that. They are now righteous in their beliefs that they are correct and that people with opposing views are not just wrong, but are evil.
They aggressively shun, and even punish, anyone with a different point of view.
kinnath, sad but true.
I live in Team Blue land. The things people say here because they expect no disagreement is amazing.
Occasionally, when I’m up to it I just ask them simple questions about something fundamental they never had questioned and watch them freeze up.
Although I imagine Ford learned quite a bit. But that knowledge didn’t come cheaply. They are going likely going to need at least one BEV in their line globally.
All the automakers have their “skunkworks” labs where fringe ideas are explored. Probably every manufacturing enterprise does. The problem is the scale and scope of that particular politically motivated “experiment”.
True, but fielding and repairing gives you data you only learn the hard way.
Part of the reason various “features” debut on low volume luxury variants.
It was win win for Ford. Either ev’s are the future and they got taxpayers to pay for their r and d, or maybe they aren’t and if the ev pursuit bankrupts the company then the taxpayers bail them out. Socialized the losses privatized the profits.
True, but fielding and repairing gives you data you only learn the hard way.
Like the GM EV1. They only leased them so they could bring them all back for post mortem analysis.
Oh no! Not historic magnolia trees!
Andrew Jackson pissed on those trees.
They are now righteous in their beliefs that they are correct and that people with opposing views are not just wrong, but are evil.
I remember them. The “Dissent is not treason” tribe.