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.
What things should be exchanged for what things?
Here is a thought to keep ready at hand whenever you lose some external thing: What are you acquiring in its place? and if this be more valuable than the other, never say, “I have suffered a loss.” You have lost nothing if you get a horse for an ass, an ox for a sheep, a noble action for a small piece of money, the proper kind of peace for futile discourse, and self-respect for smutty talk. If you bear this in mind you will everywhere maintain your character as it ought to be. If not, I would have you observe that your time is being spent to no purpose, and all the pains you are now taking with yourself you are sure to spill out utterly and upset. Little is needed to ruin and upset everything, only a slight aberration from reason.
When I give up many small temporary gains in exchange for being honest, I have not lost anything. When I keep my self respect that is a worthwhile trade. I am not a perfect person, but I try to make positive decisions and be careful about my choices. I also keep in mind what improper choices truly cost.
5For the helmsman to upset his ship he does not need the same amount of preparation that he does to keep it safe; but if he heads it a little too much into the wind, he is lost; yes, even if he does nothing by his own deliberate choice, but merely falls to thinking about something else for a moment, he is lost. In life also it is very much the same; if you doze but for a moment, all that you have amassed hitherto is gone.
To live my life properly takes more work than being a dirt bag. It is not that hard for me because I decided a long time ago that if I got married I would not get divorced because of my actions. To make this happen, I was extremely careful about who I married, admittedly there is no 100% guarantee with that. Once I found the right lady I have been as good of a husband as I could be and I learned from my mistakes.
Pay attention, therefore, to your sense-impressions, and watch over them sleeplessly. For it is no small matter that you are guarding, but self-respect, and fidelity, and constancy, a state of mind undisturbed by passion, pain, fear, or confusion—in a word, freedom.
As long as I keep my actions and reactions under control, nothing will faze me. If nothing bothers me from outside of my control, then I have true freedom.
What are the things for which you are about to sell these things? Look, how valuable are they?—But, you say, I shall not get anything of that kind in return for what I am giving up.—Observe also, when you do get something in the exchange, just what it is you are getting for what you give up.[1] “I have a modest behavior, he has a tribuneship; he has a praetorship, I have self-respect. But I do not shout where it is unseemly; I shall not stand up where I ought not; for I am a free man and a friend of God,[2] so as to obey Him of my own free will.
I do not worry about what others have. I worry about being content with what I have. The things I do to get what I have are honest and not shameful. I see others that are rich but they have several marriages, I would rather have a woman I trust with my life that I have known for 35 years.
10No other thing ought I to claim, not body, or property, or office, or reputation—nothing, in short; nor does He wish me to claim them. Had He so desired He would have made them good for me. But as it is, He has not so made them; therefore I cannot transgress any of His commands.” Guard your own good in everything you do; and for the rest be content to take simply what has been given you, in so far as you can make a rational use of it. If you do not, you will have bad luck and no good luck, you will be hampered and hindered. These are the laws that have been sent you from God, these are His ordinances; it is of these you ought to become an interpreter, to these you ought to subject yourself, not the laws of Masurius and Cassius.[3]
I try to make the best use out of what I have, be that a physical item or any of my abilities. Doing this and being conscious of my blessings has given me peace of mind. I try not to squander this with small thoughts or ingratitude.
Calm.
Listening to another session of staring at application logs to see if we can find a magical indicator about why our application + our cybersecurity + our server monitoring = application seizing up.
Something has to be changed to fix it, but none of the many, many possibilies has been definitive.
I am calm… what else can I be?
Reading through logs and staring at code I have to remember to disable autocorrect in my brain.
That setting loves to revert to default.
I know I make a lot of typos, but I just don’t see them until it’s too late.
Stoicism has never been more appropriate for me than now.
I keep thinking back of all the political hacks we’ve had in my life time and yet here we are. The people persist, some better than others. Making good decisions lessens the anxiety, learn from the bad decisions.
When there’s nothing one can do to change the outcome try to smooth out the bumps in your own driveway.
The politics is just the SSDD, and endless game of monkeys playing king of the mountain. That never ends.
It’s my driveway now that requires the stoicism.
Solid State Double Density?
The format for a symbolic link creation in linux is
ln -s [target location] [name of link]
Yet I constantly want to transpose those variables.
🤔
This might have worked for continuing the mental autocorrect conversation. I don’t know why I opted to start a new thread.
No, I didn’t Brooks it. I admit mistakes like that.
Boring technical issue.
I have a five year old desktop that has (what was) a fairly large hard drive. I decided to take the free upgrade to Win11. But the install failed because the disk ran out of space. I deleted all the fluff that was unnecessary. But that was only a few GB of space. The rest is all the fucking horsehit that Win10 puts on the drive as it endlessly updates and doesn’t clean up for itself.
So, I don’t have space to upgrade to Win11. The options are basically two. 1) Buy a new, bigger hard drive; clone the OS to the new drive; and then set the new drive as the default boot drive. I know this is possible, but I don’t give a shit about PCs and I don’t want to learn the details. 2) Buy a new desktop with Win11 and then reinstall all the applications that I use. Of course, I have no idea where all the installation CDs are. I assume they’re in the office somewhere (I don’t throw shit like that out). Either way, I have to waste a bunch of fucking time on it.
Which path is least likely to blow up on me?
I would clone to a new drive and expand the partition to fill the remaining available space.
In truth, I wouldn’t go to Win11, but I’m trying to solve the question asked first. But a lot of new machines don’t have optical drives anymore, so you’d be either cracking it open to install a drive or getting a USB DVD/CD-ROM drive to run those installers. If you’re going to be dancing with drives, the “clone the boot and expand the partition” route is going to get you the results you’re looking for with less hassle since you don’t have to wrangle all the install media and keys.
But a lot of new machines don’t have optical drives anymore,
Hadn’t thought about that. Thanks for that info.
Third option. Buy and install a new hard drive, buy a Windows 11 disc, and do a clean install.
Same labor as buying a PC with Win11 installed. Either way, I need to re-install all the apps from CD.
None of them. The processes are awful regardless of route. Computers are held together with band-aids and prayers.
None of them
Yeah, that was my conclusion as well.
Hmm, from observation of the people working in the industry I’d say band aids and ritual supplications of the dark powers rather than prayers. Godless heathens most of you!
When I do major PC work, I basically assume it’s going to take at least a weekend, or longer if I need to order something I overlooked.
Stoicism is going to come in handy, because there will be issues.
I never said who the prayers were to.
This is why I worship Enkidu.
I’ve always hated Windows. But that is what we use at work. And I have the complete office suite at home, because of work. So, I use windows at home.
I do not want to spend any time learning or maintaining a different OS at home.
The usual cause is old Windows Updates taking up space, I would suggest looking for which ones you can delete off your local machine. There’s usually a lot of cruft there. You should also be able to download the upgrade to a USB drive, and run it from there.
Oh, yeah, there should be an installer cache directory that can be cleared without damage. I forget the exact path.
UCS:
There are options to do it in the Disk Cleanup tool under Windows Update Cleanup, Windows upgrade log files, and temporary files. I believe you have to click on “clean up system files” in order to view all the options.
That never actually cleans it up.
Oh, yeah, there should be an installer cache directory that can be cleared without damage. I forget the exact path.
good to know.
“clean up system files”
Doesn’t do shit. Tried many times.
kinnath:
If you’re using the tool, after you click on the clean up system files and approve the UAC, it’ll go back to the drive selection. In that second go through, there’s additional options to clear up space. You could also use TreeSize or the like to see which temp/Windows directories are loaded with old cruft as well.
thanks Neph
Go Mac.
Skip the Apple surcharge, use BSD
I didn’t take you for a hipster doofus, Threedoor.
I’ve been in the cult of Apple since 1992.
I bought a high end PC in 2002 and couldn’t figure out how to do as much as burn a CD with it.
Went back to Mac. Simple, double click, never gotten a virus. Had two hardware failures since 1992.
A computer is a tool not a foreign language and lifestyle I have to completely adopt.
Don’t turn the lights on
Another event that may have spooked some investors came during JPMorgan’s earnings day, as the CEO of the largest US bank issued both a mea culpa and a stark warning when discussing the losses his bank experienced from the downfall of Tricolor Holdings, saying it was “not our finest moment.”
The bank said Tuesday that it took a $170 million charge-off related to its wholesale lending to Tricolor.
“My antenna goes up when things like that happen,” Dimon told analysts Tuesday morning. “I shouldn’t say this, but when you see one cockroach, there’s probably more. Everyone should be forewarned on this one,” he added.
A number of analysts asked big banks this week about the risk of their exposure to non-bank financial institutions. That lending category has been the US banking industry’s fastest area for loan growth so far this year, according to Federal Reserve data.
Everything’s fine.
Kind of quiet around here. Are you all getting ready for No Kings tomorrow? I have my outfit picked out, I’m going with an “Emperor’s New Clothes” theme.
No, I’m packing up to head out from work.
Please choose a different costume.
73 and thunderstorms. You’re right.
Carry a clear umbrella and poncho.
This one has a nice name as well. https://www.grainger.com/product/269P38?gucid=N:N:PS:Paid:GGL:CSM-2295:K2UWC0:20500801:APZ_1&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21369463827&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxv61z_-rkAMVXdXCBB14XSJDEAQYAiABEgK4bvD_BwE
I’m trying to figure out the appropriate amount of layers for Sunday’s game. Current weather predictions have it in the 60s, raining, sustained gusts ~35 MPH, high gusts expecting to hit 50-60 MPH. I have a feeling that the group will no longer want to take the boat ride up the river to the stadium.
I blame you personally for Mike Tomlin being exposed yet again yesterday.
That was so hard to watch.
Brochettaward:
I was quite entertained by that. Especially by how pissed Tomlin was that the Browns traded Flacco to the Bengals. He wasn’t doing any good for us here, and getting something for him was worth it to me.
I’m planning on putting a powered subwoofer in the truck tomorrow.
Very exciting, this life I lead.
That is exciting. If is it behind the seat you can use it for back massages.
I am still behind on your movies, watched Teenage Exorcist this weekend.
That was a solid B movie.
It’s not that big, but for the interior of an extended cab, it should be perfect
My hunting partner and I will attempt to zero in some rifles that may need a little tuneup. I probably will not be out in the woods this year, first miss in the last 40 or so.
Some things are getting tougher, the cold seems to be colder, the ladder to the stand seems to be higher.
One hates to face reality and admit the truth but reality and truth don’t care.
That is true, also, got my picture, thanks for everything
The wife got her tornado shelter, it fit the space in the garage perfectly. Now I can finish putting up storage solutions in the garage, organize lawn tools and make my regular tools accessible again. Full weekend.
Oh, and Bethannica is coming over to go on a ghost hunt late tonight with me and the wife.
Nice.
Slowly getting the New WorkTruck together, it’s getting one as well. I got the amp bolted down last week. Tons of progress.
I’m contemplating replacing the shocks and struts on my new to me Tahoe. The SUV rides ok, but it has some slight bounce and instability over pot holes and expansion joints. Nothing dangerous or concerning, but it task me…. an now I’m obsessing with good enough not being enough.
No Kings will be No Big Deal. They may have found enough funds to hire some protesters in addition to geriatric commies but I am not worried. Besides, it’s gonna pour buckets of rain in DFW tomorrow.
I am going to a non-protest event because we don’t have a king. Let the people in Canada protest having a king.
A bunch of European countries are having their own No Kings protests in solidarity. Except someone on X pointed out half those countries have kings.
At least the US version can claim success.
I had the day off work, so I went up another mountain. I started late specifically to get to the top after noon because the best view is to the east and if I climb it first thing in the morning the sun plays havoc with the view.
It’s going to be sunny and 70’s tomorrow here in NoVA, so I expect many laid-off feds to be out making nuisances of themselves. I might be carrying a larger gun than usual if I’m out and about this weekend…
Don’t be scared, open carry is cool.
We’ve had this conversation before, I know. But to summarize – it’s bad tactics to let the other guy see you coming.
88 magnum?
I know, still enjoy hanging out with you.
And me the same.
I’m of course staying away from any of that protest BS. For the first time in over a month the Mrs. and I are home together on the same weekend. Tomorrow night I have my HS reunion. On the web site it said “Politics free zone” which I hope is the case. Mrs. TOK has declined to be my arm candy for the night.
My HS reunions keep getting smaller and smaller. When we meet for coffee and can get 5-6 classmates together we have a reunion. Over the years I was somehow elected without a vote to be Class Historian. Maybe ’cause I have a phone and pen and some memory left.
I’m dressing up as the Burger King, while drinking a Little King with one hand, and playing this on the boom box in the other.
https://youtu.be/9DxJ-zUtl60
Perfect
I thought “they” were gonna change the no kings title to something else.
I was quite entertained by that. Especially by how pissed Tomlin was that the Browns traded Flacco to the Bengals. He wasn’t doing any good for us here, and getting something for him was worth it to me.
What did the Brownies get? I never heard.
I bet you guys never even suspected Flacco had a power running game up his sleeve.
From memory we swapped a sixth round pick for a fifth round pick. So a little better draft position and an empty spot on our roster.
Im curious to go around the No Kangs at the Florence, KY “mall” I am sure they will reach all 50 people who go there