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.
Of freedom from fear Part IV
Seeing, therefore, that I neither fear anything of all that the tyrant is able to do with me, nor greatly desire anything of all that he is able to provide, why do I any longer admire him, why any longer stand in awe of him? Why am I afraid of his guards? Why do I rejoice if he speaks kindly to me and welcomes me, and why do I tell others how he spoke to me? He is not Socrates, is he, or Diogenes, so that his praise should be a proof of what I am?
Other people’s opinions are not important unless that person is one that I respect. If I can control my reactions and not worry about outside thoughts. I don’t care what my co-workers think of me, but I do care what my wife does.
30I have not been ambitious to imitate his character, have I? Nay, but acting as one who keeps the game going, I come to him and serve him so long as he commands me to do nothing foolish or unseemly. If, however, he says, “Go and bring Leon of Salamis,”[5] I reply, “Try to get someone else, for I am not playing any longer.” “Take him off to prison,” says the tyrant about me. “I follow, because that is part of the game.” “But your head will be taken off.” And does the tyrant’s head always stay in its place, and the heads of you who obey him? “But you will be thrown out unburied.”[6] If the corpse is I, then I shall be thrown out; but if I am something different from the corpse, speak with more discrimination, as the fact is, and do not try to terrify me. These things are terrifying to the children and the fools. But if a man who has once entered a philosopher’s lecture does not know what he himself is, he deserves to be in a state of fear, and also to flatter those whom he used to flatter before;[7] if he has not yet learned that he is not flesh, nor bones, nor sinews, but that which employs these, that which both governs the impressions of the senses and understands them.
I know who I am and what is important to me. I am still working to keep control of my reactions and doubt I will ever perfect it. Almost got angry today, as I got home the check engine light came on in my car. Used my code reader and it has a knock code. Raised the hood and there was a pile of nuts on my engine. The hood insulation was chewed and there was the beginning of a nest in there. Going to find the knock sensor this weekend, I’ll bet there are some chewed wires involved. Looked at my wife’s car and she had a smaller pile of nuts and also chewed hood insulation, but not as bad. I was able to keep from reacting negatively and just cleaned both cars. I had parked my car off to the side for a week when I was traveling and that’s probably when that happened.
Oh yes, but statements like these make men despise the laws.—Quite the contrary, what statements other than these make the men who follow them more ready to obey the laws? Law is not simply anything that is in the power of a fool. And yet see how these statements make us behave properly even toward these fools, because they teach us to claim against such persons nothing in which they can surpass us.
Stupid laws create stupid problems. I have no problem ignoring things that don’t make any sense, but have heard many people argue for things just because they are illegal or against a policy regardless of the lack of logic involved. I wish I would be more openly rebellious, but I do have to fly for work and arguing with the TSA would not serve any useful purpose.
35They teach us to give way when it comes to our paltry body, to give way when it comes to our property, to our children, parents, brothers, to retire from everything, let everything go; they except only our judgements, and it was the will of Zeus also that these should be each man’s special possession. What do you mean by speaking of lawlessness and stupidity here? Where you are superior and stronger, there I give way to you; and again, where I am superior, you retire in favor of me. For I have made these matters my concern, and you have not.
Keeping my guiding principle at the forefront helps me to avoid acting like an idiot because I let something control my reaction. When I am hungry or running on no sleep, this is harder so I try to avoid those self induced problems.
It is your concern how to live in marble halls,[8] and further, how slaves and freedmen are to serve you, how you are to wear conspicuous clothing, how to have many hunting dogs, citharoedes,[9] and tragedians. I do not lay claim to any of these, do I? You, then, have never concerned yourself with judgements, have you? Or with your own reason, have you? You do not know, do you, what are its constituent parts, how it is composed, what its arrangement is, what faculties it has, and what their nature is? Why, then, are you disturbed if someone else, the man, namely, who has concerned himself with these matters, has the advantage of you therein?—But these are the most important things that there are.—And who is there to prevent you from concerning yourself with these matters, and devoting your attention to them? And who is better provided with books, leisure, and persons to help you? 40Only begin some time to turn your mind to these matters; devote a little time, if no more, to your own governing principle; consider what this thing is which you possess, and where it has come from, the thing which utilizes everything else, submits everything else to the test, selects, and rejects. But so long as you concern yourself with externals, you will possess them in a way that no one else can match, but you will have this governing faculty in the state in which you want to have it, that is, dirty and neglected.
Is it better to be an important person or to be one that controls his reactions and has peace of mind because of this? I do not strive for importance or being in charge of anyone anymore. When I was younger and in the Marines, my first real goal was to be a section chief. This meant I was in charge of one M198 howitzer and around 13 Marines. The day I got appointed as a chief, I was excited to tell my wife, because as a Corporal, not many were selected to be section chief. When I told my wife, she immediately popped my bubble, she asked, “Do you get a pay raise for that?”, I realized that I do not and was making the same money as the useless Corporals that we had. I still enjoyed most of my time as a chief, but that question stuck with me.
Maybe your wife should have been stoic instead of money-obsessed.
I’ll set up the couch to sleep on….
My wife is not money obsessed, if that was the case, she sure married poorly(pun intended).
She was more confused as to why I was happy to get more responsibility and work thrown at me with no benefit.
I hope you got from the second paragraph that I was joking.
More seriously, I can see cases where being willing to take one for the team, as it were, might have benefits later on, such as gaining new skills.
No benefit? What do you call a 155mm towed howitzer, chopped liver?
I was happy to get more responsibility and work thrown at me with no benefit.
At the risk of TIWTANFL; I think that’s a common thing with men. We, largely, relish responsibility and being depended on. It is it’s own reward, so we’re less likely to see the downside. That’s not to say we don’t demand renumeration commensurate with what is required of us, but the mere fact of additional responsibility is, in many cases, also a reward. It’s not that there was no ‘benefit’, it’s just a benefit that is not easily categorized/counted. I can’t speak for women, maybe it’s the same?
I knew you were joking, but also hoped I didn’t give the impression she was money obsessed.
The first couple of times you fire it, it’s kind of cool, but after many field ops and doing maintenance on it, it’s not cool at all.
I remember once we did a joint field op with some reservists and they were having the time of their lives, camping in the desert.
Of course it was October, one of the 2 months out of the year that 29 Palms has nice weather.
We kept hearing “This is so cool”, “I wish I had gone active duty, this is so much fun”, and “This is what you guys do all the time, must be nice”
We hated them.
I’m not surprised Tim Walz was an asshole even then.
Funnily enough, they were from Minnesota, but Marine artillery, not Army or NG, whichever he was.
Sadly true. Almost anything, no matter how cool, can be ruined my making it into a job…
Winston’s Mom would like a word with you, ES.
Too local. Minnesoda Department of Human Services employee who caused $20k in damages by keying Teslas (that’ll show the meanie Elon) only gets a day off as punishment.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/03/keys-to-success.php
The affected Tesla owners should find him and break both his arms.
No, they should key HIM. He’ll heal, eventually.
And a $20k bill I hope.
Same as downtown?
Spend some lunch time reading the DC magazine capacity ruling. It cited a number of cased in which Bonta was a named party in his offiical capacity as AG of California.
Am I the only one who always reads his name as “Bonita” the first time?
There’s nothing bonita about Bonta.
Ron:
I did remain stoic as I spent over four hours changing the dual batteries in my Grand Cherokee, including dealing with one battery being bad (the brand new one) and having to follow a special procedure to reset the start/stop system.
I cursed once. I did not waste time fuming or in other useless pursuits.
I find that “Fuming” causes me to focus my mind on what went wrong, what might have caused it and how to address it. It might be a spiteful response “you thwarted me for now, but I’ll out-think you” but it works for me.
That doesn’t sound fun at all.
My truck has 2 batteries, but they are both in the engine bay.
It has 2 because it’s a diesel and the starter and grid heater use a lot of power.
Why would a jeep need 2?
Start/stop system.
Never buy a car with that.
To keep the voltage up for all the electronic do-dads while stop start is in use.
In other words, to save the planet.
That sounds retarded.
In other words, right on track for the consequences of government regulations.
Absolutely. And it adds at least $1,000 to new car costs.
Turning the damn thing off becomes part of the car start routine.
RJ – somehow Honda figured out how to game the system.
My wife’s MDX uses one large AGM battery. They managed to get it to pass the EPA cycles, but when less than perfectly charged stop/start won’t activate. So in practice it only operates at like 20% of the time.
For me it operate 0% of the time. I have device placed in-line with the the physical disable button on console that automatically presses the button every time the car is started.
Even if you turn it off, the super pricey extra battery eventually dies, and will take your other battery with it. And for me those were under the front seats in deep trays with very limited work room.
I am no novice, I worked at a Jiffy Lube years ago and did all the basics + emissions tests. This was completely nuts to handle. We used to not even charge labor for a battery swap. Now this would take a pro thirty minutes to do both.
I went out to get a haircut and some lunch. The local gas stations are all at $2.99 now. (Up by about 50 cents this week) I had the pessimistic thought that it might be the last time I see has under $3 this year, or maybe ever, if this war drags on. Then realized there’s nothing I can do about and stopped worrying.
Also – thanks Trump for starting the war 3 days after buying a new car for my wife that requires premium. Might have brought the hybrid Lexus if there were any available within 100 miles.
What did you get.
My wife’s MDX takes premium, but will retard timing on cheaper gas. We don’t go through enough gas to justify the cheap stuff. Also many brands have more and better detergent packages in their higher grades.
BMW X1.
She really likes the Lexus UX300 that we looked at in NJ. Just no new ones available near here.
My Saab also uses the good stuff because of the turbo.
Supposedly it will change engine parameters if you put cheap gas in and will be fine, but I don’t want to risk it.
Hope I can drive it Monday, but that price hurts.
If you crank the miles Toyota makes a really nice hybrid powertrain.
Unfortunately, not a lot of driving excitement.
The owners’ manual says 91 octane (our old 9-3 manual said 90 octane). So we could theoretically put half a tank of 89 in it if it was previously filled with 93.
We are up at least $0.60 here too.
Self-inflicted wounds
[insert anecdotal sob story]
Dealers are even starting to feel it. In an interview with Automotive News, California New Car Dealers Association President Brian Mass said the problem was becoming unmanageable.
“It’s pretty hard to put a deal together if they’re coming with several thousand dollars that they owe on their current vehicle,” he said. “Negative equity can be managed, up to a point. And at some point, if it’s too large, even the most creative dealer can’t figure out a way to help their customer get into a new car.”
I’m going to zoom in on two of those words: “creative” and “help.” I think they signify what’s propelling this issue, and why it’s so ubiquitous. I find there’s a fundamental mismatch between what customers and dealers expect when it comes to these deals. In my conversations back at Pat O’Brien Chevrolet (RIP) and with buyers today, I’ve noticed that many assume that if a dealer finance offer find them a bank that will approve the loan, they can “afford” the car. They outsource that responsibility to the dealer.
The dealer, meanwhile, likes to be “creative” and “help” consumers get financed, even if the deal is clearly ruinous to them. I had seen it happen in slow motion, as the finance manager at my dealership called a half dozen banks trying to make something work. Dealers understandably don’t consider the long-term implications on people’s finances as their responsibility; they exist to sell cars, plain and simple, and customers should know that.
If the dealer was relying on those payments arriving every month he’d be a little more careful. The whole thing is a slow motion train wreck which is accelerating rapidly.
Who could have seen this coming?
How many of the buyers are buying more car than they can afford?
Supposedly it will change engine parameters if you put cheap gas in and will be fine, but I don’t want to risk it.
As long as it has a functioning knock sensor.
Given modern engines – I think they rely on that for timing even when tuned for regular.
One thing is that you DO get better mileage with premium grades IF your car is tuned to advance the timing far enough. As a result you do offset the costs. However, if your tune won’t advance more than 87 octane you won’t get the mileage benefit.
@Sensei re: oil drain plugs from the dead thread. My accountant recently called me because his passenger side floor was soaking whenever he used the AC. I told him his evaporator drain was plugged and he had to find it and clear it out (he’s in San Antonio, I’m in Austin, so he usually only has me do the bigger stuff). He ended up finding the drain with an oil drain plug stuck in the end of it. Christian Brothers had recently done an oil change and stuck the plug in there for convenience and then ended up putting a new plug on his car and leaving the old one in his drain tube.
Spectacular!
Also props to your accountant. Finding the drain tube under the car can be a PITA.
Especially when it looked like the bolt belonged there.
I’m gonna be honest – I’m not sure I’d be able to find them. I only learned they existed some time in the past year.
At least they put a new one in.
How big is the drain hose?
I don’t think any of mine are large enough for that.
They’re a decent diameter. The usual problem is dirt daubers building a nest in them.
Automakers and dealers seem to finally be waking up to the issue. Blame it on aggressive marketing, our general culture of instant gratification, or the ever-higher average transaction prices that push normal cars out of reach for normal Americans. However you slice it, it’s becoming unsustainable. And so I’m finally starting to hear automakers and dealers talk seriously about affordability.
That’s not because they’re altruistic, clearly. It’s because Americans have been pushed as far as they can go. If you want more sales and profit, you’re not going to be able to drive those gains with 12-year loans and a constant cycle of negative equity. At some point, you have to start putting customers in cars they can afford.
Customers, too, have to adjust their expectations. It’s no coincidence that average transaction prices have climbed as American’s have increasingly opted for larger vehicles and demanded more standard features. If you say you want an affordable car, but require three rows of seats, all-wheel-drive, a cutting-edge electric drivetrain, and hands-free highway driving, you’re exactly the type of buyer that “creative” dealers prey on. If you want luxury SUV features on a Corolla budget, while carrying negative equity, an 84-month loan is the only way a dealer can “help” you.
And again I ask: Does the customer think he “needs” all that, or is the salesman telling him he does?
Local Jeep dealership keeps sending me marketing emails to put me in a new car. Most recent one was offering a 7.84% for 84 months. More insulting than a boner pill ad…
“No thanks, I’ll astral project”
“Does the customer think he “needs” all that, or is the salesman telling him he does?”
I’m sure it’s both. A lot of people want the latest and greatest for some reason, and the latest and greatest keeps getting more expensive.
I’m currently looking for a used car, there is no way I’m going new. And no way I’m picking up another car payment if I can avoid it.
Christian Brothers had recently done an oil change and stuck the plug in there for convenience and then ended up putting a new plug on his car and leaving the old one in his drain tube.
When did they decide to put a new drain plug in? After they saw the giant lake of fresh oil on the floor?
Is there anything that can’t be blamed on “climate change”? Headline:
Reese’s didn’t change its chocolate because of corporate greed. It was climate change.
You can’t just post that and run. I must have a link to read this nonsense. My guess is nobody at Reese’s was even interviewed.
You can’t interview anyone at Reese’s. Reese’s isn’t even a separate company. It’s just a brand imprint for Hershey’s.
Ergo, we did our due diligence.
/headline writer.
https://www.fooddive.com/news/hershey-reeses-ingredients-chocolate-climate-change-oped/813903/
OMG! I was right!!!
Wow, there’s a neutral party.
No bias there, no siree. Not a shred of ulterior motive.
How many of the buyers are buying more car than they can afford?
Just about all of them.
How many sellers are charging for manditory “features” the buyers don’t want?
100% of them
My guess is nobody at Reese’s was even interviewed.
They WANTED to use real chocolate, but global warming melted it all.
Wouldn’t global warming increase the range where cocoa grows?
Quiet, you.
Is she one of Amanduhhhh Marcotte’s personas? I find it hard to believe there are this many emotionally stunted tards to keep putting this shit out day after day.
Dim flicker of recognition
I have been a working journalist since 1967. In all that time, I cannot remember hearing even one newsroom conversation that began with, “Maybe the American people are right about us.”
That’s why a recent column by Gerry Baker in The Wall Street Journal caught my eye. He made a point that cuts to the heart of the issue. The most important form of bias, he argued, isn’t necessarily what gets reported — it’s what doesn’t. It is the selective outrage. It is the investigative zeal, reserved for some institutions but not for others.
Corporations? Fair game. Conservative politicians? Open season. But labor unions, bureaucracies, academic institutions — the kind of places that lean left? The scrutiny is far less intense.
And Baker adds something that should make every journalist uncomfortable: Just when America most needs a trusted press to hold power accountable, too many practitioners have squandered the public’s faith.
We need all our credibility power to run Trump out of town. Just because we have been screaming “Wolf!” at the top of our lungs since 2016 that’s no reason for people not to take us seriously this time.
If the press was Sodom and Gomorrah every one of them would be a pillar of salt.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-biggest-threat-to-journalism-journalists-cf580513?st=jR3mPv&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
When I read it, it was so obvious I felt no need to share it.
He’s not wrong.
Had the press done their fucking jobs, instead of engaging in their mission, the entire corporate news media wouldn’t be crumbling like a Nature Valley granola bar right now.
I’ve hear mention of a “crisis of trust”, which includes the press, universities, and government institutions. It’s 100% of their own making. Unfortunately the solution they came up with is, “Just shut up anyone who opposes us, and people will start trusting us again.”
The question the Reese’s backlash really asks isn’t “why did Hershey change the recipe?” It’s whether the food system can move fast enough to give companies better choices before the next ingredient fails — and the next, and the one after that.
Now do GMO-phobia.
Question on a topic which has arisen in the past:
It’s tax time. When I eventually round up my 1099s and plug some numbers into some forms, I’m going to need to print it all out. I have a sneaking suspicion my cheapo Canon inkjet printer will not comply. I have nursed it back to life in the past by buying ink cartridges more expensive than what I paid for the printer, but I fear that won’t even work this time.
My main problem has always been that I never print anything, so the ink dries up and printer no print. The last time I needed to print something I got it to run by pounding it on the desk; not a viable long term solution.
The question then becomes should I bite the bullet and but a cheapo black-only laser printer, which I have been told will eliminate the issue of failure due to disuse, or go buy the cheapest Walmart inkjet printer on the shelf (which is how I came to own the Canon), and restart the whole process.
Somewhere more than a decade ago I paid $150 for a Brother laser printer (black and white only) and it still works for my once in a blue moon prints. In the long run the desktop laser will be cheaper for you.
Details I left out – the toner never “dries up”, and a pack is good for in excess of 1500 pages, and likely costs around as much as the inkjet ink to replace.
I have had a Brother printer for many years and I hardly ever use it.
Never have issues and on the few times I had to replace the ink, it’s not ridiculously expensive.
UnCivil is correct. Desktop lasers use powdered toner and it takes years for that to get clotty, if at all. I have the same Dell color laser printer for more than 10 years. Refills cost $20 for all of it, (black and 3 colors) and it lasts about 2 years for me. I print around once a week.
Third the Brother laser. I only replaced the first one because we wanted one with a duplexer. It’s still working in my office now.
Buy the cheapo laser printer.
It’s crazy that printers just never really get any better. I had one printer I really liked when I was self-employed. It was a Tektronix solid ink printer. It used 4 colored chunks of wax that it melted instead of a cartridge. Zero waste, and the pages looked like they came out of a magazine. Unfortunately it died. It was expensive, but really, really nice.
They’ve reached a “good enough” level where the cost of innovation doesn’t look to be capable of giving a sufficient RoI to justify the work. What could you bring to the customer to get their attention to your new, and likely slightly more expensive offering (until you’ve paid down development costs)
That was an amazing printer indeed. I loved using the one we had at the company I moved to Portland (OR) in the 90s.
Also- what about “portable” laser printers? Are they complete crap?
I have no experience with them, sorry.
Mine is a massive brick I keep in the closet. It is not portable in any way.
In the long run the desktop laser will be cheaper for you.
Thanks. I seemed to recall being told that in the past. Last go-around, as usual it was a “need it NOW” situation so I ran out and bout 50 bucks worth of ink, because of course you can’t just replace the black cartridge and not the color.
I might try to get out in front of it this time.
Somebody make this work day end.
FR. I’m so done.
Amen. It’s been a day of bad news, and once again I’m limping into the weekend.
More Giardian outrage porn.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/06/ice-arrest-oregon-shop-owner
No explanation of why an illegal for 25 years was able to obtain a green card. Hint, bet it has to do with a anchor baby or relative. And other relatives also illegals and living in same area who didn’t enter at the same time, so once again more lies that illegal entry doesn’t encourages entire families to invade over time. Revoke and deport all of them.