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 ought we to despise and on what place a high value? Part II
If death finds me occupied with these matters, it is enough for me if I can lift up my hands unto God, and say,[2] “The faculties which I received from Thee to enable me to understand Thy governance and to follow it, these I have not neglected; I have not dishonored Thee as far as in me lay.
I look back on my life and see many mistakes, but none of them were made with malice and I am still working to improve.
15Behold how I have dealt with my senses, behold how I have dealt with my preconceptions. Have I ever blamed Thee? Have I been discontented with any of these things which happen, or wished it to have been otherwise? Have I at all violated my relationships with others? For that Thou didst beget me I am grateful; for what Thou hast given I am grateful also. The length of time for which I have had the use of Thy gifts is enough for me. Take them back again and assign them to what place Thou wilt, for they were all Thine, and Thou gave them me.”
I used to be more discontented with things in life that I had no control over. As my understanding has improved, so has my appreciation for what I do have and not worry about those external events. I try to use my time and not waste it, yet I spend too much time sitting on the couch. When I die, I think I will be OK with the life I have lived and while I know I will wish for more time with my wife, I am extremely lucky to have had the time we have had so far.
Is it not enough for a man to take his departure from the world in this state of mind? And what among all the kinds of life is superior to this, or more seemly than his who is so minded, and what kind of end is more fortunate?
It will be much better to accept it when it happens then being scared and causing myself and those who care about me more pain than necessary.
But that this may take place a man must accept no small troubles, and must miss no small things. You cannot wish for a consulship and at the same time wish for this; you cannot have set your heart upon having lands and this too; you cannot at the same time be solicitous for your paltry slaves and yourself too. But if you wish for any one of the things that are not your own, what is your own is lost. This is the nature of the matter: Nothing is done except for a price.
There is a difference between working for something and letting the fact you might not get it ruin your state of mind.
20And why be surprised? If you wish to be consul you must keep vigils, run around, kiss men’s hands, rot away at other men’s doors, say and do many slavish things, send presents to many persons, and guest-gifts to some people every day. And what is the outcome of it all? Twelve bundles of rods,[3] and the privilege of sitting three or four times on the tribune, and giving games in the Circus, and lunches in little baskets.[4] Or else let someone show me what there is in it beyond this.
I would never want to be a politician even though they seem to get rich rather quickly. I definitely do not have the temperament for running for office. Living to keep others happy in an attempt to ensure reelection sounds like torture to me.
For calm, then, for peace of mind, for sleeping when you are asleep, and being awake when you are awake, for fearing nothing, for being in great anxiety about nothing, are you unwilling to spend anything, to make any exertion? But if something that belongs to you be lost while you are engaged in these affairs, or be spent to no purpose, or someone else get what you ought to have got, are you going to be vexed immediately at what has happened? Will you not balance off what you are getting in return for what, how much in return for how much? Nay, do you wish to get such valuable things for nothing? And how can you? “One serious business with another.”[5]
I have almost no stress in my life at this time and I enjoy that. Part of the way I try to keep it is following Stoic teachings. When I do have problems, I can usually keep them out of my worries if they are external forces. When I get upset about things I have done and choices I have made that just means that I am not in the state of mind I strive to keep myself in.
I know this is in pretty much every week’s writeup, but every time I see it, my mind goes to the 1990’s use of the term and the contrast to the previous introduction amuses me.
I AM CALM!!!!
Eat more steak.
That’s what I’m having for lunch.
Kielbasa for dinner.
I made a really tasty adobo chicken bowl for lunch. Chicken thighs marinated in adobo sauce, lime juice, salt, pepper, cumin, and oregano, blackened on the grill and served with rice, spicy pico de gaio, and guacamole. Basically a $18 Chipotle double chicken bowl made for about six bucks.
Boiled steak for lunch yesterday at caterpillar.
It was meat and I was in the neighborhood.
Not the worst boiled steak I’ve had.
Huh. I learnt something new today.
In North Dakota, they do “pitchfork fondue”. You impale your steak on a pitchfork and lower it into a cauldron of boiling oil.
My first thought it – how clean is that pitchfork going to be?
If only used to distribute fresh hay, that would be okay, but there’s a lot of materials it might have been used on that I wouldn’t want near my food – even if washed.
We have a work location where one of the restrooms was “remodeled” to a break room. I won’t eat in there. Or take a break.
The length of time for which I have had the use of Thy gifts is enough for me. Take them back again and assign them to what place Thou wilt, for they were all Thine, and Thou gave them me.
Rush Limbaugh used to say he had “Talent on loan from God.” As do we all.
“None made with malice”
I was an asshole once when trying to do a practical joke. It wasent funny but just mean, at the time I thought it was funny. It wasent.
Beyond that it’s only the potentially dumb choices that I didn’t take the risk on and try that I regret. Nothing that I did was intentionally wrong or hurtful.
Only once?
I kid, I kid!
Yeah.
Young, dumb, trying to fit in by making a mark.
A lot of people say their only regrets are the things they didn’t do. I think this shows a couple of things:
(1) Selective amnesia on why you decided not to do it. There was a reason, maybe even a good one.
(2) The belief that doing it would have turned out optimally. Maybe, but probably not.
My regrets are often things I’ve said that led to embarassment or social awkwardness.
It’s part of why I talk so little day to day. Lesson learned.
Moral qualms and misdirected goals/finances.
Poor Implse Control and Proximity to funding strikes again. I got my longevity lump sum payment in this week’s paycheck, just in time for Prusa to announce the Improved Multi-Material Print System for the printer I own. The new one beats the pants off the Multi Material Unit I own at the moment.
So, I preordered one…
A fool and his money…
It’s not meth though.
I’m not a Methodist. I’ve always been hooked on Plastic Crack. This is just a plastic crack production line.
COME ASK ME ABOUT MY FIRST
I’ll take “Things that never happened” for $500, Alex.
Video of Bro.
How much did you cry?
Or else let someone show me what there is in it beyond this.
He’s missing what is best in life.
Conan the King is coming.
I heard. I think in this era, I’m probably better off with the books and the original movies. But who knows….
Conan will be a skinny vegan with a man bun in this new movie. Instead of a sword he will have capsaicin spray and a whistle.
I hope it dosent suck.
I’m betting Arnold’s some with the maid is in it.
Stoic truck driver.
It’ll buff out.
That’s what insurance is for.
😂🤣
They’re called Bollards.
They’re there to say “Don’t drive here.”
It dosent say Swift on it!
Sure Wish I Finished Training
Flip Flop Express
Stevie Wonder Institute For Trucking
DON’T YOU WORRY ‘BOUT A THING
Somebody was in a hurry.
Riot in 2020….get paid millions in 2026.
Protest government forcing medical procedures…still wondering why are we listening to the government?
Billy Binion
@billybinion
I didn’t like USAID. But watching people gleefully mock a woman for having to start over at ~60 is bleak. You can disagree with someone’s politics without losing basic empathy. The internet has broken a lot of brains.
https://x.com/billybinion/status/2047706807632617807
Maybe i am broken brained but i have little to no shits to give for NGO workers making a quarte mill a year on the taxpayer dime. But i am not americam so i have no skin ij the game. But these people made it their life goal to get in these jobs so yeah no empathy here
Oh, now she has to learn to do something useful and won’t get paid as much. Life isn’t fair.
Billy B must be one o’ dem bleedin heart libertarians i am all out of that
“Welcome to Walmart.”
I have no sympathy.
She’d have even less for me.
Besides, nonprofits should not be paying their staff. Nor have any operating budget. It should all be volunteer effort and supplies.
At 60? She didn’t save enough to live on for a while? Was she not using the (likely generous) 401(k) benefits at her NGO job?
She’s probably $2 Million in debt and spent like a drunken sailor every day of her life.
The NYT article is a hoot!
https://archive.ph/blKnp
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/us/politics/usaid-former-employees.html
With bonafides like that he should still be working in DC.
Because that’s what US taxpayers should be spending our money on. I can’t figure out why she has no transferable skills.
Won’t you guys think of the poor parasites?
That asshole is probably rocking an 80% VA rating.
My stupid cigar started unraveling … Wait thaat is the wrong word… unwinding… faling apart… the leaves… eah i dunno anyway … hafl way through the smoke and i have no idea why. I blame you people
22 american bucks it cost me
I have no association with the production, sale, marketing or distribution of tobacco or tobacco products.
El Titan De Bronze™ Cigar Mfg. has been established since 1995 in Little Havana, Miami, FL
It comes from you americans
Unraveling would be correct (assuming you’re talking about the outside wrapper starting to unwind).
Yes the wrapper unwinds as i smoke it
Anyhoo i do not recommend Silencio Serie M 2025 Reserva Roja Magnum
Sounds like it was too dry.
Bought it from a fairly reputable shop and i never had issues with other cigars
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ovBfsTBN5cgijJyZ7
Tastes real good otherwise
Yes, that looks dry as the desert. Needed a week or two of humidifying.
Chances are the storage method used dried up as it traveled overseas. Bummer.
Lame the Cubans.
Well waddayaknow. It’s snowing. Not much likelihood of any meaningful accumulation, but still…
I am not a rum guy bit today i tasted kuna rum davidoff and it eas pretty damn good but not worth the 200 bucks a bottle
You can disagree with someone’s politics without losing basic empathy.
“Politics”
Yeah, that’s the issue. Not parasitism and institutionalized thievery.
“I would never want to be a politician even though they seem to get rich rather quickly. I definitely do not have the temperament for running for office. Living to keep others happy in an attempt to ensure reelection sounds like torture to me.”
I’ve run as a Libertarian and know plenty of others who have also. Some have actually won (vast majority running unopposed for inconsequential positions or in non-partisan races.) Perhaps the LP has elected a thousand candidates nationwide in its history.
Penna. alone has elected hundreds of judges of election, township auditors, and the like. I suppose they all try to do libertarian things while in office. Yet I’m only aware of a few who actually sought re-election. Maybe it is because on those low level positions there really isn’t anything that one can do to change the direction of statism. And a few have tried to use their incumbency to win higher office, but I’m not aware of any who have succeeded. To my recollection, there is only one long term Libertarian activist in office: she was elected and re-elected in non-partisan races five or six times to a “Parks and Rec” type position in California before declining to run again. If I were a Massie or Paul, I’d like to think I’d take a principled position whether or not it jeopardized my re-election.