Hey Friend!
Today I bring you one of my favorite nuggets from Nassim Taleb.
I discovered it in an audio podcast of the economist Russ Roberts (they have done a few podcasts together), back in 2012.
👤 Author
💡Nugget
🟠 Nassim Taleb (transcript):
Source: EconTalk w/ Russ Roberts
Most people don't understand what [a] stoic is.
They think that a stoic wants to sort of be robust—no positive nor negative emotions (complete detachment from the world). So, in other words, become a vegetable.
And that's the impression that for a long time—for about 2, 000 years—we had of the Stoics. Mostly because nobody really read them—people [just] kept commenting on comments.
But when I read the best expositors of Stoicism—the best two expositors actually—Marcus Aurelius and Seneca. And probably also, to some extent, Cicero. I realize these are not that type of people. Very different.
And now recently I saw some papers confirming my idea that what Seneca was, is about being long options [to have optionality].
He [Seneca] wanted to keep the upside and not be hurt by the downside. That's it.
Nassim illustrates this idea by explaining Seneca's attitude towards his wealth.
Seneca was the wealthiest man in the world. He had 500 desks—on which he wrote his letters talking about how good it was to be poor. And people found inconsistency, but they didn't realize what Seneca said. He was not against wealth—and he proved that a philosopher can have wealth and can be a philosopher. What he was about is dependence on wealth: he wanted the upside of wealth without its downside.
How Seneca trained himself to not be dependent on wealth...
(1) What he would do is he would fake like he's in a 🚢 shipwreck and travel like a shipwreck once in a while. And then he would go back to his 🏡 Villas and feel rich.
(2) He would write off every night, before going to bed, his entire wealth. As a mental exercise. And then he would wake up rich. So he kept the upside [of wealth].
Definition of the Stoics..
My definition is: The Stoic sage is someone who transforms…
Fear into prudence.
Pain into information.
Mistakes into initiation.
Desire into undertaking.
So it's very different from the Buddhist idea of someone who is completely separated [detached] from worldly sentiments, possessions and thrills. It was very different. It's someone who wanted the upside without downside, and Seneca proved it.
[Russ Roberts]:
And the way you get there—Seneca is suggesting—is through mental exertion. Some of it is action obviously, but some of it is:
The way you look at your life.
What you prepare yourself for.
And how you affect your expectations.
"The enemy of peace of mind is expectations drilled into you by society and other people."
- Naval Ravikant (from the book: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant)
[Nassim Taleb]:
Exactly. He [Seneca] understood the hedonic treadmill. He understood it very well, and he understood that you are in debt when you have wealth—whether you are in debt from others or from fortune, you see. And he wanted to write off that fortune. He wanted to remove his dependence on fate, on randomness. He wanted to have the last word with randomness. And he did.
“Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.”
- Marcus Aurelius
💥 Stuff I Loved
(Highlight resurfaced on Readwise)
♡ An App I’m Loving (not sponsored)
All the way back to 24th December of 2023, I learned about an app that completely changed how I pick nuggets from YouTube.
It’s called Reader, and (among other features) it lets me seemingly connect any YouTube video to it and watch it on the Reader website (and mobile app).
But… Why would I watch YouTube videos on Reader instead of YouTube?? The answer is simple:
(1) It has a more easy-to-follow transcript of the video.
(2) You can make highlights right inside the transcript! (whether in the website or the mobile app).
Then, the Reader app will create a notebook with all your highlights (from that video), and even connect automatically to Readwise (an app that aggregates highlights from Reader, Kindle, etc.).
This is how I’m building my own personal library of ideas that have resonated with me, which I can revisit at any time.
"A chief part of learning is simply knowing where you can find a thing."
- Latin Motto
(3) Another benefit is that there are no distractions! You can focus exclusively on the information of the video. This has expanded my attention span!
“I did not succeed in life by intelligence. I succeeded because I have a long attention span.”
- Charlie Munger
There is a free trial of 30 days (after that it’s 8.99$ per month), but I reached out to the team at Reader and they made a special offer for us! If you use my special link you will get a 60-day free trial (after that it’s 8.99$ per month) 👉 https://readwise.io/pickingnuggets-reader
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Wishing you a great weekend 🌈
Stoics are the true hedonists, instead of maximising pleasure by being foolish. They maximise pleasure by finding it in the pain, Free yourself from all the labels and definitions of the world, and you'll be the wealthiest person on the planet.
Most of humanity inventions are just extracting and saving pleasure from something to something. Pleasure isn't evil, the act to achieve it could be.
One thing I'll recommend to anyone practising stoicism is read less, write more.