How to Adopt a Real Stoic Life-Philosophy

Nugget from Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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:

1. The way you look at your life.

2. What you prepare yourself for.

3. 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)

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Wishing you a great weekend 🌈

Julio xx

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