The Rad Stoic #005

The guy finally got his act together.

Thanks to all the new subscribers that have come on board. I know I said that before to like the 4 new folks. We are up to 24 Rad Stoics now! That speaks to a couple possibilities:

1. You felt bad to say no to my face (most likely - I'll take it!)

2. You think that I'm a pretty silly guy and you might benefit from a little of that silliness in your day.

3. You like Stoicism already and since this only comes every 14 days, sure - why not!

Whatever the reason, I hope to bring some Radness and some wisdom to your Thursday here.

I will be speaking <checks watch> today(!!) at Camden Yards! No, not to the Orioles but to the best damn group of HR professionals Baltimore has to offer. This is my third time speaking at DisruptHR and this time around, I will be interweaving AI and Philosophy. In a 5-minute talk. I should be able to cover it all.

If you are not familiar or curious why I can only muster 5 minutes of content, DisruptHR brings together HR professionals and speakers for 5-minute talks covering 20 slides - the math checks out to 15-seconds per slide. This is my 3rd foray after previously delving into Contingent Workforce 101 (with a heavy dose of Seinfeld) and HR data with Stoicism. My most recent talk can be viewed on my website TheRadStoic.com. Today, it's interweaving AI, jobs, and Stoicism.

OK, enough moderately self-serving stuff. Let's get into the content.

Quote 1
Obstacles are not only to be expected but embraced.
-- Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is the Way

Quote 2
Why are we still lazy, indifferent and dull? Why do we look for excuses to avoid training and exercising our powers of reason? When you do, you made the only mistake you had the opportunity to make.
-- Epictetus, Discourses & Selected Writings

Quote 3
What matters most is not what these obstacles are but how we perceive, react to obstacles and how we keep our composure.
-- Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is the Way

Rad's Take

Epictetus in his writing does not suffer fools. As you read it, you feel like you are being slapped around by that gray-haired high school English teacher that would probably welcome some kind of moderate incident, take a retirement package, and then yell at kids to stay off his lawn. There is some "do as I say, not as I do" in his writings. I am always one to appreciate the good content as long as I can reason it out that it is good. If the source is questionable, I don't throw away the baby with the bathwater. Now, the source (Epictetus) was an enslaved person in the Roman empire. So I can't hold his orneriness against him.

But the second quote above, kicks off with him calling us lazy and dull. Thanks! But perhaps he is just calling it like it is. He looks at people not embracing the time that they have in front of them. At people complaining over their lot in life. And not actively improving the world around them. So if Epictetus got his way, we all would be energized, passionate, and exciting. I can see his point.

And really, the message is that people do not have the awareness of the present moment and the opportunity they have in front of them. And this is not relegated to when the winds are in their favor, but also when they are met with a brick wall.

Holiday's quotes unsurprisingly talk about obstacles and how they should be expected. If something is expected, we are prepared for it. If we are prepared for it, then we don't get angry and frustrated. The easiest parallel folks draw is around traffic. If you knew that someone was going to cut you off on your drive to the train station -- you knew is before you got in the car -- when it happens, you are not angered by it. You expected it, planned accordingly and brushed the person off as someone you don't really have to deal with today.

So how do we expect it when we are not prepared for it? When we don't have that precognition. Expect it anyway.

You don't know when you will be cut off or someone will lie to you or your kid will freak out in a grocery store. But there is a mental world where you can prepare for each of those things. And your response rolodex has just the page to use to navigate that situation. And chances are, "scream at the kid", "learn that lying is good" and "rear end them -- HARD" are not parts of those responses. They are most likely, "breathe", "learn that this is how that person operates" and "recognize that this won't last forever." And guess what, those 'good' responses can be used in any of those 3 situations. The Stoic solutions are all Swiss army knives. Once the framework is installed, it can be applied to the infinitely unique quagmires you find yourself in.

I could keep going but I need to memorize this speech! Wish me luck!