Letters From A Stoic

A little while ago, I read Letters from a Stoic by Seneca (translated and edited by Robin Campbell). I got a lot out of reading Letters and wanted to encourage others to read it and thought that sharing some of the key ideas from the book might convince them to do so.

Just a head’s up: this blog is a long read. I thought about breaking it up into smaller pieces but a lot of Seneca’s ideas are quite interlinked and there are connections between the sections so I decided to keep everything together. With that said, you can skip ahead to sections that you think are more relevant and interesting to you and it will still make sense.

As I went about writing this blog, I found myself engaging in more self-reflection than I had anticipated. The process of writing forced me to clarify my thoughts on a lot of topics and instead of a general summary, I found that the content got more personal as I started to scrutinize my own experiences more closely. What did I see needed changing in my life? Which memories did certain quotes jolt in my mind? Why did certain sections hit me harder than others? This post definitely morphed more into a guide for me more than anyone else but I still think that others will find this useful.

However, I do proffer the following disclaimer, that Campbell wrote in the preface to his translation:

Books, and Dishes have this Common Fate; there was never any One, of Either of them, that pleas’d All Palates.

I made this Composition Principally for my Self, so it agrees exceedingly Well with My Constitution; and yet, if any Man has a Mind to take part with me, he has Free Leave, and Welcome. But, let him Carry this Consideration along with him, that He’s a very Unmannerly Guest, that presses upon another Bodies Table, and then Quarrels with his Dinner.

On what to expect from Letters…

This was my first time reading a text associated with Stoicism. I had heard a little about this philosophy from different sources (for example Tim Ferris and Farnam Street), many of which referenced Letters. The following was written by Campbell in the introduction to Letters and I think it captures the essence of Stoicism quite well:

We are meant to set free or perfect this rational element, this particle of the universal reason, the ‘divine spark’ in our human make-up, so that it may campaign against and conquer pain, grief, superstition and the fear of death. It will show us that ‘there’s nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so’, discipline the pleasures and the passions, and generally subordinate the body and emotions to the mind and soul.

This, the summum bonum or ‘supreme ideal’, is usually summarized in ancient philosophy as a combination of four qualities: wisdom (or moral insight), courage, self-control and justice (or upright dealing). It enables a man to be ‘self-sufficient’, immune to suffering, superior to the wounds and upsets of life (often personalized as Fortuna, the goddess of fortune).

So that’s Stoicism in a nutshell. I’ll also add that Seneca has a very no-nonsense approach both in terms of how he delivers his advice and with regards to what he thinks philosophy should be. Here’s the kind of philosophy he doesn’t like:

‘Mouse is a syllable, and a mouse nibbles cheese; therefore, a syllable nibbles cheese.’ Suppose for the moment I can’t detect the fallacy in that. What danger am I placed in by such lack of insight? What serious consequences are there in it for me? What I have to fear, no doubt, is the possibility, one of these days, of my catching a syllable in a mousetrap or even having my cheese eaten up by a book if I’m not careful. Unless perhaps the following train of logic is a more acute one: ‘Mouse is a syllable, and a syllable does not nibble cheese; therefore, a mouse does not nibble cheese.’ What childish fatuities these are! Is this what we philosophers acquire wrinkles in our brows for? Is this what we let our beards grow long for? Is this what we teach with faces grave and pale?

And this is what he prefers instead:

My advice is really this: what we hear the philosophers saying and what we find in their writings should be applied in our pursuit of the happy life. We should hunt out the helpful pieces of teaching, and the spirited and noble-minded sayings which are capable of immediate practical application – not far-fetched or archaic expressions or extravagant metaphors and figures of speech – and learn them so well that words become works.

So even before you progress further into this blog or before reading Letters for yourself, I think you have an idea of the kind of person Seneca is and what you can expect from his writings. Given the attitude he has towards philosophy, you’ll be sure to gain a lot of practical advice from what he has to say.

On facing life and its troubles…

Let’s start with a quote that I find provides strong motivation for why it’s useful to have Stoic practices:

One has to accept life on the same terms as the public baths, or crowds, or travel. Things will get thrown at you and things will hit you. Life’s no soft affair. It’s a long road you’ve started on: you can’t but expect to have slips and knocks and falls, and get tired, and openly wish – a lie – for death.

Life’s no soft affair. What an understatement!

Given that life is difficult, it would be useful to know how to deal with it. So what does Seneca have to say? A lot of Seneca’s advice is about the attitudes that one should and shouldn’t take towards situations as opposed to specific tips for specific situations. However, I find that if I know the attitudes I want to adopt, I can better choose courses of action that reinforce those attitudes. Sometimes even if there isn’t any concrete action to take, I find it useful to keep his advice in mind and it makes it easier to face situations. Focusing on trying to adopt these attitudes gives me an alternative path versus giving in to the emotions in the heat of the moment which is often counter-productive.

Before we dive into the advice and attitudes Seneca has to offer, let’s first examine his view towards troubles. One of the ideas that Seneca repeatedly highlights is the commonality of troubles. Here are a few lines where he explicitly expands on this idea:

Let’s not be taken aback by any of the things we’re born to, things no one need complain at for the simple reason that they’re the same for everybody.

The fairness of a law does not consist in its effect being actually felt by all alike, but in its having been laid down for all alike. Let’s get this sense of justice firmly into our heads and pay up without grumbling the taxes arising from our mortal state.

So let us receive our orders readily and cheerfully, and not desert the ranks along the march - the march of this glorious fabric of creation in which everything we shall suffer is a strand.

I agree with Seneca’s point that a lot of things are not worth complaining about as they’re experienced by all. I myself have never been much for complaining. This wasn’t really some moral choice but more a factor of my upbringing. The first few years of my life were spent growing up in Malaysia where everyone’s working too hard and long to complain. Then I moved to Australia where you might have a whinge sometimes but people don’t seriously complain about much because they don’t take much seriously¹.

I know there’s some value in complaining: it helps relieve some stress and can validate some of the feelings you’re experiencing. Nevertheless, excessive complaining is definitely something to be avoided, especially about things that everyone has to experience. I definitely don’t always follow this advice and I don’t know that I’ll ever receive my lot ‘cheerfully’. But I’m definitely going to keep Seneca’s advice in mind the next time I’m tempted to wallow in self-pity. We’re all in the same boat, buffeted by the same storms. The universe bears no grudge and our experience is just another strand in the fabric of creation.

So, what are some of these common issues that Seneca thinks we have to deal with?

Grief and vengeful Care have set their couch, And pallid Sickness dwells, and drear Old Age

This is the company in which you must live out your days. Escape them you cannot, scorn them you can. And scorn them you will if by constant reflection you have anticipated future happenings. Everyone faces up more bravely to a thing for which he has long prepared himself, sufferings, even; being withstood if they have been trained for in advance. Those who are unprepared, on the other hand, are panic-stricken by the most insignificant happenings. And since it is invariable unfamiliarity that makes a thing more formidable than it really is, this habit of continual reflection will ensure that no form of adversity finds you a complete beginner.

Issues like grief and sickness are probably a little more heavy handed than what most of us deal with on a day to day basis (I hope)! However, given that these will probably happen to us at some point, advice on dealing with them will definitely come in handy. Also, some of the steps we take to deal with these big issues will probably also help us in dealing with smaller ones.

Seneca’s advice on handling these issues is simple and applicable to both big and small woes: anticipate them and try to have a plan for them. I can definitely attest that I am most taken aback when I am faced with a difficulty that I did not foresee at all. I have found that if I expect that things may go wrong, even when I am not sure how exactly I will deal with it, this softens the blow a great deal. I don’t think Seneca is advocating for one to be pessimistic but it is important to prepare to face difficulties beforehand. Then when they hit, you can spend more time getting through them instead of being buffeted by them with no solution in sight.

So having a plan is a solid course of action but there’s one more thing that we can do to help ourselves: reducing the number of issues we have to deal with! While I’m not sure it was Seneca’s original intention, I think the following quote provides an excellent way to do just that:

So do not go out of your way to make your troubles any more tiresome than they are and burden yourself with fretting.

Having lived in Australia for quite awhile, I think that the culture there is quite good at practicing this. People often think that Australians are laid back but really it’s about taking things as seriously as they need to be and no more than that. I’m glad that I’ve had the opportunity to grow up with that. There’s another quote from a different source that I think also captures this advice quite well:

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?²

Ask yourself when you’re worrying: can this spur me to do something to remove the source of the worry? If so, great! Act on it! If not, then let it be. Save your energy for the situations you can resolve and the good experiences you can enjoy.

And while we’re talking about reducing the number of sources of worry, Seneca highlights two other sources of worry that are worth eliminating:

There are two things, then, the recollecting of trouble in the past as well as the fear of troubles to come, that I have to root out: the first is no longer of any concern to me and the second has yet to be so.

A lot of Seneca’s advice comes from a place of someone who has clearly sorted things out. In this instance however, it’s clear that he’s still trying to figure out how to stop recollecting past troubles and fearing future troubles. The logic of what he says seems straightforward but we all struggle with this. Why? I think it’s because both the recollection of the past and anticipation of the future stem from behaviours that could help us: we look to the past in the hopes of learning from mistakes and we think of the future to plan for what is to come. While these actions in and of themselves are good, they can easily snowball into something much more. In both instances, it’s very easy to become overwhelmed and start to worry. When this happens enough, perhaps it becomes the default. Keep Seneca’s advice in mind when you catch yourself worrying about the past or the future. Learn from the past and prepare for the future but don’t let either activity overwhelm you with worry.

On some bonus advice…

Aside from providing useful advice for dealing with the worries of life, Seneca also talks about other aspects. For starters, here’s something he has to say on enjoying the good aspects of life:

Preserve a sense of proportion in your attitude to everything that pleases you, and make the most of them while they are at their best.

While it makes sense to control your attitude towards events that upset you or illicit some other negative emotions, I find it interesting that Seneca also encourages tempering positive attitudes. However, it makes sense when we consider something that Seneca mentions repeatedly through Letters: that fortune is fickle. You never know when something good might end and you don’t want to get too attached to it, or dependent on it. Enjoy what pleases you but not to an excessive degree

Reading about moderating feelings, both positive and negative, reminded me of something I had previously come across in Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments ³ (TMS). When discussing feelings, Smith notes that there are two aspects to what we feel and we need to be mindful of both of them: the type of feeling and the degree to which you exhibit it. I think most people can easily recognize the importance of the first aspect, you don’t want to be exhibiting happiness when you should be sad, or anger when you should be joyful. However, even if you’re in the right ballpark of feelings, you have to watch out for the degree to which you experience the feeling and express it. In TMS, Smith’s argument was with respect to how others might perceive you if the degree of your feeling was too intense, even if the essence of the feeling was correct. You might alienate others if you go overboard with your expressions of feelings.

Both these philosophers bring something interesting to the discussion of feelings. Smith’s advice is relevant with regards to how others might perceive you while Seneca’s points are about the costs you can avoid to yourself when you temper your feelings.

One source of unwanted feelings can be from how we react to what people say. Seneca offers some useful advice for dealing with this:

What could be more foolish than a man’s being afraid of people’s words? My friend Demetrius has a nice way of putting things when he says, as he commonly does, that to him the utterances of the unenlightened are as noises emanating from the belly. ‘What difference does it make to me,’ he asks, ‘whether their rumblings come from their upper or their nether regions?’

Now, I’ve pulled this quote out of the context in which Seneca mentions it because I disagree with its original intention but believe it does have wider application. I’ll digress a little to discuss the original context before coming back around to the general application. The words Seneca is referring to here are what people say with regards to death. Seneca has a very nonchalant attitude towards death:

What is death? Either a transition or an end. I am not afraid of coming to an end, this being the same as never having begun, nor of transition, for I shall never be in confinement quite so cramped anywhere else as I am here.

Now, I don’t know about you but I don’t want to end. I know I may not realize when I have ended and I’m not afraid of what lies on the other side. But things are changing so rapidly these days, including the pace of change. I want to see where things go, experience more, accomplish more! So I view death as something to fight against, not to take lying down. The death of someone close to me would be upsetting because I have come to enjoy their presence. Seneca would probably advise me to not enjoy their presence to the point of incapacitation by their absence. But I think it’s fine to want to avoid their death to the point where I take actions to prevent it where possible. So that’s why I don’t agree that death is something to just accept. With all that being said, I can definitely relate to Seneca’s comment about being cramped. This body (which I prefer calling a meat-sack) is so confining! I think that’s another reason I’d like to stick around for as long as possible: the longer I’m around, the higher the chance I might be able to escape the meat-sack.

So that’s the gist of my disagreement with Seneca’s view towards death. But let’s consider Seneca’s attitude towards those who fear death and why we shouldn’t let their words faze us. He thinks it’s foolish to be afraid of death or view it as something evil just because a lot of people have this attitude. Specifically, he highlights that anyone who comments on death hasn’t actually experienced it for themselves:

Until one does it’s rather rash to condemn a thing one knows nothing about.

So the key idea here is that we shouldn’t let what others say bother us, especially when they’re talking about an experience that they themselves have not gone through. I think that this is common sense that most of us try to adopt anyway. However, the way Demetrius phrased it so humorously really caught my attention and is especially memorable for me. Sometimes I find that I can be told the same thing 10 different ways and one of them will hit me in just the right way so that it sticks. So I hope that if the adage of not letting what others say bother you has not yet stuck with you yet, it does now. People are just making sounds. Sometimes there’s no reason to pay more attention to the sounds coming out of their mouths versus the sounds coming out of their stomach (although ‘nether regions’ could also be referring to something else)!

Now, let’s take a break from the heavier stuff and consider a much lighter topic: clothes!

A man who examines the saddle and bridle and not the animal itself when he is out to buy a horse is a fool; similarly, only an absolute fool values a man according to his clothes, or according to his social position, which after all is only something that we wear like clothing.

I know it might seem odd to be talking about clothes but I’ve spent a lot of time (probably too much) thinking about this. I’m lucky enough to work for a company that lets me wear what I want but I do see a lot of people who dress very formally work. This contrast has made me think about what we wear and what we try to accomplish by it. For example, I’m not a big fan of suits and I’m also slightly wary of those who wear them. Apparently I’ve made this clear enough that one of my colleagues joked about wearing a suit to the office just to mess with me. When they said that to me, it made me think a little bit harder about why I hold these opinions (and also that perhaps I should be a little more reserved about the degree and frequency of expressing them!). Seeing this quote from Seneca helped clarify my thoughts some. I don’t like suits because I think that they are often used as a substitute. One can appear professional and good instead of being professional and good.

What’s worse than this facade is thinking lowly of someone because their dress code doesn’t live up to some standards. Mind you, I’m not advocating for having no standards whatsoever. I think that if someone is dressing with dirty clothes simply because they’re too lazy to do their laundry and the smell of this is bothersome to those they have to work with, it’s fine to call them out. But is there really a big difference between someone wearing a t-shirt and a pair of shorts versus someone wearing a 3 piece suit? That aside, I also don’t like suits, and the more general class of restrictive clothing because they get in the way of my job. It’s much easier to sit around programming all day when I’m dressed comfortably. If your job involves talking to lots of people and wearing a suit empowers you to do that, go for it. I hope that you’re able to wear what you want and that you hope similarly for others too.

What about the second part of Seneca’s quote? Judgment based on social position? I’ll assume that social position here refers to level of wealth. While it could also refer to other aspects, for example perhaps at the time of writing, people working within religious orders or politicians were viewed as having high social standing, I’ll focus on wealth because that seems to be a constant whereas those other labels probably don’t command the same level of respect as they used to. While there is no reason to value someone simply because of their wealth, I think we often value these people because we assume they worked hard to get to such a stage. This may not always be the case as many are simply born into it. They just got lucky. In the same way, those of poorer social standing might have just got unlucky. So getting back to what Seneca said, we can definitely see how it makes sense not to value someone just because of their social standing.

On friends and company…

The company you keep has a huge influence on you. Here’s what Seneca has to say on the company one keeps:

Think for a long time whether or not you should admit a given person to your friendship. But when you have decided to do so, welcome him heart and soul, and speak as unreservedly with him as you would with yourself.

As an introvert, I don’t really have the capacity to maintain too many close relationships. So I do carefully consider who I am friends with. However, the second piece of advice Seneca mentions here struck a nerve. I think that because I don’t have many friends, I am often very guarded around the ones I do have because I am afraid of upsetting them. But when I am fully open and honest with them, I am surprised by how welcoming they are and how much valuable advice and insight they have to offer. A close friend of mine told me about how he considers his friends as mirrors of his own self. I think that that’s definitely a good way to look at your friends. When you show yourself truly to them, they can often reflect back to you who you really are, sometimes better than you might know yourself.

Even if you do have the capacity to have many close relationships, be very careful about whom you choose. You are the company you keep. Consider something Seneca says:

There are things that we shouldn’t wish to imitate if they were done by only a few, but when a lot of people have started doing them we follow along, as though a practice became more respectable by becoming more common. Once they have become general, mistaken ways acquire in our minds the status of correct ones.

While a behaviour practiced by just a few people might be something I don’t imitate, I think I’m far more likely to pick up said behaviour if the few people in questions were my friends. So I try to keep good company because I know I will end up becoming more like them.

And speaking of emulating behaviour:

We need to set our affections on some good man and keep him constantly before our eyes, so that we may live as if he were watching us and do everything as if he saw what we were doing.

I think that this is useful advice but in a somewhat limited setting. Forming ideals and finding yourself is a long, perhaps never-ending process. But as time passes, I think that more of you solidifies and you can determine what to do based on your own moral compass. However, in the interim, if you’re not sure what to do, I think Seneca’s advice is quite useful. It’s also useful advice if you know what you want to do but that action would not be something that this imaginary person would approve of. In those sorts of circumstances, it might be good to pause and examine why there is a discrepancy. This is yet another reason to keep good company. I think many of us would likely try to imagine what our peers would think of our actions so having good peers will lead to better actions.

Seneca’s advice here reminded me of a related concept I had come across in Smith’s TMS: the ‘impartial spectator’. You could imagine yourself being watched by an impartial third party who would judge your actions (for example, the type of feelings and degree to which you express as we covered earlier). In a way, this is a generalization of what Seneca is talking about and I would go as far as saying that Seneca would likely approve. For with the impartial spectator, it’s not just about carrying out good actions. It’s also about making sure that all your actions are moderated and you do not get carried away with anything, be it in times of enjoyment or times of sorrow. The impartial spectator looks on and if they can relate with your actions, then you know you’re on the ‘right’ track. So the next time you’re expressing yourself and you’re not sure if you’re on the right track or if you’re overdoing it, ask yourself: what would the impartial spectator think?

When it comes to moderating actions, Seneca had a very charming way of telling us to watch how much we say to others:

But nothing will help quite so much as just keeping quiet, talking with other people as little as possible, with yourself as much as possible. For conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insinuating and insidious something that elicits secrets from us just like love or liquor.

This quote struck me and although I’ve reread it many times, I can’t tell if it did because the advice provided is very useful or because the sentence itself is so eloquent. And I think part of the draw of this quote is that I don’t fully agree with it and I’ve had to think quite a bit about what the issue is. I think we can consider the phrase ‘talking with yourself’ a kind of self reflection which is definitely very important and it’s definitely something I need to do more of. However, when it comes to talking to others, I’ve generally practiced it ‘as little as possible’ and I think I’m starting to see some of the downsides to that. One of these that I’ve been personally experiencing is that I sometimes struggle to communicate ideas to others. In a work setting, this inability to communicate well can be quite detrimental. The merit of an idea can only be judged after successfully delivering the idea. This struggle to communicate is also very revealing: it indicates that I don’t understand the idea as well as I thought I did. So communicating with others has two boons: you improve at getting your ideas across and you unveil gaps in your understanding.

Next, I think that talking to others is a good way to develop empathy. It’s possible to learn about others via other means, say through their actions, what they post, etc. But all these help me know about someone instead of knowing them. I better connect to people by talking to them. Yes, the kind of conversations required to bond deeply with someone may ‘elicit secrets from us just like love or liquor’ but if you choose your friends right, this is not so much a price to be paid as a fair exchange to be made.

Finally, I think talking to others helps keep you open-minded. In this day and age, it’s very easy to get stuck in your own little bubble. While this can happen within your social groups when you talk and interact with them, the effects are definitely compounded online. I’ve met a few people in my life where it was clear that they had kept to themselves a little too much. They would hold odd beliefs and I think that this was partly because they hadn’t talked to anyone and had any of those beliefs challenged. I’m not advocating that you try and talk with everyone and dive deep in all your conversations. But try to have a mix of self reflection and conversations with others throughout your life.

We’ve talked a bit about the company of others, let’s see what Seneca has to say about being your own company:

Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.

This is something I struggle with a lot. I don’t have to be constantly engaging with others but I do always feel like I need to be doing something. I know that what Seneca says is a loaded statement but having dwelt on this quote for some time, I think I’ve addressed two immediate issues:

1. I always feel like I need to be productive.
2. I don’t like to be alone with my thoughts.

I think the first feeling is part of having a driven nature. It’s a healthy feeling in moderation but it can quickly grow and overwhelm. A lot of material I’ve learned from recently have suggested that it’s important to have downtime because it’s often during this time that the brain makes big leaps and bounds in connecting information. Indeed, I’ve found that when I a break from a task, that’s often when the solution to a problem I was mulling occurs to me! Seneca also has a little to mention about this but I’ll talk about it in one of the latter sections, along some other advice he had on the topic of learning.

With regards to the second point, I probably have some issues I should work through. My mind often drifts to what I would like to do and then to what I have yet to do. Once I start thinking of what I haven’t done yet and what I’ve been doing instead, it’s easy to start thinking that I’ve been wasting time. It’s a bit of a spiral and it’s a thought process that doesn’t really have any positive outcomes so I try to avoid it. Hopefully one day I can fix the root causes that cause these thought processes. But until then, advice like this from Seneca will itch at me. Speaking of, here is another statement he made that really got to me:

What progress have I made? I am beginning to be my own friend.

In all that Seneca had to mention with regards to companionship, this one got under my skin the most. In its original context, he used it almost as a throwaway quote. At the end of a letter, he wanted to give Lucius a quote to think about and he pulled this from Hecato⁴. The only immediate clarification he adds is that he sees becoming your own friend as progress because then you will never be alone and you are a friend to all.

I think part of my irritation is the vagueness of this quote but also the niggling feeling that there is quite a bit of truth to it, and the realization that I should be a better friend to myself. But that’s a really difficult task! Being hard on my present self could give me future dividends but at what point do I become a bad present friend? Even as I write this, I can feel the tension between being a good friend to myself in the present vs in the future. While I think there might be some balance that can be struck, I have not found it yet.

That aside, I had never considered being my own friend a priority. Having read this, I can see the advantages of this approach. But something about adopting this type of mindset where I’m looking for the advantages of being my own friend makes me think that I’m still missing the point. I’m looking at this as a way to improve myself but I think that Seneca viewed this process not just as a means to an end but something worthwhile in and off itself. This will definitely be itching away at me for a long time to come and if you’re anything like me, it’ll probably do the same for you. In any case, please try to be a good friend to yourself.

On learning…

Seneca also has some useful advice on the process of learning. Let’s start of by considering something difficult that I’m sure we all struggle with: striking the right balance between learning and relaxing.

The mind has to be given some time off, but in such a way that it may be refreshed, not relaxed till it goes to pieces.

How do you find this balance? I generally only realize when I’m at either extreme: too relaxed or too wound up. I try and identify improvements to make when I’ve reached those stages to better gauge when I’m approaching them the next time around.

There is something else related to relaxing your mind that I think is worth mentioning: multi-tasking. I used to try and multi-task as much as possible, pushing my mind as much as I could. I would cook while listening to food podcasts, thinking them complementary. But then I would struggle to balance between paying attention to the food and the improvement of it and the conversation of the podcast. Or if I was sitting through a video conference call and the conversation started to become irrelevant, I would try and click through other tabs to complete small tasks (catching up on email, reading some material). Generally, I would zone back in just after the conversation became relevant, but feeling like I might have missed some vital piece of information. This type of multi-tasking is just me doing multiple things poorly. So I’ve tried to cut back on these and it is a struggle, especially when I know I’m not using all my energy and focus on the task at hand. But just because I’m not utilizing all my energy doesn’t mean I actually have enough energy left over for a second task.

Speaking of doing too much at once, here’s what Seneca has to say on pacing yourself:

What is wanted is neither haphazard dipping nor a greedy onslaught on knowledge in the mass. The whole will be reached through its parts, and the burden must be adjusted to our strength. We mustn’t take on more than we can manage. You shouldn’t attempt to absorb all you want to – just what you’ve room for; simply adopt the right approach and you will end up with room for all you want. The more the mind takes in the more it expands.

This is an issue I’ve dealt with many times in the past and I’m sure that I will come across it again: taking on more than I can handle. I have a very curious mind and there’s always more that I want to explore, more that I want to improve at. But in the past, when I’ve tried to focus on learning too many skills at once, I find that I don’t really get better at any of them. It’s important to stagger your attempts at improvement. Take on too much at once and you’re sure to collapse underneath it all, accomplishing nothing. In fact, it might be even worse that nothing. Sometimes, when I’ve worn myself out, I might go through extended periods of laziness and slacking about as I recover. During these time, I lose most of the context on the projects I was working on and take so much longer to get started on them again. These days, I find it helpful to write down what I’m currently focusing on and also write down what I’ll focus on in the future if and when the opportunity presents itself. Periodically, I can have a look at this to-do list and if I’m in a spot where I have the capacity, I can pick something up.

Talking about capacity, let’s consider this from Seneca:

In any event what person actually trying them has found them prove beyond him? Who hasn’t noticed how much easier they are in the actual doing? It’s not because they’re hard that we lose confidence; they’re hard because we lack the confidence.

The original context in which Seneca mentioned this was addressing those who were worried about how they would handle hardship. These type of people were worried that they didn’t have what it took to face challenging circumstances. But while these people were afraid and worried beforehand, when push came to shove, they would find a way to cope. Humans are resilient. This isn’t news to us but I think that these words from Seneca will always be a timely reminder.

We are capable of more than we think. And this isn’t just limited to the context of facing hardship and trouble. I believe that this is also true of what we can accomplish when all is going well. I often find that when I’m trying to learn something new or start a new project, it can be quite overwhelming. Before I start anything, when I’m just thinking about the project, it just all seems like a lot. My brain jumps back and forth between the current context (the project hasn’t started or I’m a complete novice at a skill I’m trying to master) and what I hope the end state will be (often something unrealistic and not actually achievable). The gap seems almost insurmountable! Where do I start? Will I get it done in time? Do I have the skills required to tackle it? What if, what if, what if? But once I sit down, come up with a rough plan, and slowly start to chip away, it becomes much more manageable. I start making progress.

So the main takeaway here is that humans are very resilient, you and I included. This resilience isn’t just limited to the context of dealing with hardships in our life but it also comes into play when we are trying to fulfill our true potential. Yes, we need the resilience to deal with the curve balls life throws at us but that same source of determination can also be harnessed to level us up! If we are too scared to take something on, we shouldn’t be. We can do it.

When it comes to doing, Seneca implicitly encourages us to dive deep. Here’s the quote that seemed to hint at it:

It is one thing, however, to remember, another to know. To remember is to safeguard something entrusted to your memory, whereas to know, by contrast, is actually to make each item your own, and not to be dependent on some original and be constantly looking to see what the master said.

To get to that level of understanding, be it working through a project or learning something new, you’re definitely going to have to dive deep. This reminds me of a quote from Greg Egan in his book Disapora:

Understanding an idea meant entangling it so thoroughly with all the other symbols in your mind that it changed the way you thought about everything.

I find useful to keep both these quotes in mind as I test the degree to which I know something. Keeping these in mind has also pushed me to wrestle with the material I am trying to learn and spend as much time as I need to really grasp it. Such a level of understanding, one that changes the way you think, is deep and a little daunting. But I want to encourage you to go after this. Dive deeper into whatever interests you. Pursue it, let it change you. Become obsessed. As Iain Banks wrote in Hydrogen Sonata:

Thinking is what we do. And obsession is just what those too timorous to follow an idea through to its logical conclusion call determination.

One aspect of learning that I’ve not spent enough time on is reviewing. Here’s something Seneca had to say on the topic:

What really ruins our characters is the fact that none of us looks back over his life. We think about what we are going to do, and only rarely of that, and fail to think about what we have done, yet any plans for the future are dependent on the past.

I’ve generally been a full steam ahead kind of person. Sometimes when my mind drifts, I would inadvertently start recollecting past events and maybe reviewing them. The difference between these is that by recollecting I mean simply thinking about those events but by reviewing I mean examining and analyzing them in more detail. It wasn’t until recently when I read Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen did I consider reviewing more seriously. Specifically active reviewing: setting aside dedicated time to review specific parts of your life. Just finished a project? How did that go? What went well? What could be improved?

You could also review at a more meta level: how did that project fit within the larger context of my life? Did it help me achieve my short term goals? You can easily keep moving up review levels, asking harder and deeper questions like, how did this project shape me and did it move me towards becoming the person I want to be? Obviously this doesn’t have to be linked specifically to projects. One of the exercises Allen is big on is a weekly review. During this time you can ask yourself questions like: How did my week go? What did I set out to accomplish and what did I end up getting done? What were the missed items and what cropped up unexpectedly?. By asking these questions, you can better understand if what you have been doing is aligned with what you want to be doing.⁵

An initial review might reveal that there is a large gap between what you would like to be doing and what you have been doing instead. Further review might even help you identify a systematic error in your processes or decision making. Knowing where you’re going wrong is the first step to fixing the mistake. As Seneca says:

‘A consciousness of wrongdoing is the first step to salvation.’ This remark of Epicurus’ is to me a very good one.

So take time to review, and you’ll be in a better position to navigate to the future you want.

Finally, let’s end this section with some practical advice Seneca had to offer on the activity of reading:

…always read well-tried authors, and if at any moment you find yourself wanting a change from a particular author, go back to ones you have read before.

Whenever I finish a book, I usually spend more time than I’d like picking out the next one. I’ve done this search process enough times now that I had a list of books that I want to read. Yet every time I finish a book, my head is in a different space from when I last reviewed the list and so I’ll want to edit it again and choose something else to read. I’m hoping this piece of advice from Seneca will help me spend less time choosing books and more time reading them!

On traveling…

Even before I had read Letters for myself, I had already come across many quotes about travelling from this work. I think this is partly because theses quotes are quite on the nose and many who have read Letters enjoy traveling. Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading these for myself in their original context and I think I’ve learned from them

Here is what Socrates said to someone who was making the same complaint: ‘How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself around with you? You are saddled with the very thing that drove you away.’

The story is told that someone complained to Socrates that traveling abroad had never done him any good and received the reply: ‘What else can you expect, seeing that you always take yourself along with you when you go abroad?’

If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.

As it is, instead of traveling you are rambling and drifting, exchanging one place for another when the thing you are looking for, the good life, is available everywhere.

I spent quite a bit of time rereading the sections where these quotes appeared because they confused me a little. I couldn’t quite tell what Seneca meant by travelling and whether he was for or against it. Looking at the quotes above, it seems that he is advocating against travel and sees the desire to do it as a symptom of some underlying issue. Yet in the very same letter in which the 2nd and 3rd quotes above appear, Seneca says the following:

Well, no sooner had I left behind the oppressive atmosphere of the city.. than I noticed the change in my condition at once! You can imagine how much stronger I felt after reaching my vineyards!

So clearly, the good life is not quite available everywhere. Either Seneca is showing a little bit of hypocrisy or there is more nuance to his position than these quotes first let on. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and assume the second. In the letters where he talks about travelling, it seems that his critique is leveled at those who travel excessively. It seems that these people are constantly travelling, chasing after a better life and, like Socrates mentioned, wondering why their travels do them no good. While I can’t say that I’ve experienced this before, I’m glad I’ve had a chance to read this and become aware of this potential pitfall.

Now assuming that you’re not an excessive traveller, I think that the change of context that you get with travelling can be very enriching. It seems that Seneca agrees with this, as evidenced by the change he felt when he left the city. One aspect that I hadn’t explicitly considered before reading these letters was the idea that the self stays the same, regardless of the location.

I’m fortunate to have a job that allows me to fully switch off when I travel so I do feel like a different person. But really, I am the same person, and perhaps when I’m travelling, I get to be more myself as I’m briefly free of my routine obligations. Keeping this in mind, I can look back over my travels and better understand who I am. Following travel, I can even try and incorporate more activities that I find more representative of myself in my day-to-day after travelling. For example, I enjoy visiting museums and art galleries when I travel and have come to recognize an appreciation of art as part of who I am. These days I try to incorporate this appreciation more into my daily life, be it through art podcasts or making the effort to visit an exhibition or gallery once in awhile. Now I can get a little bit of the happiness of a holiday even when I’m going about a normal week. So think about what it is you enjoy on a holiday. Can you do those activities more regularly? The change of scenery and the freedom from your daily chores is wonderful but I think you’ll be surprised by what you can do even when you’re in your home city.

On final words…

Letters is an amazing piece of work, densely packed with of practical information. It can be a lot to take in and I’ll definitely be rereading it many times in the future. If I had to choose one quote from Letters to summarize the core of it, it would be this:

It is in no man’s power to have whatever he wants; but he has it in his power not to wish for what he hasn’t got, and cheerfully make the most of the things that do come his way.

And if I had to phrase that for myself: It is what it is.

1. This is no insult, it’s one of the best aspects of Australian culture! ↩

2. Luke 12:15, New International Version ↩

3. While perhaps not as well known as The Wealth of Nations, The Theory of Moral Sentiments is a substantial work in which Adam Smith explores ethics, philosophy, and social psychology. The Adam Smith Institute has a brief summary of this work. ↩

4. Hecato of Rhodes was another influential Stoic philosopher. ↩

5. I highly recommend reading Getting Things Done to improve your review process. It’s also a great read to better understand how you could structure your processes to get things done (shock) more effectively. ↩