Category archives: Stoicism
Tim Ferriss on Stoicism and the Art of Happiness
Tim Ferriss recently brought out his own edition of the letters of Seneca, called The Tao of Seneca, which includes an interview I did about Stoicism. He also included Stoicism and the Art of Happiness in his recommended reading list: Donald Robertson’s book [Stoicism and the Art of Happiness] was highly recommended by the Stoic […]
Response: Why is Silicon Valley so Obsessed With the Virtue of Suffering?
I’ve just read the op ed Why Is Silicon Valley So Obsessed With the Virtue of Suffering? by Nellie Bowles in The New York Times. This won’t be a long response. The essence of her argument appears to be that Stoicism advocates self-inflicted suffering and that Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are obsessed with it for that […]
Graphic 1: How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
Writing “How to Think Like a Roman Emperor”
My new book about Stoicism comes out soon so I thought I’d say a bit about the process of writing it. (Sometimes people ask me how I ended up writing these books or what the process is like.) The book’s called How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. You can […]
Lady Stoics #4: Chrysippus’ Mysterious Old Woman
Diogenes Laertius several times mentions a mysterious unnamed old woman associated with Chrysippus, the third head of the Stoic school. Of Chrysippus the old woman who sat beside him used to say, according to Diocles, that he wrote 500 lines a day. The Greek could also mean that the old woman attended to or looked […]
Athens Day One: The Stoa Poikile
I arrived in Athens last night so this morning I decided to head straight for the Stoa Poikile, the home of Stoicism. A Greek stoa is a colonnade: basically a row of columns supporting a roof. The Stoa Poikile had a wall on one side giving shade, so it’s described as a portico or a […]
Stoic Book Review: Antifragile by Nassim Taleb
People have been telling me to read Antifragile: Things that Gain From Disorder (2014) by Nassim Taleb since the book came out because he’s into Stoicism. I’ve finally had a chance to read it so here’s my latest quasi-review. I say that because rather than talk about the whole book I’m just going to write a […]
Sign up for my free email course on Epictetus
You can now sign up for my new email course on the Stoic Handbook of Epictetus. You’ll receive one email per week for a year. The Handbook is divided into 53 passages so each email contains one passage with my commentary underneath. So the entire course lasts about one year. Just enter your email below […]
Book Review: How to be a Stoic (2017) by Massimo Pigliucci
NB: See my video below for a discussion of the twelve practical techniques listed at the end of this book. Massimo Pigliucci is an important voice in the modern Stoicism movement. Instead of lecturing readers on academic philosophy he’s chosen to provide them with a practical guide to living like a Stoic in the real […]