The Daily Stoic - It’s A Thinking Person’s Game
Episode Date: October 29, 2025Life is hard. Life is complicated. Will you make the most of this time you have here?📖 Wisdom Takes Work by Ryan Holiday is out NOW! Grab a copy here: https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/wi...sdom-takes-work👉 Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/🎥 Watch the video episodes on The Daily Stoic YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos🎙️ Follow The Daily Stoic Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoicpodcast✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a Stoic-inspired meditation
designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life.
Each one of these episodes is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of
history's greatest men and women to help you learn from them, to follow in their example,
and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom.
For more, visitdailystoic.com.
Life is a thinking person's game.
Life is heart.
is complicated. Life is full of choices. It's full of dilemmas. It's full of complex problems and
confusing situations. It's full of obstacles and opportunities. It's full of grifters and liars and
con artists and smooth talkers, as Marcus Aurelius said. It's also full of wonderful, fascinating, and
incredible ideas and topics that you can't possibly be satisfied with just getting the gist of.
In short, life is a thinking person's game, and it's why the Stoics stressed the pursuit of wisdom
because we need it. We need it right now, and we'll need it later. We'll need it when we face
ethical dilemmas. We'll need it when we're tested by anger or greed or fear. We'll need it when
we decide whether to speak up or stay silent, whether to act or hold back, whether to endure or
change. You cannot have a good life without wisdom. Not only will problems overwhelm you
even eat you alive, but you'll leave so much unexplored. You will only do a fraction of what
you are capable of doing. Yet this wisdom, the kind of the Stoics were often seeking and have
come to be known for, it does not come easily. As we said recently, you can't spell learned
without earned. Wisdom takes work. That's not just the title of the new book, which came out
Tuesday, and we still have the bonuses, and thank you to everyone who supported the book. I'd love
it. If you could check it out if you haven't yet. But wisdom takes work is the truth. Like,
wisdom takes work. That is a fact. It is the work of your life, because life is a thinking person's
game. Will you be able to make the most of the time you have here? Will you have the wisdom you need
when you face complexity and difficulty, misinformation, and partisanship, and distractions.
Will you be able to see the opportunities and be of service to others?
Will you have the perspective required to know what matters and what you ought to do?
Will you have the skill and the focus to explore what can be explored?
That's why we do this work, why we study this philosophy, why we read these books,
and continue to talk, as Zeno said, to the dead who can.
came before us. If you haven't checked out, Wisdom Takes Work, again, it would mean so much to me.
If you could, it came out Tuesday. I was in New York doing the Daily Show and the Breakfast Club and
Stephanie Ruh and a bunch of other stuff talking about it. I think it's doing great. I can't wait to
hear what you think of it. We've still got the bonuses. I'll honor those. If you go over to
Dailystoke.com slash Wisdom, you can buy one copy, you can buy five copies, you can buy 100.
you can even have dinner with me to talk about the ideas in the book.
All of that.
I can't wait for you to check it out.
And I'm really excited to hear what you think.
I'm proud of this book.
I'm glad to have wrapped up the Virtue series.
And anyways, we'll talk soon.
