The Daily Stoic - This Helps You Be A Better Person | Ask DS

Episode Date: March 30, 2023

Both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington profited from slavery, but both knew it was wrong. Yet at the end of their lives, it was Washington who freed his slaves, not Jefferson, who had written far more eloquently about human equality as well as the eternal shame of slavery.Why was that?---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions in a virtual Q&A about how he gets interested in and inspired by new ideas, why the classics endure, and balancing the needs of the team with those of the individual, and more.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including Discipline is Destiny.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today. Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you in your everyday life. Well on Thursdays, we not only read the daily meditation, but we answer some questions from listeners and fellow Stoics. We're trying to apply this philosophy just as you are.

Some of these come from my talks. Some of these come from Zoom sessions that we do with daily Stoic life members or as part of the challenges. Some of them are from interactions I have on the street when there happen to be someone there recording. But thank you for listening. And we hope this is of use to you.

This helps you be a better person. Both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington profited from slavery, but both knew it was wrong. Yet at the end of their lives, it was Washington who freed at the end of their lives, it was Washington who freed his slaves, not Jefferson, who had written so eloquently about human equality, as well as the eternal shame of slavery. Why was that? It's because Washington far more disciplined and still it could afford to manimate his slaves. Early on, he hadn't been able to

afford to run Mount Vernon without them, but he was secure enough at the end to do what he obviously should have done and what his conscience knew he should have done years earlier. Jefferson, the epicurion, was more than $100,000 in debt when he died. He ransacked Europe, frantiques, finery. He had expanted Monticello multiple times Sparing no offense. He had loved wine and the best foods and now he could not remotely afford redemption He was scared of leaving nothing to his children. He could not afford to do the right thing Discipline as a virtue is related to the other virtues. By controlling our urges or wants, or lifestyle, we're actually in a better position to be courageous

or just. Financial security independence, these things free us up in ways that other more irresponsible or conflicted people cannot be. When one looks at the range of stoic responses to the reign of Nero, this played out. The more austere and disciplined Stokes, a grippiness and thoracia, they did far better than the high living Seneca, which you can read about in Lives of the Stokes. But a far more better example is found in John Adams, who, like the other founders had read all of the Stokes and lived a far more frugal and laborious life than either

the Manor- born Washington or Jefferson. His self-discipline intersected with his ethics. He made an honest living as a lawyer and then a diplomat and then finally in elected office. He never owned another human being. He never exploited anyone. He didn't crave fancy things or grand houses. And when he died on the same day as Jefferson, his state was the exact inverse of his old friends, a $100,000 request to his family. Discipline, it makes you better in life or death.

I actually have a chapter about discipline and money and finances in discipline and destiny. Basically, money is a tool. It can make you better or worse, right? You can use it for good, or it can be used against you. And this is something I think timelessly that the Stoics struggled with, that the great human beings have struggled with. When you are more disciplined, when you live within your means, makes it easier for you to make better and more just, and more honorable decisions. And that's what we're riffing about today. If you haven't read discipline, it's destiny to power self-control. I would love for you to check it out. It's available and more honorable decisions. And that's what we're riffing about today. If you haven't read Discipline is Destiny the Power of Self-Control, I would love for you to check it out. It's available everywhere.

Books are sold. We've got signed copies at store.dailysteoic.com. If you're listening to this, maybe you're an audio book person. So check that out as well. Discipline is Destiny the Power of Self-Control, the newest in my Stoic Virtue series. I hope you like it. The Dell Technologies Black Friday in July event

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And so, face to mind how you got to where you were and knowing that these days with the internet and YouTube it's so easy to think we're learning something and going down a rabbit hole of like disinformation or you know um so I guess that's a two-part question. Number one is what how do you I guess that's a two-part question. Number one is, how do you validate your sources that you're getting a lot of information? The other part is you seem to be an expert, I'll say, on studentism. So how do you get interested in something to learn?

What's the next thing? Yeah, YouTube is an incredibly powerful platform. I was just, I was just in Las Vegas. And, you walk around a casino. And of course, we all know a casino is a scam, right? The reason they can build this huge building that looks like the Eiffel Tower or a Caesar's Palace or whatever is because they make enormous profits by all the money that everyone loses gambling. We understand that an enormous amount of insight and psychology and manipulation all goes into making this thing so addictive and fun even though you're guaranteed to lose money, right?

I think we have struggled as a society, you know, things like YouTube, YouTube's not even 20 years old. So we have struggled, I think particularly older people, but I mean anyone who's not like a millennial, with wrapping our heads around just how much science and persuasion and psychology and outright manipulation, is not just the content itself on the site, but the sites themselves.

They are designed to exploit our basis instincts. Even something like auto play, you watch a video and what happens, right, is you're about to finish and go do something else? It's like, here's another one, here's another one, here's another one. And what it's suggesting is not just things that things are good, but things that the data says

will suck you further and further down that rabbit hole. So when we see people have been radicalized or fallen prey to conspiracy theories, they usually didn't get to these conspiracy theories from reading big, thick books by academics, right? It's from YouTube, right? When the people go, I did my own research and they go, oh, you know, so you did some academic studies,

you got a degree in it, it's like, well, no, I know, so you did some academic studies, you got a degree in it, it's like, well, no, I mean, I watched a lot of videos and looked at a lot of Instagram posts about it, right? That's what doing your own research has come to me. And so I guess one thing I would start, and this is why I was saying earlier about just the power of reading and books, is there is just so much working against you on these patterns you on these platforms. And I say this as someone who has a large following on Instagram on YouTube and it makes content for those platforms because I feel like we have to fight in that battle of ideas against these sort of manipulators and deceivers and just in other cases just outright, outright crazy people.

They did one study that found that almost all of the vaccine misinformation on the internet can be traced back to eight super spreaders. Eight Facebook accounts are responsible for the vast majority of COVID misinformation out there. So I guess, first and foremost, I would say, consume as much information offline as possible. Use online to go deeper on something that you've already gotten. And of course, look at the URL of the website, right? If it's not from a significant outlet, it's probably something to be viewed specifically. But I would say, to go to that idea,

you can't learn what you think you already know. I think what a lot of this stuff exploits is our sense of that, precisely. Our ego wants to think we're smarter than everyone else, that we've figured it out, that we know better than all the other sheep out there. And we have to understand that that is a powerful just as the desire to win, to get lucky at a casino is what the casino exploits. So does that ego or that hubris or that those selfish desires we have. That's what a lot of these sources, that's what a lot of these sources manipulate.

I'm sort of off topic here, but I just encourage people, particularly people who have positions of leadership to remember that you have to watch your information diet just as you do your nutritional diet. Garbage in, garbage out, you have to have, you have to make sure you're very disciplined about what you consume, about what voices you let in, and you have to be, I think, always trying to go towards the deeper, historical, time-tested truths, as opposed to whatever the latest breaking trendy, you know, viral piece of information is. Okay, I'm going to go, I'm, I don't know, back here. Well, actually, I'm gonna kind of piggyback on that as well and I actually I'm going to scout my ego and my humorous thing. Alright.

I think, because I'm so excited for what you just said, because that's something I'm for always teaching our teenagers that read stuff, figure out who they are, and what they're trying to tell you, and what they're trying to sell you. Because right now, that's just a lot of times what they're doing. And actually just giving the opportunity work, you know, their oncology things, and I need something to text them to make sure that they the argument for the life coming back to me. And I'm thinking, I'm going to have to figure out those daily laws, the markers' realist quotes.

What do you think about this? And this, because a lot of the things that they're reading and substantive, it's garbage. I mean, some of the things that've read from school are great, but a lot of you can your point now all of this the stuartism is really pointing out where it's come where they've actually gotten their message from to begin with some of these things so it's Don't just read something else's interpretation that this point

the grace The old writings have kind of already been proven. There's nothing to prove. Why were they writing it? They were writing it for themselves. They were writing it for someone else or to make a copy or anything like that. They were too influenced, someone else. So go to the source in a way. So that's fabulous. So thank you. I hate this kind of pop-up. Well, yeah, question. No, no, I love that. I mean, there's something that they call the Lindy effect.

That the longer it's been around, the longer it's likely to continue to be around. So the classics are classics for a reason. And that when you sit down and you read a book that was published 50 years ago, chances are there's a reason it's been around 50 years and it's less likely to be disproven tomorrow, right? So again, instead of reading, and I say this as a person who publishes new books, instead

of reading the newest controversial bestseller or whatever, go read something that has stood the test of time that's helped people that you admire. To me, a great question, I try to ask people, what are books that have changed your life? People I admire, and then I try to go read those books. And that I think is historically why certain titles have stood the test of time because it's generation after generation really done something for someone

I love the idea of yeah, making sure that you're a positive contributor to your kids information diet Realizing that not all kids are so lucky, you know I get some texts from family members that I have, and I have to thank you for sending this. And then I know it's, I can't read it. I don't want to get infected with whatever's in there, right? And that what we, what we allow into our minds shapes how,

you know, how we think about things and we've got to sort of protect that. I think, obviously, as an author to sort of protect that. I think obviously as an author I'm biased but I think books are the way to do that and have been the way to do that for thousands of years for a reason. Yeah. I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about Robert Green as an author. I'm familiar with his work. Some people and I'm not accusing here author, I'm familiar with his work. Some people, and I'm not, I'm not accusing here, we'll put this, some of his writings is being very mockabellian. And we within services really strive to focus on team and the greater good of the

team versus the individual. I just like you to speak to that for a second. Well, I would certainly agree with the characterization of Robert Green's books as Machiavellian. Machiavellian is a big influence. But even that expression Machiavellian ignores some of the historical context in which Machiavellian existed. Machiavellian was a Republican. He was arrested for conspiring against the princes because he thought Florence should be a republic. So what Machiavelli wrote about and what Machiavelli believed were not as simple as it seems. Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and add free on Amazon music, download the Amazon music app today, or you can listen

early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts. talks to founders behind some of the world's biggest and most innovative companies, to learn how they built them from the ground up. Guy has sat down with hundreds of founders behind well-known companies like Headspace, Manduke Yoga Mats, Soul Cycle, and Codopaxi, as well as entrepreneurs working to solve some of the biggest problems of our time, like developing technology that pulls energy from the ground to heat in cool homes, or even figuring out how to make drinking water from air and sunlight. Together, they discuss their entire journey from day one, and all the skills they had to learn along the way, like confronting big challenges, and how to lead through uncertainty.

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