Do You Practice For Rejection? | A Little Knowledge Is Dangerous

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2:28Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Friday, we do double duty, not just reading our daily meditation, but also reading a passage from the Daily Stoic, my book, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, which I wrote with my wonderful collaborator, translator, and literary agent, Stephen Hanselman. So today, we'll give you a quick meditation from the Stoics with some analysis from me, and then we'll send you out into the world to turn these words in to works.

3:08In Richard III and in Othello, Shakespeare has two different characters utter the same line. Both Iago and a nameless orphan say, I cannot think it. In both cases, the news they are faced with, the conclusion they are being asked to accept, is simply too much. The Shakespearean scholar Richard Greenblatt calls this phrase a kind of motto for those who can't wrap their mind around perfidy. He's not being condescending, for it's a very common experience. Our naivete, our willingness to assume the best about others, often leaves us open to betrayal and disillusionment, which is why the Stoics spend so much time on this very topic.

3:57Marcus, for his part, opens meditations with some musing on the reality of the types of people he's going to meet in the days to come. But later in meditations, he speaks about the kind of behavior you see in the boxing ring, gouging, headbutting, and low blows. We see this all the time in the sports world, as a matter of fact. NFL linemen who grease up their jerseys so they can't be grabbed. In NASCAR, they love to say Rubbin is racing. And there's the old saying, if you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough. You have to anticipate this kind of behavior, Marcus says. You can't take it personally.

4:36He talks about the inevitability of bumping up against shameless people and how to handle it. He spends time putting himself in the minds of tyrants, robbers, and perverts. Again, because these types exist and we must not be surprised or abused by them. When Seneca was sentenced to death by Nero, his family and friends began wailing in shock and horror. But Seneca was calm. Who knew not Nero's cruelty, he told them. We can't be surprised by this. Indeed, it was a brave and rational response. The only shame is that Seneca couldn't have seen this coming earlier. If he had, perhaps he would have stopped the tyrant before he hurt so many people.

5:19The point being, this is not a philosophy for the weak or the cowardly. Stoicism is about facing the truth, about facing the unthinkable, not just as it's happening, but long before. Pre-meditatio malorum, which we've talked about a lot here, and make it in coin form as a constant reminder, is the embodiment of that idea. Keep all the possibilities before you, including, and especially, the bad ones. Keep your eyes open. Beware. Think it, because you might be able to prevent it. And if you can't, at least you'll be able to handle the reality of its existence and then respond to it accordingly.

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7:19A little knowledge is dangerous. Every great power is dangerous for the beginner, Epictetus says in Discourses 313. You must therefore wield them as you are able, but in harmony with nature. Great teachers are usually hardest on their most promising students. When teachers see potential, they want it to be fully realized. But great teachers are also aware that natural ability and quick comprehension can be quite dangerous to the student if left alone. Early promise can lead to overconfidence and create bad habits. Those who pick things up quickly are notorious for skipping the basic lessons and ignoring the fundamentals.

8:00Don't get carried away. Take it slowly. train with humility. In Lies of the Stoics, I talk about Musonius Rufus quite a bit, Musonius Rufus being Epictetus's teacher. He was called the Roman Socrates for what a great writer and thinker he was. But he was also a very difficult teacher, I take it, from the anecdotes we have from Epictetus. I'm just pulling up this little page. uh let's see um we were we're told for instance that when mousonius rufus spoke uh he expected rapt attention from his students if they were reacting or clapping or cheering for the audience he's like you're not getting i'm not blowing your mind enough he was just a strict teacher and then we're told this this story about epictetus making a mistake and uh he tries to blow it off to Musonius.

9:01He says, hey, it's not like I burned down the Capitol. And Musonius Rufus says, who says you didn't? The point being, I think Musonius realized, as Zeno said, that conceit is the impediment to knowledge. Epictetus would say it's impossible to learn that which you think you already know. I think what they were taking from Musonius is a kind of key intellectual humility. That when you start to get arrogant, when you start to think you've graduated, that you've arrived, this is precisely when you cease to learn and stop improving. When I sign Ego is the Enemy, I often sort of riffing on Epictetus, I say always stay a student.

9:45Because when we stay a student of philosophy, of a great master, it humbles us, keeps us quiet. Whenever I'm around Robert Greene, I get this same sense. Robert's very kind and patient and would never sort of humiliate or rebuke. But he has a way of catching you if you're lazy or imprecise in your language or the assumptions that you're making. And it is always good. It's a good experience because it keeps me in the right headspace. And I think that's important as you learn. Maybe you're familiar with the Dunning-Kruger effect. The problem with being stupid is that you're often not aware of just how stupid you are.

10:30Maybe the converse of that is the problem with being smart is that smart people often are aware of how smart they are, or they think they're smarter than they are, and this is a problem. So I don't know. I guess today's message is to leave you with a little intellectual humility. Don't think that you've arrived. understand that knowledge is power and it's a power that has to be taken responsibly, has to be taken humbly, has to be part of a lifelong and ongoing pursuit. You do not arrive, you do not graduate, you never do. This is the famous story about Marx realists leaving the palace. Some man asked him where he's going.

11:08He says, I'm off to see Sextus the philosopher to learn that which I do not yet know. Focus on that. Focus on what you do not yet know. And that's how I think you keep, it's like in the way that a gun, you always act like a gun is loaded. That keeps you safe and honest with it. You never pointed at something that you don't intend to kill or destroy. The same thing goes with knowledge, right? Treat it as something that is always insufficient. It's always a little bit dangerous. Point it towards what you have yet to learn and focus on that. and it keeps you honest, keeps you safe, keeps you smart.

11:45And that's today's message.

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