Massimo Pigliucci

Imposter syndrome… for the win!

April 21, 2018

while it is always a good idea to question one’s own work, and to be open to outside criticism, if you are a professional in a given field there probably are good reasons to think you know what you are doing, especially when your work gets repeatedly validated externally.

~ Massimo Pigliucci from, https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com/2018/03/15/stoic-advice-impostor-syndrome/

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One of the things I particularly LIKE is the imposter syndrome aspect of the Movers Mindset podcast.

“…wait. wat?”

Yes.

You see, there’s an entire universe of “perform interview” skills that I don’t have, and I’m loving learning something entirely new. It’s also pretty much orthogonal to my previous life experience — “listen,” had to learn that. “empathize,” had to learn that. Even this weird thing you have to do to imagine everyone who is listening and try to read the minds of people you are imagining… it’s bonkers. I love it.

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Anger is a temporary madness

March 17, 2018

This includes people who get angry, which is why Seneca calls anger a “temporary madness.” This class of individuals can certainly be held morally responsible for their actions, since they are perfectly capable of reason, they just don’t use it well.

~ Massimo Pigliucci from, https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com/2018/02/20/stoicism-and-emotion-v-brutishness-and-insanity/

slip:4uwoso2.

Once more, louder for those in the back: Stoicism is not about suppressing emotions. It is about [among other things] having appropriate emotional responses.

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Practice patiently improving

March 6, 2018

Too often nowadays Stoicism is brandished as a magic wand, as if one decides to “be” a Stoic and this, ipso facto, guarantees immunity from unhealthy emotions. It doesn’t, and Chrysippus, Seneca, and Epictetus would be astounded that anyone would think so. Stoic training is like training for the Olympics (a metaphor often used by Epictetus): you don’t just decide to be an athlete, start running, and win the race. You have to train, patiently, for years, improving gradually, and suffering setbacks. We are talking real life here, not wishful thinking.

~ Massimo Pigliucci from, https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com/2018/01/26/stoicism-and-emotion-iii-vigor-and-responsibility/

slip:4uwoso3.

More and more, as the years go by, I have been peering more closely into the dark corners of the basements of my philosophies, and ideologies.

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Prosperity

January 12, 2018

Notice a subtle point here: Seneca isn’t saying that prosperity is not worth pursuing. It is, after all, a preferred indifferent. But it is preferred only insofar it doesn’t get in the way of conducting a virtuous life, as one gets the sense Lucilius was worrying about insofar his own pursuits were concerned. Which is why his friend reminds him that he is under no obligation at all to live in the fast lane.

~ Massimo Pigliucci from, https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com/2017/12/21/seneca-to-lucilius-on-the-futility-of-half-way-measures/

slip:4uwose2.

Just yesterday, for the first time ever, I considered removing the rear-view mirror from the Jeep. (Instead, I twisted it upwards to view the roof.) Since the Jeep is slow and old, as am I, there is ALWAYS someone tail-gating me. I’ve narrowly avoided accidents, where watching the tail-gater behind me distracted me from the road ahead. I’m so much in the “slow lane”, I am literally being run over. Where, really, are you going?

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