alt Hacker NewsI have started exploring Seneca/stoicism again. Prompted partly by a recent submission here, partly by personal reasons. Instead of consuming other peoples interpretation of stoicism I decided to go as close to the source as feasible for me. I have read Letters from a stoic a number of times before and my copy is filled with highlights, but this time I think I will try to limit myself to one or two letters a day and then really think about them properly.
The first one really hit me hard and prompted me to write out my own thoughts (https://jesperreiche.com/seneca-letter-2/) whether I will keep doing that I am a little unsure. It feels on the border of how personal I want to be/share on my blog.
P.S. I can see the irony in writing about me going to the source instead of consuming other peoples interpretation and then sharing a link to my own interpretation :)
Replies
> Instead of consuming other peoples interpretation of stoicism I decided to go as close to the source as feasible for me.
Good for you! Everybody has their own "twist" on Stoicism, and that's fine. You have to find your own twist on it; you have to make it your own.
In my own experience, what is most rewarding and promotes my progress the most, is when I put philosophy into action. Then I get authentic feedback from life about what actually works. It helps me separate mere opinions and good sounding ideas from true insight.
Good read thanks. I totally can relate to the choices problem. It's rather easy with physical books (or was, as we have little room left for even more books ;-0) but ebooks are "dangerous" too.
Regarding cameras, it's harder (and more expensive) to wrangle with gear acquisition syndrome (GAS) but after switching from Canon EOS to Fuji, because the Canon stuff was too heavy when hiking, I managed to restrain myself most of the time. Because the question always is whether my images would become better with different gear or with more trial and error.
I opted for trial and error and eagerly watch a selected number of YouTube channels who almost always show me that I should and can improve myself and not my gear.
Based on some reading in a study group using both the Hays and Waterfield translations, I'd definitely recommend Waterfield over Hays.
Thanks for the writing and for posting about it here! Found some nice photographs and other content that I'll dig more into later. Liking what I've found so far :)
To me, if you read On the Shortness of Life and take it to heart, you would delete your blog as a waste of time and mental energy.
I hope you get more out of it than I did. I don't recall which of Seneca's work I read several years ago, but to me it was ... meh?
Some of the stuff I strongly agreed with, but I didn't derive value because I already had the mindset. Other stuff I disagreed with, and the book didn't really convince me. Then there was the stuff in between.
Overall, it felt like something you or I could have written - I didn't see something insightful that enlightened me.
Not to take away from your essay, which I thoroughly agree with :-)
Thank you for sharing. The choices piece hit home for me. Forwarded this to friends.
This reminded me of this post (https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoic/comments/1823mip/). I don't really know what stoicism means but that was hilarious.