The Daily Stoic

The 33 Strategies of War is probably the one that's influenced me the most.

You can grab all those at the Painted Porch.

author who sold millions of copies, 48 laws of power, 33 strategies of war, mastery, the laws of human nature.

I remember another mentor I had pointed me to a page in The 33 Strategies of War where Robert Green talks about acting before you're ready.

At about 19, I apprenticed under a great writer named Robert Green who wrote the 40 laws of power and the 33 strategy of war.

He bought me hardcover of Robert Green's 33 Strategies of War which I still have to this day and book changed my life.

I think Robert's book, The 33 Strategies of War is one of the great books on strategy and politics and power ever written.

My analysis of it through the lens of my book The 33 Strategies of War.

In the in the loss of human nature I have a chapter that I describe I go into depth on Stalin called complete control where Stalin's main objective in life his main goal, his main ambition was to gain complete control of every aspect of the Soviet Union

in 33 strategies of war on number 15 is called control the dynamic forcing strategies and what it is is it's the ultimate of an offensive warfare

when I asked him his rank Lieutenant Captain Major he said he didn't have one when I asked him his unit's designation a platoon a company or even about Italian he said they simply called themselves a squad rank and formal military terms weren't something they worried about

or you can be the kindest person you could have the best intentions and evolve and your decisions create havoc and create the worst kind of evil unintended consequences right we see that play out over and over and over again history so you know it's this is an example where it's not just about doing the moral thing in the simplistic way it was about what are the consequences what's the long-term picture here well and that goes back to this idea of courage and i talked about this in the new book a little bit which is um you have to have the courage just to decide and then to own your decision um and the consequences of that decision and i think that's one of the reasons that people don't do things they hesitate because they know if they break it they buy it if they sign uh they they leaders want to have it both ways when really courageous leaders uh know they have to make the decision and then then stick to executing the decision with competence as we said but then you're gonna have to own the fallout the criticism you know the consequences you can you could have made the right decision with the information you had at the time and it can still go horribly wrong uh you can be morally correct and still be look like an immoral person i mean i think we're looking at this in Afghanistan right now uh extricating oneself uh extricating a country from a country uh from a war that's gone on for 20 years it's gonna be messy and unpleasant and it's not gonna look good and it's gonna reveal a lot of things that have you know predated your decision um and i could very much see why a leader would waver or change their mind under the public pressure uh that that comes from that but you got to the job of being president or leader or CEO or board of directors is making hard decisions and then you know shepherding them to completion okay

We wrote the 48 laws of power he wrote 33 strategies of war which I think anyone in your profession should read.

but I have something that he doesn't have

I have some idea of what enough is

There's an amazing story about Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph heller who wrote catch 22 and slaughterhouse five they're at the party this billionaire and Vonnegut is teasing heller and he says this billionaire that whose house were at he made more money this week than your book will make it its entire light.

Heller says but I have something that he doesn't have. Vonnegut says what's that and heller says I have some idea of what enough is he says I have enough this idea of enough is so powerful.

They're at the party of this billionaire. Vonnegut is teasing Heller and he says, this billionaire whose house we're at, he made more money this week than your book will make it its entire life. Heller says, but I have something that he doesn't have. Vonnegut says, what's that? Heller says, I have some idea of what enough is.

They're at the party, this billionaire. And Vonnegut is teasing Heller and he says this billionaire whose house we're at, he made more money this week than your book will make it its entire life. Heller says, but I have something that he doesn't have. Vonnegut says, what's that? Heller says, I have some idea of what enough is. He says, I have enough.

I said, Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel catch 22 has earned in its entire history.

And Joe said, I've got something he can never have and I said what on earth could that be Joe? And Joe said the knowledge that I have enough.

Joe how does it feel how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may may have made more money than your novel catch 22 has earned in its entire history and Joe said I've got something he can never have and I said what on earth could that be Joe and Joe said the knowledge that I've got enough not bad rest in peace Kurt Vonnegut

you wrote catch 22 but you know this guy made more money than you will ever make in your life like at work this week.

but I have something he'll never have, he says what's that and he says the notion that I have enough.

I have something that that guy doesn't have

I know what enough is

And Heller goes, but I have something he'll never have. And he says, what's that? And he says, the notion that I have enough.

you've never written anything as good as Catch 22 again. And he says, who has?

And he does a really good job on the ladder of just explaining how different life is when you become a pro.

if you haven't read The War of Art, Do The Work, Turning Pro, Gates of Fire, government cheese, Tides of War, A Man at Arms, what are you even doing with your life?

It's sort of like it's the stories in between the lessons that make Turning Pro and the war of art and all those other books so fantastic.

the hero wonders the hero suffers the hero returns you are that hero.

When I sat down to start discipline is destiny I followed a routine I did do with all of my books which is I read something from Stephen Pressfield.

Actually I think for discipline I read Turning Pro, for Justice I read put your ass where your heart wants to be whenever I am starting a project I read something from Stephen Pressfield because he's maybe the greatest writer on how to be a professional how to be great at winning these inner creative battles.

So when I saw him last I asked if we could excerpt a couple pieces from his wonderful audiobooks and he's been kind enough to let us do that and so today's episode is part two in some excerpts from the wonderful Turning Pro and this one he talks about some things very very much connected to the idea of discipline he talks about habits and addictions, failure, success, distraction, money and trouble and how these habits and addictions for amateurs hold us back that they're self-inflicted wounds he talks about the fears of the amateur talks about the path of Turning Pro and the simplicity of life that happens when you turn pro

you can grab that in the painted porch I think we actually have some signed copies so I'll link to that and you get the audiobook which was produced by recorded books on brilliance audio I will link to that in today's show notes but you can get it anywhere audiobooks are sold thank you Stephen for this wonderful excerpt.

I've made no secret about my deep admiration for Stephen Pressfield in fact I'm not sure you would be listening to this podcast if Stephen's writings hadn't so influenced me over the years.

He's today's excerpt comes from Turning Pro one of my absolute favorite books from Stephen we have signed copies of it in the painted porch which I will link to in today's episode.

if you haven't listened to the audiobook of Turning Pro it's a great motivational book and I pick up either the War of Art or Turning Pro pretty much anytime I start a creative project so hopefully this can be something that gets you going as well.

but he also has a series of books on creativity and the first one is the war of art and\I got so much from all of his books in particular that one and then Turning Pro they all say essentially you're gonna have to sit down be professional and do the work essentially that's what he's saying don't get distracted really

I like the Cal Newport book Digital Minimalism. I think that's great.

I really like Cal Newport's work deep work Digital Minimalism but but I think his point is that you know it's those moments of uninterrupted concentration whether that's study whether that's practice whether that's the you know the act of you know your job itself.

I recommended the book earlier but wait no this is the world without email the Caldoub pour book where is it Digital Minimalism is it was definitely influential to me to me the question I like to ask is am I using the device or is the device using me

i just finished reading colony board's book Digital Minimalism and i just wanted to ask a few a few arthritis digital declutter and what are your thoughts in it

Read his book, Digital Minimalism. Definitely read Deep Work. Definitely read So Good They Can't Ignore You.

And most recently, Digital Minimalism and his new planner, the Time Block Planner, a daily method for deep work in a distracted world.

And of course, if you haven't read Deep Work, Digital Minimalism, we're so good they can't ignore you. You are definitely missing out.

Then I took two years to finish The Justice Book, which is coming out this month. There are a bunch of pre-order bonuses you can grab at dailystoic.com slash Justice.

I would love for you to read that book.

That's actually something I talk about in the Justice book, which by the way, you can pre-order now at dailystoic.com.

I talk about this in the afterward of the Justice Book that I'm doing now.

And I talk about this in the in Right Thing Right Now, the third book in the Virtue Series, The Justice Book, which is coming out in June. You can pre-order that now everywhere, of course.

Well, I have a story in the Justice book that I was going to put in the Discipline book because I think it's interesting how interrelated these things are.

So I have a story in the Justice book that on one level seems like a discipline idea, but it's actually a Justice thing.

The Justice Book coming out in June.

I'm obviously about halfway, a little past halfway done on this Vergey series. Justice book is coming out soon and grab that at dailystoke.com slash Justice but the wisdom book is now underway. I'm writing that.

Tristo...recommended this book on Justice because he knows the next book in the four book series I'm working on is about Justice and there's a lot of stuff so when I read I've shown my methodology before but I take a lot of notes I fold pages so this one was really good I got some stories you'll probably see in a future book

But as I tell him at the beginning of the episode, I've been reading quite a bit about Jimmy Carter who is a character a little bit in the discipline book, very much a character in the Justice Book.

And she knows what she's talking about because she's a behavioral scientist at Wharton, and she's the co-director of the Behavioral Change for Good initiative. I think we had an awesome conversation. I did not think we were going to spend so much time talking about The Odyssey, but as it happens, that's where we began because as she points out, that's one of the first devices for change that we have on record, like how Odysseus comes up with this way of not doing something he'd be inclined to do and forcing himself to do something he does want to do.

And then of course, it's not just like, oh, there's this old thing. I guess we rediscovered Gilgamesh in the 1800s, which would have been cool. But with The Odyssey, it's not just that it's thousands of years old. It's that so many other books are built on top of it.

And I was telling Angela, which is I am reading him Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey right now, which he is he is obsessed with.

We talked a lot about commitment devices, which I thought were awesome.

And the original story of a commitment device is in this great story of Odysseus knows that he's going to confront the sirens.

This book is 2000 years old. This copy of The Odyssey, it's a new translation from Emily Wilson, sure. But people have been buying some version of this book for centuries. And here it is still flying off the shelf.

This copy of The Odyssey, it's a new translation from Emily Wilson, sure. But people have been buying some version of this book for centuries.

This copy of The Odyssey, it's a new translation from Emily Wilson, sure. But people have been buying some version of this book for centuries.

This copy of The Odyssey, it's a new translation from Emily Wilson, sure. But people have been buying some version of this book for centuries.

Seneca's advice to someone studying the classics is to forget all that the dates the names the places they don't matter what matters is the moral.

If you get everything else wrong from The Odyssey but your left understanding the importance of perseverance the dangers of hubris the risks of temptation and distraction well then you really learn something

my favorite translation of The Odyssey is this one by Emily Wilson who's also Seneca's biographer

and you should read her new-ish translation of The Odyssey which I quite quite enjoyed and actually carry both of them in the bookstore

it's like the best-selling book in this brand new bookstore is a book that's thousands of years old that's what great art can do right it's perennial it stands the test of time

my favorite translation of The Odyssey is this one by Emily Wilson who's also Seneca's biographer if you haven't read the greatest empire by Emily Wilson you absolutely should and you should read her new or ish translation of The Odyssey which I quite quite enjoyed and actually carry both of them in the bookstore

what matters is the moral if you get everything else wrong from The Odyssey but you're left understanding the importance of perseverance the dangers of hubris the risks of temptation and distraction well then you really learned something

is it a play is it who gives a shit what matters is what you do with it and i do urge you to read it and read it for the right reasons and read all the things that you read for the right reasons just to become better human being in the world

look here's uh here's the Indian right there's a 2000 year old book here's Epidetus a 2000 year old book here's The Odyssey we don't even know how old this is right but you can talk to those authors as if there's still a lot

It's what Optin Sinclair was talking about over a hundred years in The Brass Check, which is one of my all time favorite books about media.

Then I read this book by Upton Sinclair. He wrote a book called The Brass Check in the early 1900s. After he wrote The Jungle, he wrote an expose of how the media system worked.

So after he wrote The Jungle, he wrote this like a similar book. It's nonfiction instead of fiction, I guess. But he basically writes an expose of early 20th century media.

He writes this huge because he's now this very famous figure and he's extremely left wing. So he's and at that time, newspapers were very sort of puppets of capitalists, right? It was like part it was its own industry.

And so he's kind of doing this book about what it's like to be covered by the media and how inaccuracies about him are spreading. And there's all the problems.

But I remember just reading that book and going, oh, this is this is the same thing. Like we've always had these problems.

I read this book by Uptons and Claire called The Brass Check and and it was like just a different it was just this unique book that was I was like oh she's doing like an expose of the media of how the system works and I was like I have an similar experience of this other world like I could do a book like that

then the other book which inspired my book trust me I'm lying if you read the jungle as a kid in high school or whatever Eptan Sinclair's expose of the meat packing industry then I strongly suggest you read his book The Brass Check which is actually an expose of the news industry around the same time and sadly almost nothing has changed.

if you read the jungle as a kid in high school or whatever eptanson clears expose of the meat packing industry then i strongly suggest you read his book The Brass Check which is actually an expose of the news industry around the same time and sadly almost nothing this changed

By the way there are plenty of books at Suckerberg ought to read these days in that vein, including amusing ourselves to death, the storm before the storm, The Brass Check, the filter bubble and trust me online.

if you read The Jungle as a kid in in high school or whatever epton Sinclair's expose of the meatpacking industry then I strongly suggest you read his book The Brass Check which is actually an expose of the news industry around the same time and sadly almost nothing has changed

I wrote a book a number of years ago called Conspiracy, which is about this billionaire Peter Thiel and his secret daring gamble to go after this media company. I use it as an excuse to explore the idea of strategy and risk and contrarian thinking and doing what people don't expect. It's not like any of my other books, but it's a book I'm very proud of. They're actually making it into a movie.

I used an epigraph from Lancelot as the opening for my book Conspiracy.

I wrote a book a few years ago called Conspiracy which about the billionaire Peter Teo on this sort of insane thing he did but I am proud of it because it was the most radically different than all my books and so even though actually it probably has sold the fewest copies of any of my books I grew the most for having written it

When I was writing my book Conspiracy, I was fascinated by the contrast of Peter Teal and Nick Den to polar opposites who also had so much in common who ended up clashing, destroying each other and so much in the process.

He has no recollection. Of course he didn't know me from his class because it was just an online class he could take for free but I didn't remember meeting some random kid at a conference 12 years ago but he read my book, Conspiracy.

And that was just the coolest full circle thing he liked the book for someone who was so influential in shaping my development to be familiar with my work and to like it.

Conspiracy, I know you've done other books. I know this is the so-is-is-something but Conspiracy is an amazing book.

And it's just, it is a great story. It is a great story with heroes and villains and it is just, and you know, a good meditation on conspiracies.

he talked about my book Conspiracy you're still in this is key

My book, Conspiracy, I talk about this 10-year campaign of Peter Thiel to destroy a website that he thought was ruining American culture.

It's a different kind of book for me. I'm talking about my book Conspiracy, which is about the sort of insane Conspiracy that Peter Thiel embarks on to. Take revenge on. Justly smite down depending on your interpretation, Gawker Media site that had outed him as gay roughly a decade earlier.

That book because of the struggles that went into it for me, I'm ultimately really proud of it. It's not the same as my other books. It was a challenging sort of it was a mountain I was trying to climb. It's up to you to decide how successfully I did that or not. I will say it's the only one of my books to be optioned to be turned into a movie.

I think Conspiracy is one of the best books I've read in the last decade just an astounding piece of fucking work.

Have you read David Epstein's book uh Range?

I like David Epstein a lot he has this book called Range which I think a lot about

it's actually this really great sort of parenting book in disguise

the whole book is basically a contrast between Tiger Woods and Roger Federer

Have you read David Epstein's book Range?

His point is, you know, he quotes that famous line I forget what it is but it's like specialization is for insects is what it says but it's you know a mountain lion does one thing like really really well and a bear does a bunch of things pretty well and that's why bears can be so fucking big because they've got some redundancies built in right that they're not they're not having to hone every muscle and every you know thing and human beings are I think we have Range we can do a bunch of different things not Range in the sense that a mountain lion has a large Range but Range in in terms of a tool kit

Have you read David Epstein's book Range?

I have not I think you would really like it he well he wrote a book called The Sport he wrote a book called The Sports Gene which uh several years ago which is really good but then Range is basically he's contrasting tiger woods and Roger Federer so like tiger woods uh it's basically from two years old is told told you're gonna be a golfer and he's basically raised in a kind of science experiment to um to you know to do nothing but live and breathe you know hitting this small white ball um whereas like Roger Federer like plays a bunch of sports he doesn't even really get serious about tennis until his like late teens and he just he has a different relationship with but they're both dominant both you know all-time greats um one has sort of more of a resilience and a flexibility and a lightness to him and the other is like kind of imprisoned in this thing and his point is that Range having a Range of skills and interests and being exposed to different things not just in in in uh art or sorry not just in sports but in all things is a better you know is a better way to be

Yeah, I don't know if anyone in the room has read David Epstein's book, Range, which I actually think is a parenting book in disguise.

In her fascinating book on Pontius Pilate, which I've been raving about, of course, and we've also had her on the podcast, Anne Rowe quotes the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on what Pilate represents.

I want to give you this Pontius Pilate book. This one's incredible. Okay. You got to do this one. Thank you.

I swear to make a movie out of this. It would be an incredible movie.

In her fascinating and must-read book Pontius Pilate, Anne Rowe, you can listen to her podcast here, she sets the scene back in the year 26.

It is not hard to imagine dinner parties in Caesarea at which Pilate's guests visiting from Rome would regale him with the blood-soaked stories and sexual details that would make women cover their ears, she writes, while Pilate would listen in the awful sinking knowledge that this was the man to whom he owed his career, from whom he drew his authority and whose safety he prayed for.

And do check out that Pontius Pilate book by Anne Rowe, just absolutely incredible.

In her fascinating and must-read book Pontius Pilate, Anne Rowe, you can listen to her podcast here, she sets the scene back in the year 26.

And do check out that Pontius Pilate book by Anne Rowe, just absolutely incredible.

In her fascinating and must-read book Pontius Pilate, Anne Rowe, you can listen to her podcast here, she sets the scene back in the year 26.

It is not hard to imagine dinner parties in Caesarea at which Pilate's guests visiting from Rome would regale him with the blood-soaked stories and sexual details that would make women cover their ears, she writes, while Pilate would listen in the awful sinking knowledge that this was the man to whom he owed his career, from whom he drew his authority and whose safety he prayed for.

And do check out that Pontius Pilate book by Anne Rowe, just absolutely incredible.

she spends a lot of time thinking about Pilate and the fact that he's basically a guy with an undesirable job with a shitty boss right he's the boss of one of the most capricious evil Roman emperors and so this is this paragraph he says it's not hard to imagine dinner parties in Cisaria at which pilots uh in which pilots guests visiting from Rome would regale him with bloodsoaked stories and sexual details that would make the women cover their ears while Pilate would listen in the awful sinking knowledge that this was the man to whom he owed his career from whom he drew his authority and whose safety he prayed for doubtless in some sense you could disconnect from the man the man from the office as people under any regime can close their eyes to the personal sins of their rules of their rulers but there may have been times when he could not when amidst the gentile litter of wine beakers chicken bones roses and clowns the prefect of Judea would find himself suddenly sickened by the obscenity of his protector

I read this book on Pontius Pilate the other day by Ann Roe. It's in the store I'll give you one it's incredible

Sometimes I read a book and I'm just like, wow, where did this come from? This is just an amazing work of art. Like it's just masterful in every sense.

I don't know why I ended up reading this biography of Pontius Pilate but man, it was so good. I could only read a couple pages at a time and I needed to stop and just think. I just needed to take a minute and think about that's how good this book was.

I have not read a book this good in a very long time.

It is unreal good. Like, as I'm saying, one of the best books I have ever read.

I just came away with this sort of sense that Pilate was a guy with a shitty job in a shitty boss stuck in a shitty situation trying to...trying not to screw it up.

His book, The Psychology of Money, is so popular in the Painted Porch.

It sold millions of copies all over the world.

did you read the um did you read The Psychology of Money yes yes okay I had him on the park as Oregon's great yeah yeah he's awesome and there's that story in there that he tells that I just think is so significant of most of those people that I I met in it's about Joseph Heller remember the story in the book yeah enough yeah it's in stillness too right it's in my book stillness yeah it's never enough

the financial writer Morgan Howell who's wonderful book The Psychology of Money we recommend and who was on the podcast recently once described history as one damned thing after another and what is history made up of life.

I was just reading Morgan Howell's The Psychology of Money and he has this line in there unexpected things happen all the time or things that have never happened before happen all the time that's the wisdom of what Sennaqa is trying to say there that's what we prepare for

his new book The Psychology of Money Timeless Lessons on Wealth Green in Happiness is a deep dive into The Psychology of Money the difference between being rich and being wealthy how we measure our success problem with comparison as I was just saying and much more it's sold nearly two million copies and been translated into 46 languages

it is really genuinely good I loved reading it I took a bunch of notes I wish more writers would write in this style as we talk about in today's interview I loved the stories I loved that it was both general and specific and you I took a lot out of it and I think it's a very apt for this crazy moment in economic history that we are in and I recommend it highly

I recommend reading The Psychology of Money anywhere you get your books but if you want to pick it up at the pain in porch go for it and you can go to Morgan's website in morganhousel.com and follow him on twitter at morganhouselinjoy

I think people primarily learn via stories right they learn by stories not by facts not by charts not by even these sort of long form like arguments they learn by stories and not stories about the author but about like sort of bite-sized anecdotes the Greek word for this is a crayah it's like a short story that has kind of a moral point to it that teaches a larger lesson and like most finance books are like let me tell you how the markets work they're not like here's a bunch of memorable stories that will sort of triangulate for you an understanding of the market

And if you haven't read Morgan Housel's The Psychology of Money and The Art of Spending Money, those are two other books that I might pair with this one.

In this episode, I'm bringing you one of Seneca's letters. This is from one of my favorite audio books. My dear friend, Tim Ferriss produced it. He calls it The Tao of Seneca.

So there's not a great selection and that's why I was so excited when a few years ago my friend Tim Ferris brought out the Dow of Seneca an audiobook that's essentially the best of Seneca's letters.

I recommend this to people all the time who maybe are more listeners than readers and I said, hey Tim, can I run some of my favorite letters from your audiobook on the podcast?

In today's episode, Ryan presents an excerpt from The Tao Of Seneca produced by Tim Ferriss' Audio.

If you haven't bought it or read the PDF highly recommended, you can actually get the PDF totally for free at Tim.blogslash.

Tim Ferriss published his audiobook a few years ago called The Dow of Senica. It's compilation of Senica's letters.

You can get that free PDF at tim.blogslashsenica. You can get the audiobook version of it. I'll link to it in today's show notes and then you can pick up letters from a stoke if you want to read it.

I just love Seneca's letters so much that here we are 2000 years later able to sort of peek in on this wonderful friendship and conversation he was having with the one and only Lucilius.

I hope you do check out the audio book The Dow of Seneca.

This is an excerpt from Tim Ferris' wonderful, the Dow of Santa Cah, his audiobook of Santa Cah's letters which audiobooks of the Stoics are really hard to find in Tim I think has done a wonderful public service by putting this out in the world.

But in this letter, one of my favorite letters from Santa Cah, Santa Cah is talking about pleasure and joy.

Santa Cah talks in this letter about that idea of preferred indifference meaning things we can pursue but shouldn't pursue too hard, things we can enjoy but don't necessarily make us better human beings.

if you wish to be loved love

a wise man never values friendship above his own self, but that we retire to our inner self and yet friendship indisputably makes life better.

Hikato says I can show you a filter compounded without drugs, herbs or any which is in temptation if you would be loved love.

a man may rule the world and still be unhappy if he does not feel that he is supremely happy

unblessed is he who thinks himself unblessed

I was struck also, there's another, I think, intersection between these sort of book clubs and stoicism is I was amazed at the play, the Joseph Addison play Cato, which was so popular at that time, which I imagine that many of them didn't see as a play. They probably read it or read excerpts of it.

I was struck also, there's another, I think, intersection between these sort of book clubs and stoicism is I was amazed at the play, the Joseph Addison play Cato, which was so popular at that time, which I imagine that many of them didn't see as a play.

Like, I regret I have but one life to lose for my country or give me liberty or give me death.

I was struck also, there's another, I think, intersection between these sort of book clubs and stoicism is I was amazed at the play, the Joseph Addison play Cato, which was so popular at that time, which I imagine that many of them didn't see as a play.

They probably read it or read excerpts of it. But when I sat down and read the play a few years ago, what struck me was how many of the lines from that play end up in sort of seminal moments of the revolution.

Like, I regret I have but one life to lose for my country or give me liberty or give me death.

I was struck also, there's another, I think, intersection between these sort of book clubs and stoicism is I was amazed at the play, the Joseph Addison play Cato, which was so popular at that time,

I was struck also, there's another, I think, intersection between these sort of book clubs and stoicism is I was amazed at the play, the Joseph Addison play Cato, which was so popular at that time, which I imagine that many of them didn't see as a play. They probably read it or read excerpts of it. But when I sat down and read the play a few years ago, what struck me was how many of the lines from that play end up in sort of seminal moments of the revolution.

and then there is this new book that I was fascinated by it's called uncommon wrath how Caesar and kato's deadly rivalry destroyed the Roman Republic

there's also a book called Rome's Last Citizen which I sell at the paint of porch I'll link to in today's show notes and I reread recently that presents a very interesting and nuanced portrait of kato

I've raved about the book Rome's Last Citizen many times. It's a great book.

And one of the things I try to do here on the weekend is provide excerpts or insights into some of those books.

You can also pick up of course the physical edition of the book which I quite like.

It's really a great book because before I'd written Lives of the Stoics, there really weren't that many biographies of the actual stoics, particularly some of these lesser known stoics.

And today's episode is an excerpt from this great biography, Rome's Last Citizen, The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar.

I do hope you check out this book, read it in physical or audio.

Rome's Last Citizen, the life and legacy of Cato, mortal enemy of Caesar by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Sony.

Plutarch has this great set of essays on leadership and I think Princeton has a translation of it called How to Be a Leader but he says a leader must be able to do everything but a leader must be able to do anything but can't do everything right

A leader has to be willing to do anything but they can't do everything right because if you try to do everything you won't do the most important things and that also means your micromanaging and you're stepping on people's toes and you're just being in control for you right you yet to be willing to get your hands dirty have to be willing to do the hard grunt work and you have to lead from the front.

It's three essays from Plutarch on being an educated leader how to be a good leader and should old men engage in politics.

one of the great books of leadership of all time

Plutarch refutes the notion that the benefit of holding office is merely the opportunity to exercise power

a leader who is governed by reason exhibits an example of virtue to the citizens of a city and even more this virtuous leader may in turn make the citizens virtuous.

He wrote this book called How to Be a Leader, or it's an essay, and then there's a new penguin university or Princeton University press collection that I like called How to Be a Leader as some of his essays on leadership and he talks about how how often people are attracted to positions of power or governance...

It's about how a leader has to share power has to delegate has to prioritize the tasks that they do.

Plutarch is the best that's ever done it and I'm so grateful to Princeton University Press and this ancient wisdom series that they have for putting together this new edition I highly recommend you read How to Be a Leader

To an uneducated leader in this brief essay Plutarch refutes the notion that the benefit of holding office is merely the opportunity to exercise power this is the myopic stance of uneducated leaders whom he portrays as insecure and afraid of the people they govern.

a leader must be able and willing to do anything but can't do everything

Plutarch's How to Be a Leader from Princeton University Press' Ancient Wisdom series.

Plutarch is just the best that ever did it.

This new How to Be a Leader series is fantastic.

I highly recommend you read How to Be a Leader.

There's a great book by Tom Ricks, I have in the bookstore called Waging a Good War, where he looks at the civil rights movement as a military campaign.

Ricks looks at what made Bob Moses one of the best, yet lesser known, civil rights leaders.

he had the capacity for reflection and distance from the thing you are very much in the midst of an even leading.

the ability to gain psychological detachment to reflect on action is a talent of many effective leaders.

he had the capacity for Reflection and distance from the thing you are very much in the midst of an even leading.

you've heard some of my past guests like Tom Ricks who I talked about in his book The Waging a Good War

In his fascinating book, Waging a Good War, Tom Ricks who has a must listen to episode on The Daily Stoic Podcasts, he explains that each Highlander training session of one or two weeks began with a strategic question. What do you want to do? They asked and then it ended with a tactical discussion of how to reach that outcome. What are you going to do?

i just read this book it was very good uh this is i just had him on the pockets this is tom tom ricks's book on the civil rights movement um called waging a good word but anyways one of the things that we don't talk enough about when we talk about the civil rights movement is we we think of it solely as a moral movement based on ideas which it was but we ignore that every single one of these civil rights protesters was subjected to training they were trained in non-violence non-violence being a moral and spiritual discipline that you have to practice and they were even even like the million man march there was a list of rules yeah that you had to agree to follow to participate in the march okay if you if you have trouble with these rules stay home let us handle it right and so so i think we sometimes we do the civil rights movement a disservice by not acknowledging that the very human impulse when someone punches you in the head or calls you a racial slur is to respond with violence or words or whatever that you know like when john louis falls on another protester to protect them from his body this is the opposite of what you're instinctually going to do this is a result of deliberate and very well thought out practice which drives all the way from gondi but i think I think we have to understand that this was a discipline that they were following it wasn't just they were right and so magically were transcended you know transcended their human limitations and were superhuman they they were like an athlete who had practiced for this moment of

And then I've been raving about this book Night of the Grizzlies, which I loved.

And then I've been raving about this book Night of the Grizzlies, which I loved.

And then I've been raving about this book Night of the Grizzlies, which I loved.

And then I've been raving about this book Night of the Grizzlies, which I loved audio peaks the imagination and it brings thrillers to life.

And then I've been raving about this book Night of the Grizzlies, which I loved.

And then I've been raving about this book Night of the Grizzlies, which I loved.

And then I've been raving about this book Night of the Grizzlies, which I loved.

And in fact, the New York Times list for the most part tends to exclude books that have been on there too long.

But actually the things that move the most units are the things that they didn't sell 10,000 copies in a week and then appear at number five on the New York Times list.

your work doesn't have to be a flash in the pan it doesn't have to be connected to trends or fads you don't have to be trying to catch a wave before it crashes some people make work that's actually important that's perennial that's timeless that's always going to be true what I love about Marx really says meditations is that this wasn't even intended for publication it's for his own private use but it's so honest and authentic and vulnerable and real that it lasts for two thousand years even for a guy who who didn't care about posthumous fame when I wrote Perennial Seller I was thinking about this idea from longfellow that art is long but time is fleeting that if you're chasing what's now you're going to miss out what's always going to be true in the future so when I write try to make things that last try to make things that are timeless trying to make things that are true trying to make things that really do something for people I don't give a shit about what's happening in the world around me I'm trying to make something that will endure

when I was thinking about writing my book Perennial Seller my publisher said look we think there's a really good market for a book that teaches people who write books how to market books.

If you read my book, Perennial Seller, this is essentially the premise. Like what makes something classic? What makes it endure? What makes it stand the test of time?

I wrote about them a bunch in my book, Perennial Seller.