The Daily Stoic

he's not saying that we should avoid them, we should run away from them, he's saying that we should look at them with a sneer or a smirk in the sense that we're better than them, that we're challenged by them but we don't shy away from this challenge.

if you accomplish something good with hard work the work passes quickly but the good endures but then he says though if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure you take the easy way out, the result doesn't last long but the shame endures and most of all he said we earn respect of others earning the respect of ourselves by disdaining hardships, by conquering them, by doing the hard work

So this book was translated relatively recently and I enjoyed it. This is Musoneus Rufus, whose epictetus is teacher and it's called that should That One Should Disdain Hardships and I read this in March last year.

there's a wonderful translation of Musoneus that I would recommend called that one should disdain hardship we carry it at the painted porch.

we carry an addition of Musonius Rufus that I would recommend called That One Should Disdain Hardships and we carry it at the painted porch all linked to that in today's show notes as well.

there is um a couple let me see there's an interesting book uh by mousse that that was published of musonius rufus recently and it's called that um That One Should Disdain Hardships the teachings of a roman stoic and it's this little interesting book i read it so every time i read a book and then i do the notes i wrote i write down when i read it so i read this in march uh of 2020 um but uh he he sort of has some some really good lectures on stoicism he sort of he does he is trying to define um the stuff and and musonius rufus was epic teetus's teacher so you might like that book um uh which i was not really in print before and then the other tricky one um he's a character in lines of the stoics i talk about arius didamous um and he was the advisor to the emperor octavian slash Augustus um he wrote of there's this sort of collection of his writings called uh i think stoic ethics by arius didamous and and it's probably the least practical but it it does feel the most sort of definitive like he's really trying to he's like defining terms and and it's it's not super i won't say either of these books are like riveting self-help but but it might go to your point about like sort of really trying to get to to some first principles

I've been reading his book Ghost Town Living, chasing dreams and mining purpose on the edge of Death Valley.

So this is my favorite chapter in the book. I just read it to my son, Clark. So it's I think it's fit for all ages.

If you look at the book, it's got these beautiful maps of it. He recorded this way underground, which is I understand it, the only only audiobook such recorded.

But go grab Ghost Town Living. We've got signed numbered first editions at the painted porch.

My wife and I have both been raving about this book, Furious Hours which is a true crime story that lo and behold involves Harper Lee.

Anyways this is a story Brent tells in Ghost Town Living mining for purpose and chasing dreams at the edge of that valley which I was lucky enough to work on it's a book I love I love the Sarah Gordon story it's why I've been talking about it so much here at Daily Stoke.

You haven't checked it out yet you should have debuted on the New York Times best seller list and it's just an awesome book I think you'll really like it you grab that we have some signed numbered first editions over at the painted porch I'll link to that in today's show notes check it out.

I've been reading Brent's new book Ghost Town Living mining for purpose and chasing dreams on the edge of death valley and I've been actually reading the the book the last couple nights

it's an awesome book we've been reading it it's it's really a great book it's in that genre of like you know desert solitaire wild spichero straight kind of books and i think you're really going to like it

Clark keep exploring

For nearly two years Brent Underwood had made no progress on restoring the buildings at Saragordo this abandoned mining town in California.

I just felt we needed to raise money higher contractors and preservation and then it all get done in one big frenzied crush of Candue spirit not a very good plan he said because after two years I made precisely zero progress.

It was only when Brent threw all these plans aside and got serious got small that any progress was made.

He stopped thinking big and he started working on the front porch of one old building as he writes in the book which again is awesome he says it was a small feat in the grand scheme of things but it was a start a good start.

The sense of pride I derived from seeing a space go from unusable to usable the sense of autonomy that accomplishing this small task left me with felt like life like rebirth like my own personal renaissance I felt competent and effective that something anything had finally happened here and that I was the one responsible for it gave me the first taste of satisfaction that comes from working with your hands from working meaningfully diligently patiently incrementally towards a big goal my dreams had an integrity now that they lacked before they weren't pying the sky there were boots on the ground hands in the dirt.

It was during that time that we were putting together the a live time challenge for the daily stoic Brent explains in his amazing new book Ghost Town Living so it's thinking a lot about this, just thinking about whether it was going to be a live time or a dead time and I kept going back he says to that fundamental stoic lesson separating things into what you can and can't control.

And the book is really, really great. I read an early copy of it. I got to help do a passive edits on it too.

Check out Ghost Town Living, Mining for Purpose and Chasing Dreams on the Edge of Death Valley. I think it's a great book up there with desert solitaire and some of those books in that category. It's going to be a favorite of yours.

It was probably the most devastating day of my life. You are literally watching your life savings and hopes and dreams burn down in front of you.

You can't change what happened he told Brent, but what happens from here is up to you.

And now an awesome book by the same name Ghost Town Living Mining for Purpose and Chasing Dreams at the edge of Death Valley.

But if you haven't grabbed the book, you absolutely should.

And if you like podcasts, he recorded the audiobook of it 900 feet underground just an awesome story, so cool to see Brent not just survive up there but thrive despite all kinds of adversity.

Check out Brent's book Ghost Town Living: Mining for Purpose and Chasing Dreams at the Edge of Death Valley at The Painted Porch.

when you read the stoics it's real people who have real jobs. Kato is a senator, we have senators now.

Seneca's never like 'I am the son of God'.

Seneca's writing to his friend Lucilius who has the same job as Pontius Pilate.

I love the Penguin Classics physical translation of letters from Aesthetic. That's what I carry at the Payne and Port.

You can check out the lobe editions are more complete. I've read those as well.

My favorite translation of Seneca's Letters is his Pagwood edition, which I carry at the Payton Ports.

Seneca moral letters 92

when philosophy is wielded with arrogance and stubbornly it is the cause for the ruin of many let philosophy scrape off your own faults rather than be a way to rail against the faults of others

some people with exceptional minds quickly grasp virtue or produce it within themselves but other dim and lazy types hindered by bad habits must have their rusty souls constantly scrubbed down the weaker sorts will be helped and lifted from their bad opinions if we put them in the care of philosophy's principles

Go read some of the letters from Seneca, not included in the Penguin Classics translation.

My favorite translation of Seneca's letters is this one, Seneca's Letters from a Stoic by Penguin Classics

I'm gonna give you a book at Cartoli The Power of Now

I read the power now I've probably read it seven or eight times now and that really changed my outlook on how to deal with a lot of things not only just in swimming but in my life and I just think that was a very powerful learning thing for both of us and Michael's read that book a couple times now we both sort of rely on it

Eckhart totally is one of my great teachers obviously The Power of Now is one of the greatest books ever written. If the people listening read one book don't read mine read The Power of Now absolutely hands down.

People say I need my parents to understand me to be happy and he goes really. He just like he says really almost like sign fell there's something is like you need your parents to understand you to be happy. Like what are we doing like wake up from the dream you do not need that that is that is something that you've come to believe that you need.

If the people listening read one book, don't read mine, read The Power of Now, absolutely hands down that's not false humility.

He says in it something like, people say, I need my parents to understand me to be happy. And he goes, really?

He's like, you need your parents to understand you to be happy. Like what are we doing? Like wake up from the dream, you do not need that.

It's funny in my podcast interview with Oliver Berkman in his new book, 4000 Hours, he quoted something that he said is a real British expression, but I had actually heard a couple days earlier in Ted Lasso, the idea that it's the hope that kills you.

in my podcast interview with Oliver Berkman in his new book 4,000 hours he quoted something that he said is a real British expression but I had actually heard of a couple days earlier in Ted Lasso the idea that it's the hope that kills you

in my podcast interview with Oliver Berkman in his new book 4000 hours. He quoted something that he said is a real British expression but I had actually heard of a couple days earlier in Ted Lasso the idea that it's the hope that kills you.

4000 Weeks is the approximate length of an 80-year lifespan expressed in weeks.

It's not that life is short, it's that we waste a lot of it.

the hope that kills you

Burning the Days

the one thing all fools have in common is that they're always getting ready to live

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.

There's an amazing story about Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller who wrote Catch 22 and Slotter House 5. They're at the party of this billionaire.

I guess it would have been it's either 2017 or 2018. I was in New York City on my book tour for conspiracy and my friend, Tib Irvin, threw together a little dinner at this stake house.

Conspiracy I think is my best book it's probably sold the least well of all the books it's still a success like if any other author published it and it sold that many copies they're like that's so nice you did a good job but like and you can make a living but it didn't do what I wanted it to do necessary like it didn't it didn't it it's success is not let's say its sales figures are not to measure it with like my judgment of it

when I interviewed Peter Tiel from my book Conspiracy and Peter is a complicated individual who I don't agree with on a lot of things.

I had heard from her and her wife, Nelly Bulls, that they had liked my book Conspiracy.

That's one of the lessons in my book, Conspiracy, a true story of power, sex and a billionaire's secret plot to destroy an Emperor.

It's the first one that's likely to be turned into a movie.

It's being adapted by Charles Randolph, who wrote The Big Short and Bombshell about Fox News.

I'm really proud of this book.

If you want to check it out, Conspiracy, a true story of power, sex, and a billionaire's secret plot to destroy a media empire, you can check it out anywhere books are sold. And I hope you enjoy it.

And it's going to appear a bunch in The Wisdom Book, which will be the fourth book in the Virtue series, which I'm writing now, because it's absolutely awesome.

But it's funny, I was just pulling a book off the shelf for something I'm writing for The Wisdom Book now, this Emerson book.

But it's funny, I was just pulling a book off the shelf for something I'm writing for The Wisdom Book now, this Emerson book.

And it's funny, I was just pulling a book off the shelf for something I'm writing for The Wisdom Book now, this Emerson book.

But it's funny, I was just pulling a book off the shelf for something I'm writing for The Wisdom Book now, this Emerson book.

But it's funny, I was just pulling a book off the shelf for something I'm writing for The Wisdom Book now, this Emerson book. And I was like, oh, I bought this in Bondi Beach last time I was in Australia.

Actually, Emily Wilson, who is a translator of The Odyssey and a person I'd love to have on the podcast, she has a great biography of Seneca called The Greatest Empire.

I've also raved about Emily Wilson's book, which I think now is just called Seneca, A Life, but when I read it, it was called The Greatest Empire.

Emily Wilson's biography on Seneca, The Greatest Empire is fantastic and fascinating. I would love to have her on the podcast. I've asked many, many times

if you haven't read The Greatest Empire by Emily Wilson you absolutely should

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

In fact, he actually writes a book called Painting As a Pastime. It's a beautiful book and one of the passages in the books he says, the cultivation of a hobby and new forms of interest is the first is of the first importance for a public person.

He said to be really happy and really safe, one ought to have not just two or three hobbies, but they all must be real, right? They must be physical. They must actually force you to practice a craft.

he would actually write a book called Painting As a Pastime and he says every public or important person should have one or two hobbies

he wrote this amazing book called Painting As a Pastime where he said like the most important thing that a public person can do is have one or two good hobbies

Churchill's book on painting

Churchill wrote a book called Painting as a past time and I was like what why would first have I don't think people think of Churchill as a writer but that's how he made his living and you don't think like prime minister the guy that stands up to the Nazis you're like and he must have loved watercolors like I think he was more oil paints but the point is like he has this nervous breakdown after the second after the first world war and his sister log gives him children's paint set and says like hey this might help you relax

Oh, have you read on that book? It's incredible.

The world today does not understand, in either man or woman, the need to be alone.

these are among the most important times in one's life when one is alone. Certain springs are tapped only when we are alone.

The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach-waiting for a Gift from the Sea.

Actually, I came across a *Gift from the Sea*, I wasn't looking for a particular book, I was in a bookstore in seaside Florida and it was there on the table and I bought it and I loved it.

The good past is so far away she wrote and the near past is so horrible and the future is so perilous.

I want to be at peace with myself.

This year was one of the bestselling books in the entire country in 1955. It was enormously popular when it came out. It was profoundly impactful for hundreds of thousands of people.

But it's really a book about stillness. . . Everything's going a mile a minute. As she's trying to wrestle with all these challenging demands. As we ourselves are wrestling with all the demands of the modern world. Like we all have this desire to slow things down. To get perspective. To get to what really matters.

The main thing I don't like about this book is that I didn't read it when I was writing Stillness is the Key. Because I almost certainly would have quoted it many many times.

My favorite translation is in the painting porch. I'll link to that.

And so this is the kind of stuff that Seneca talks about in his consolations essays which until relatively recently couldn't be found in one place.

It's got his consolation to Marcia, consolation to Helvia that's his mother, consolation to Polyvus, Polybius. And then it's also got his essay on the shortness of life which of course touches on the topic of grief as well.

the point of stosism is not to grit your teeth and just grind through life. No, it's to find happiness and joy despite all the things that are happening

In fact, one can't pick up the works of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, even the sayings of Epictetus without being struck at how insimilarly familiar these philosophers were with the great writing, fiction, essays, books and histories of their time.

Seneca writes these very moving essays on grief, which I recommend all the time actually when today's guest was here. I gave him a copy of Seneca's hardship and happiness. One of my favorite go-tos from Seneca, just a beautiful book.

And definitely check out Finding Meaning and the Seneca book I was telling you about.

Another book I love that I carry, the Painted Porch, is Leadership by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It's called Leadership in Turbulent Times. A great book.

But he's specifically talking about a pressing issue, which is runs on the banks right.

He understands his job as the leader, he can't solve the banking crisis with a swoop of legislation just yet, although he obviously has a bunch of plans, but first he has to let people know there are hands on the wheel.

another book that I really like is Doris Kern's Goodwin the biographer she she has a book called Leadership Interbulent Times and it's it's sort of a she's obviously been a master biographer for you know many many decades but this is sort of a greatest hits album of the people she wrote about which is theater Roosevelt Lincoln Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson but it's the moments of turmoil and crisis and difficulty of their life in their story so it's I think you know Leadership when things are going great is easy you want to you want to study what the leaders did in moments of crisis and difficulty because that's most likely where you're going to need to lean on them

This is Doris Kern's Goodwin's Leadership in turbulent times, a very timely book and timeless one.

And then one book I also read during the beginning of the pandemic was Doris Kern's Goodwin's Leadership in Turbulent Times which is basically a biography of Lincoln both Roosevelt's and then Lyndon Johnson so not just Leadership you know in all moments but she really focuses on leaders during moments of adversity which of course the last two years have been defined by but as we see this sort of trailing logistical nightmare that you guys are in especially you know that's not going away anytime soon and certainly doesn't look like the world is getting more stable so I thought that was a really great book and I've thought about it quite a quite a bit since I finished it.

The Cost of These Dreams is a book I recommend to so many people. It's one of my all-time favorite sports books. He's an amazing writer.

Wright Thompson, the sports writer whose pieces on Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Muhammad Ali, and Ted Williams I've used in many of my books, talked about The Cost of These Dreams.

And Wright Thompson's writing on the complicated lives of great people has challenged me to try to be better and more balanced.

And actually, Wright Thompson has one of my all-time favorite books, this book called The Cost of These Dreams that's a collection of his amazing sports writing.

I love your book, The Cost of These Dreams.

The Cost of These Dreams is a book I recommend to so many people. It's one of my all-time favorite sports books.

Wright Thompson, the sports writer whose pieces on Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Muhammad Ali, and Ted Williams I've used in many of my books, talked about The Cost of These Dreams.

And Wright Thompson's writing on the complicated lives of great people has challenged me to try to be better and more balanced.

And actually, Wright Thompson has one of my all-time favorite books, this book called The Cost of These Dreams that's a collection of his amazing sports writing.

I love your book, The Cost of These Dreams.

I've raved about his book The Cost of These Dreams which is not really about sports but it so much is about the pursuit of greatness and what it costs you.

If you picked up The Daily Dad, there's stuff in there from his story on Ted Williams and his daughter.

Check out The Cost of These Dreams. We carry it in the painted porch and then Papyland also fantastic.

I had right Thompson on the sports writer and his book is titled The Cost of These Dreams.

I think you might have recommended the book to self-driven child which is a great book and that's another thing too I think as a parent if you're not educating yourself getting the daily dad and reading about parenting asking great parents asking people that love their parents I just want to ask how was your childhood growing up they're like oh I love my dad I love my mom book you why I look at parenting just like I look at my job it also being a husband too those are the three things in my life on my job my husband and my parenting I want to be really really good at those and I'll educate myself I approach it like a job like I want to do research on how right in my journal about it so I want to know how I can be the best I can be at it

some parenting books I love there's a self-driven child there's a better man the good news about that behavior how to raise kids who aren't hassles to get to failure reading for our lives expecting better they're all really good but I found that reading them once wasn't nearly sufficient what I needed as a parent was the thing that I'd check in with and read every day seeing parenting as an ongoing process

When I interviewed Dr. William Sticksrud and Ned Johnson about their book The Self-Driven Child, which I carry at the Painted Porch Bookstore, they paraphrased an idea from Dr. Ross Green that's worth committing to memory. People do well when they can.

as Dr. Stixrod said on the Daily Stoic podcast his excellent book, The Self-Driven Child is one I recommend you pick that up at the pinnip porch.

Dr. William Stixrud and Ned Johnson, the author of The Self-Driven Child, one of my favorite parenting books.

One of the books I recommend to parents all the time, something that's informed my parenting philosophy.

And then they have a new book called What Do You Say? How To Talk With Kids To Build Motivation, Stress Tolerance, and A Happy Home. I think it's very much related to The Self-Driven Child.

And of course pick up The Self-Driven Child. Hopefully at the Painted Porch or anywhere books are sold.

I've loved this book. My wife loved this book. We carry it at the Painted Porch bookstore. It's one of the few parenting books we have. It's a fantastic book. It's really about this idea of agency.

It's a great book. A must read for parents.

And it happens that the two guys know their fair share of stoicism.

we wrote The Self-Driven Child to try to help parents and educators kind of get ideas about how do we help to nurture that sense of agency that says this is your life and I respectfully I have confidence and respect that you can figure out your own life

here is my frame of mine as I sit down to work this is the day is no other day this is the day

This is the day. There is no other day. This is the day. There is no other time. Today is the Super Bowl. Today is the day I give birth. Today is the day that I die. Not tomorrow.

When I sit down to write in the morning he writes, I literally have no expectations for myself or the day's work. My only goal is to put in three or four hours with my fingers punching the keys. I don't judge myself on quality. I hold myself accountable for quantity.

he chose to put his ass where his heart wanted to be.

I read [Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be] before sitting down to tackle this new book that I'm writing. And it's delightful.

Just like you might say that you're not a good stoic, people might say or worse believe that they're not creative.

You're either engaging in the practice or you're not, Rubin says.

It makes no sense to say that you're not good at it.

It's like saying, I'm not good at being a monk.

You're either living as a monk or you're not.

his great book on creativity is just absolutely amazing. And I highly recommend it.

He sent me an early copy of the book and asked for some marketing advice which I gave. And then it's been awesome to see this book be just a monster seller which it deserves to be.

I loved the book. Carried at the painted porch.

I think it says something also about Rick and his willingness to get insights and ideas from any source.

I'm hoping that when you're reading it you get a feeling of like I want to stop reading so I want to go make something that was the the hope for the book

this is um Rick Rubin's book The Creative Act and he's he's he's basically the greatest record producer of all time right and you know the Red Hot Chili Peppers and uh you know uh Neil Diamond Johnny Cash his point is like he's not he's like I'm not some like amazing guru that knows how to just tell people what to do his point is that creativity is a product of environment and systems and uh vibe you might say uh to use the current word his point is that it's something that ensues from having done the right thing right and I think so often as leaders as parents um we expect certain things from people and we assume that our job as leaders is to hold them accountable for not doing those things or rewarding them for doing the things and then we think less about uh you know what's more in our control which is what is the environment what is the system what is the structure that we are setting up that allows those things to naturally flourish right and so I'm not just talking about being an example I'm just saying that um how do we think about creating an environment in which the traits the virtues or the outcomes we want to see is is likely to ensue from that so that that's just a sort of a quick point I wanted to make um but I think for the Stokes the idea that look we're all part of this large system that we all have an individual job to do in this system uh and that when we focus on that this is where teams really come together

I really enjoyed the book; we do a deep dive into that and to philosophy in this wonderful episode of the podcast that was supposed to go an hour and instead it went two hours.

Rick could have very easily written like a celebrity tell all a sort of a music memoir and instead he wrote a book about something I think is much more timeless.

I felt like the embodiment of this book or your creative approach you've read um zen in the art of archery I'm sure right

I'm trying to get the the the one and sometimes the one um even I would say even in those days though I would listen back we'd work on a song we'd work on um the arrangement we play it many times and then maybe we'd have a revision let's change this part in this part and then we would change the two parts and then we would keep playing keep playing keep playing and let's change now later in the day let's change this part in this part we change those parts and and it keeps getting refined as we work over the course of the day and sometimes we would listen back to one of those earlier takes before it had those refinements and say it's just better it's just better even though it doesn't have those details we liked that came later.

Beware of the assumption that the way you work is the best way simply because it's the way you've done it before.

Tim Ferris's The Four-Hour Body

believe it or not, I didn't cry in The Road...the book or the movie, we don't talk about the movie, we'll talk about the book

he talks about carrying the fire like the kid is carrying that's what i think kids are but i also think like helping kids with it keeps the fire in

I stupidly reread Kormac McCarthy's The Road at the beginning of the pandemic.

But there were scenes in here where, you know, you're just chilling out under an underpass and someone takes a shot at you for no reason that kind of reminded me of the the dark insanity of of human beings.

In Cormac McCarthy's haunting novel, The Road, the man believed that everything depended on reaching the coast, yet waking in the night he knew that all of this was empty and had no substance to it. The coast was just an idea, a distant point on the horizon that served as something to measure progress against. No more, no less. So the man kept going.

as i was thinking about this i remembered this little thing that i'd read about robert Moses in robert caros book The Power Broker and i wrote down my note card and and i just boom the chapter just unlocked itself

it's one of the greatest books I think it's a feat of literary achievement for a couple reasons one that it's even interesting to the message of it is fascinating

he cut a quarter of a million words out of the book

it reads like a thriller and it's angel he did that what he does it's not even like a wonderful person it's about a monster unlikable male protagonist

I remembered this little thing that I'd read about Robert Moses in Robert Carlos book The Power Broker and I wrote down my note card and and I just boom the chapter just unlocked itself