A Book Isn’t A Mirror. It’s A Door!

“A couple weeks ago, we talked about Fran Lebowitz’s secret to be immensely rich. They also happen to be a secret to empathy and understanding. There has been a big push lately for diversity and inclusion in books and television. This is important, obviously, because any system that does exclude voices is an unjust one. But we should also be careful in our pursuit—as readers or consumers—of art about people like me.”Ryan explains why gaining perspective through reading is so important, on today’s Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom in everyday life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us, dailystoic.com.

• 0:28Ryan Holiday?

  A book isn't a mirror, it's a door. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about Fran Lebowitz's secret to being immensely rich. It also happens to be a secret to empathy and understanding. There has been a big push recently for diversity and inclusion in books and television. This is important, obviously, because any system that excludes voices is an unjust one. But we should also be careful in our pursuit as readers and consumers of art about people just like us. As Fran explained, as someone from a small town in New Jersey, someone who was expelled from one school and suspended from another, someone who worked jobs scooping ice cream, driving taxis, cleaning apartments,

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  she's thankful that she didn't see herself in books. I mean, she says, "A book isn't supposed to be a mirror, it's supposed to be a door." Isn't that what's special about meditations? We're not emperors, we don't have 14 children, we are not Romans, we don't lead massive armies, we didn't have to live through the Antonine Plague. Yet, it's Marcus's specificity, his unique individual experience, that makes him so universally relatable. He reveals in his writing that, for all our differences, we are, in fact, the same. And when I was writing The Boy Who Would Be King, some of the early feedback from my friends, they questioned along these politically correct lines, whether it was exclusionary to have a book about a

• 1:56Ryan Holiday?

  boy who would be king. But the book isn't about boys at all. It's about destiny. It's about becoming whoever you were meant to be. They say if you only read books that everyone else is reading, you will only think what everyone else is thinking. If you look for mirrors, you'll only see yourself. Instead, we need to look for windows and doors. We want to learn from other people's experiences. We want to see the world through their eyes and see ourselves and our destiny a little bit more clearly as a result. And look, as Epictetus said, it's not just that you read, but what you read that counts. And I'd love for you to check out The Boy Who Would Be King.

• 2:40Ryan Holiday?

  I'd love to introduce you to this timeless, ageless story for all the aspiring leaders in your life. I've got signed, personalized copies in the Daily Stoic store at store.dailystoic.com. Also grab it on Amazon. I'm so proud of this book. Yes, it's about a boy who would be king, but it's really about all of us, all of us who are trying to become who we are meant to become in this life. The Boy Who Would Be King, check it out. Store.dailystoic.com. You buy it there, you'll get the audiobook for free. Can't wait for you to read it.