How To Respond To Crazy People

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

• 0:03Ryan 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.

• 0:38Ryan Holiday?

  How to Respond to Crazy People. One suspects Marcus Aurelius was referring to a particularly frustrating person, some opponent who just would not or could not get the message, when he wrote, "You can hold your breath until they're blue in the face, and they'll just go on doing it." There's an American expression along those same lines. "Never wrestle with a pig. You just get dirty, and the pig enjoys it." Both of these pieces of advice are worth remembering for the inevitable moments that we find ourselves in conflict or at cross-purposes with one of those nutty, obnoxious, stubborn jerks that make up a certain percentage of the population. Although it's tempting to fight and argue with them,

• 1:22Ryan Holiday?

  it rarely ends well, because you can't beat someone with nothing to lose, and it's impossible to reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into in the first place. It takes great skill to identify irrationality and emotional reactions in other people. It takes a lot of confidence to avoid battling with someone acting out of ego. It requires patience to endure their onslaughts and put up with them in your midst. But if you can, you'll preserve your happiness and live a much less stressful life. It's not your job to change other people, and even if it were, crazy doesn't want to be changed. Learn how to walk away. Learn how to de-escalate.

• 2:06Ryan Holiday?

  Learn how to let other people be themselves, and you just do you. It's a much easier life you can count on.

• 2:19Ryan Holiday?

  Thanks for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Just a reminder, we've got signed copies of all my books in the Daily Stoic store. You can get them personalized, you can get them sent to a friend. The Obstacle is the Way, He Goes the Enemy, Stillness is the Key, the leather-bound edition of the Daily Stoic. We have them all in the Daily Stoic store, which you can check out at store.dailystoic.com.