You Must Avoid This Weakness

"We’d like to think that our mind is our friend, but of course it isn’t. The Stoics knew this. The mind wants to jump to conclusions. The mind wants us to get worked up. The mind wants not to be challenged, not to have to admit it was wrong. That’s why they worked so hard to question their assumptions, to build strategies for questioning their own thinking and not being at the mercy of it."Ryan describes the weakness that you must not fall prey to, in 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 @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanholidayInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanholiday/Facebook: http://facebook.com/ryanholidayYouTube: 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.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good 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 at dailystoic.com.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  You must avoid this weakness. We'd like to think that our mind is our friend, but of course, it isn't. The Stoics knew this. The mind wants to jump to conclusions. The mind wants us to get worked up. The mind wants not to be challenged, not to have to admit it was wrong. That's why the Stoics worked so hard to question their own assumptions, to build strategies for questioning their own thinking and not being at the mercy of their thoughts. This is very hard to do. We see the inability to do it manifest in our social media feeds, in internet comment sections, and of course, in our own opinions on a regular basis. Someone brings up something bad, something serious, the unethical conduct

• 1:12Ryan Holiday?

  of a politician you support, an example of brutal racism or injustice, a mistake you made, and how do we respond? It's inflexive. It's immediate. But what about blank? But where are the blanks on blank? But are you saying you don't care about looting and riots? But just last week, you did something worse, as if pointing out another wrong cancels out the first one, as if you can just change the subject and won't have to deal with the problem at hand. It's not how this works. What-about-ism is the sign of a weak mind. It's the sign of someone who is not in control of themselves, who is not wise, who is easily

• 1:52Ryan Holiday?

  susceptible to tolerating even being complicit in injustices. A Stoic looks at the world and at themselves unflinchingly. Marcus Aurelius thanked people who proved him wrong. Epictetus said we had to put our opinions to the test. You have to be strong enough to entertain disagreements. You have to be able to discuss and debate in good faith. It's the snowflakes who fly into a rage when someone challenges their views. It's the snowflakes who can never admit they're wrong or address deserved criticism or feedback. You're better than that, stronger and wiser than that, too. If you like the podcast that we do here and you want to get it via email every morning, you can sign up at dailystoic.com/email.