Is This Really What’s Important Right Now?

"Never underestimate the ability of human beings to focus on the wrong thing. Think about the number of people this past summer who—as the world’s economy was melting down, as the bodies piled up from the global COVID-19 pandemic, as millions lost their jobs—decided that what we should really be focused on are the ethics of selling tiger cubs and the sexual cultic undertones at play among the zookeepers in the Netflix docuseries, Tiger King. What we should be worried about, judging by reactions on social media, is not how we can get everyone tested for coronavirus or for COVID-19 antibodies, but whether the de facto villain in the show, Carole Baskin, killed her first husband, and whether she fed him to a tiger or buried him under a septic tank."Ryan tells us why we need to focus on the important things 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 @DailyStoic: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.

• 0:06Ryan 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?

  Is this really what's important right now? Never underestimate the ability of human beings to focus on the wrong thing. Think about the number of people who, as the world's economy was melting down, as the bodies piled up from the global COVID-19 pandemic, as millions lost their jobs, decided that what we should really be focused on are the ethics of selling tiger cubs and the sexual cultic undertones at play among the zookeepers in a Netflix docu-series. What we should be worried about is not how we can get everyone tested for coronavirus or for COVID-19 antibodies, they were saying, but whether the de facto villain in the show, Carole Baskin, killed her first husband,

• 1:13Ryan Holiday?

  and whether she fed him to a tiger or buried him under a septic tank. And if it wasn't a debate about whether Joe Exotic actually hired someone to kill Carole Baskin, or whether he deserved 22 years in prison, then it was the new logo rolled out by the NFL's Los Angeles Rams that got people really upset. They thought it was embarrassing and unnecessary. People on social media said it looked too much like the logo for KTLA, a famous local television station, or for the LA Chargers, the team they will be sharing their new stadium with once the NFL and the world returns to normalcy. In truth, what these people had in common is that they were just too blind to see that they were projecting, that they

• 1:55Ryan Holiday?

  were distracting themselves from the very real uncertainty that had descended onto the world. The people who thought that the new Rams logo was unnecessary, for example, didn't mean it in the context of everything that was going on in the world. They meant it from a nostalgic Perspective that the logo the Rams already had was better because it had been there for decades. This is the reaction you often get to voluntary newness and change from people when everything else around them is in turmoil. A wise person once described anger as fear turned outward, and that's exactly right. Most of the time, what makes us upset has little to do with the situation at hand, has to do with everything else. When Marcus Aurelius talked about practicing the art of having no opinion, he was very

• 2:39Ryan Holiday?

  aware of the fact that most of our opinions are reactionary and unrelated to what's actually happening. Better to suspend judgment altogether, he said, better to let it go. When he quoted Euripides, "Why should you feel anger at the world as if the world would notice?" He was pointing to the silliness of the projected anger of getting mad about distant things you don't control. You're going to dox Carol Baskin and campaign to shut down her tiger sanctuary because she reminds you of your ex-wife and the alimony you're still paying? You're going to make the Rams' marketing department feel the brunt of your frustration about losing your job? Or make them suffer for your conflicted feelings about your childhood memories? There's a lot going on in the world right now, a lot going on in your life.

• 3:24Ryan Holiday?

  You could focus on that. Or you could vent on the person who took too long at the stoplight. You could get frustrated, your kids, for not listening. Or you could take a breath and go for a walk. You could write mean or angry things on the internet, as well-meaning but clearly overloaded folks sometimes do when they hit reply to these daily Stoic emails. Or you could spend some time thinking about what your triggers are. Focus on what's important. Focus on what you control, starting with your own feelings.

• 3:55Ryan Holiday?

  Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. I am so excited to tell you about my next book, Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius. If you're a fan of Stoicism and you want to know about the people behind the ideas that have been so influential in history, that have shaped this philosophy that's had such a big impact on your life and my life, well, that's what I wrote this book to do. Sort of a follow-up. Sequel to The Daily Stoic. It's 26 biographies of the most fascinating Stoic figures in history. Marcus Aurelius, Zeno, Seneca, Cato, and so many others. And there's a whole bunch of bonuses if you preorder. And we even have a limited edition run of signed copies, which you can get from Barnes Noble.

• 4:36Ryan Holiday?

  So for the preorder information, go to dailystoic.com/preorder. The book is out September 29th, but you've got to preorder it now. That helps me in a big way and gets you the bonus. It's dailystoic.com/preorder.