The Best Stuff Is An Accidental Byproduct

In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius marvels at “nature’s inadvertence.” A baker, he writes, makes the dough, kneads it and then puts it in the oven. Then physics, then Nature takes over. “The way loaves of bread split open,” Marcus writes, “the ridges are just byproducts of the baking, and yet pleasing, somehow: they rouse our appetite without our knowing why.”Today is the last day you can order our premium leather-bound edition of Meditations to ensure holiday delivery!✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee 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.

• 0:03Ryan 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.

• 0:27Ryan Holiday?

  The best stuff is an accidental byproduct. In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius marvels at nature's inadvertence. "A baker," he writes, "makes the dough, kneads it, and puts it in the oven. Then physics, then nature, takes over. The way loaves of bread split open," he writes in Meditations, "the ridges are just byproducts of the baking. And yet, pleasing, somehow, they arouse our appetite without our knowing why." It's such a beautiful observation about such a banal part of life, something that only a poet could see. So it's worth taking a moment to step back and realize that that sentence, that Marcus Aurelius's Meditations,

• 1:10Ryan Holiday?

  is itself a kind of meta example of the same phenomenon, a bit of nature's inadvertence. Marcus Aurelius's philosophy dictated that he sit down, that he think, that he keep ideas in mind, and read and reread about them, and talk about them with others, and write about them. And that's what he did, day after day, year after year, not for us, not for publication, not to impress anyone or to make money. And yet, what emerged from that, the accidental byproduct, is one of the greatest works ever written, the very thing we are talking about today. Many great artists have come to similar conclusions, that the work that they publish, the paintings that they do, the symphonies that they write, is a result

• 1:55Ryan Holiday?

  of their daily routines, their practices. The work is an accidental byproduct. And Viktor Frankl would talk about how strange and remarkable it was that man's search for meaning became such a success because he wrote it not to build up his reputation as an author. And in fact, after the book had sold millions of copies, Frankl shared the fundamental lesson of that book. He said, "Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued, it must ensue. And it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's dedication. Instead of chasing fame and success, focus on the process,

• 2:37Ryan Holiday?

  on producing your art, on getting better and better. Do your work, follow the process, put the dough in the oven. You can't be certain what comes out of the other side of it. That's what the inadvertence is all about. Yet at the same time, you can be certain there will be something pure and true and real there," which is what Meditations is, why I have loved it so much, why it's changed my life so much. Actually, today is the last day you can order our leather-bound edition in time for the holidays, if you want to ensure a holiday delivery. We designed it here in the US. We produced it with this awesome printer out in the UK. It's genuine labor. One of the best Bible manufacturers in the United States worked on it. Gold foil stamped cover, gilded edged pages. We put

• 3:19Ryan Holiday?

  in these cool illustrations. It comes in a really beautiful, awesome box. And I added in my personal biography of Marcus Aurelius from Lives of the Stoics on there. You can check out all of this at dailystoic.com/meditations. It's been amazing to see all of you rushing out to order this book. And if you want it for the holidays, grab it now while you still can. dailystoic.com/meditations.

• 3:50Ryan 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, You Go is 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.