Approach Your Troubles Like Doctor

It’s famously said that you should learn from the mistakes of others because you can’t live long enough to make them all yourself. In that way, the books we read and the information we digest gives us an advantage to those who choose to learn by painful trial and error. In studying the Stoics, we’re able to adopt a mentality battle tested by some of history’s most successful warriors, artists, businessmen, and politicians. We can use the same operating system that helped centuries of people solve the complex problems of daily life. Ward Farnsworth is the Dean of the University of Texas Law School. He’s also a lifetime student of the Stoics and author of The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual. He expanded on this idea in a recent interview: “Stoicism tries to get its students to approach the troubles of other people like a good doctor would. Veteran doctors are very compassionate, and they give their all to their patients. But they don’t get emotional about it. They might have done so when they were first getting started, but experience tends to turn them into natural stoics in their professional lives. That’s one way to think about Stoicism: it’s an effort to gain, by the study of philosophy, some of the traits and immunities that would otherwise be the natural result of long experience. The study of stoicism is kind of a surrogate for the passage of time.” That is why you put in the work, that’s why you listen to this podcast and subscribe to these emails. You have the same goal. To bring yourself to the state others take a lifetime to get to. When you read these emails, try to not just read them, but adopt their lessons into your everyday life. In that way, you’re inheriting the wisdom of generations past. And becoming wiser and stronger for it. For more, read our full interview with Ward on DailyStoic.com and check out his newest book The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual. The book distills the main ideas of the Stoics under twelve easy-to-reference headings. See 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.

• 0:31Ryan Holiday?

  Approach your troubles like a doctor. It's famously said that you should learn from the mistakes of others because you can't live long enough to make them all yourself. In that way, the books we read and the information we digest gives us an advantage to those who choose to go through and make all the mistakes themselves. In studying the Stoics, we are able to adopt a mentality battle-tested by some of history's most successful warriors, artists, businessmen, and politicians. We can use the same operating system that helped centuries of people solve the complex problems of daily life. Ward Farnsworth is the dean of the University of Texas Law School. He's also a lifetime student of the Stoics

• 1:13Ryan Holiday?

  and author of The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual, an amazing new book on Stoicism that you should check out. He expanded on the idea we were just mentioning in a recent interview with The Daily Stoic. "Stoicism tries to get its students to approach the troubles of other people like a good doctor would," he said. "Veteran doctors are very compassionate and they give their all to their patients, but they don't get emotional about it. They might have done so when they were first getting started, but experience tends to turn them into natural Stoics in their professional lives." That's one way to think about Stoicism. "It's an effort to gain by the study of philosophy some of

• 1:55Ryan Holiday?

  the traits and immunities that would otherwise be the natural result of long experience. The study of Stoicism is a kind of surrogate for the passage of time." That's why you put in this work, listening to this podcast or reading these emails, because that's That's what your goal is, to bring yourself to the state that others would take a lifetime to achieve. When you read these emails, try not to just read them, but adopt their lessons into your everyday life. Try to speed up the passage of time that way. Try to get experience. In that way, you're inheriting the wisdom of generations past, and you're stronger and wiser for it. For more, read our full interview with Ward on

• 2:36Ryan Holiday?

  DailyStoic.com and check out his newest book, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual. There's a link on our website, or you can just pull it up on Amazon or your independent bookstore. This book distills the main ideas of the Stoics in 12 easy-to-reference headings, and I think you'll like it.