Never Attribute To Malice…

People do a lot of things that feel mean. That frustrate us. That cause problems for us. That make the world a worse place. They vote for bad politicians. They say offensive things. They make messes. They screw stuff up. Naturally, our first instinct is to get upset about this. To want to confront the perpetrators about it. To hold them fully accountable for the consequences of their behavior. But it’s worth stepping back and asking yourself first, are they really fully accountable? Consider, for instance, Hanlon’s Razor--the idea that one should “never attribute to malice what can easily be attributed to stupidity.” Meaning that most of the bad things people do are not done out of evil...but simple incompetence. Not everyone is as well-educated as you, not everyone was raised to be responsible like you were, not everyone is as talented as you, and it is in this gap that you can find the explanations to most errors, most bad driving, most of the litter you see on the street, and most of the wrongs you feel have been done to you. Remember, this is what Marcus was trying to say in the famous opening passage of Meditations. Yes, we will bump into obnoxious, self-centered, and rude people today. But it’s not because they’re bad or worth less than we are. It’s because they don’t yet know any better. Because they have been left behind and deprived. And if we can remember this, we won’t be so angered by it and it won’t ruin our day. It’s going to take all our patience and preparation to hold onto this, but it will be worth it. 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.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  Never attribute to malice. People do a lot of things that feel mean, that frustrate us, that cause problems for us, that make the world a worse place. They vote for bad politicians, they say offensive things, they make messes, they mess stuff up. Naturally, our first instinct is to get upset about this. We want to confront them about it, to hold them fully accountable for the consequences of their behavior. But it's worth stepping back and asking yourself first, are they really fully accountable? Dating back at least a couple hundred years, we have this so-called Hanlon's razor that states we should never attribute to malice what can easily be attributed to stupidity, meaning that most of the bad things people do are not done out of evil, but simple incompetence.

• 1:13Ryan Holiday?

  Not everyone is as well-educated as you. Not everyone was raised to be responsible like you were. Not everyone is as talented as you. And it is this that explains most errors, most bad driving, and most of the litter you see on the street. Remember, this is what Marcus Aurelius was trying to say in the famous opening passage of Meditations. Yes, we will bump into obnoxious, self-centered, and rude people today, but it's not because they're bad or worth less than we are. It's because they don't yet know any better, because they have been left behind or deprived. And if we can remember this, we won't be so angered by it, and it won't ruin our day. It's going to take all our patience and preparation to hold on to this, but it will be worth it.

• 1:57Ryan Holiday?

  I've got a question for you. Are you really challenging yourself? Are you pushing yourself to be better? Or are you stuck in your comfort zone? So many of us are stuck. So many of us know we are leaving potential on the table. And so that's one of the reasons we've created this new 21 day daily Stoic challenge. We're calling it the Daily Stoic Freedom Challenge. It's going to help you break free from bad habits, from bad choices, from bad routines, from bad thinking. It's gonna be awesome. You can check it out at dailystoic.com/challenge. And you can do the 21 day challenge alongside me. I'm going to be doing it every day. I'll be participating in the Slack channel, the SPAR group. We'll be talking about it. It's gonna be awesome. The previous challenges we have done have changed my life in a whole bunch of ways.

• 2:41Ryan Holiday?

  I cannot recommend it highly enough. Dailystoic.com/challenge. But there are only a few days left. You have to sign up by July 7, 2019, 11:59 PM, or you're out. So check it out. Dailystoic.com/challenge.