You Have To Anticipate This Kind Of Behavior | Ask DS
The Daily Stoic
Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures
4.5 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 July 2023
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Richard III and in Othello, Shakespeare has two different characters utter the same line. Both Iago and a nameless orphan say, “I cannot think it.”
In both cases, the news they are faced with—the conclusion they are being asked to accept—is simply too much. The Shakespearean scholar, Richard Greenblatt, calls this phrase a kind of motto for those who can’t wrap their mind around perfidy. He’s not being condescending, for it’s a very common experience. Our naivete, our willingness to assume the best about others, leaves us open to betrayal and disillusionment.
Which is why the Stoics spend so much time on this very topic.
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And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions from students of the Daily Stoic Stoicism 101 course. The topics that he covers include the need for balance when pursuing mastery of skills, how he walks the Stoic walk in daily life, the Stoics' take on the Law of Attraction, and more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Daily Stoic podcast, where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom |
| 0:07.7 | designed to help you in your everyday life. |
| 0:10.3 | Well on Thursdays, we not only read the Daily Meditation, but we answer some questions |
| 0:14.2 | from listeners in fellow Stoics. |
| 0:15.8 | We're trying to apply this philosophy just as you are. |
| 0:20.2 | Some of these come from my talks. |
| 0:22.0 | Some of these come from Zoom sessions that we do with Daily Stoic Life members or as part |
| 0:28.0 | of the challenges. |
| 0:29.8 | Some of them are from interactions I have on the street when there happen to be someone |
| 0:33.5 | they're recording. |
| 0:34.5 | But thank you for listening and we hope this is of use to you. |
| 0:45.2 | Do you practice for rejection? |
| 0:48.1 | Part of the reason we're afraid of things is that we're unfamiliar. |
| 0:51.4 | We don't know what it's like to bomb on stage in front of people, but it seems bad, so |
| 0:55.0 | we avoid any scenario or something like that might happen. |
| 0:59.1 | We've been turned down or blown off once or twice asking someone out, asking for help. |
| 1:04.0 | And it was unpleasant enough that we've decided that we do not want to explore those feelings |
| 1:07.9 | any further. |
| 1:09.4 | We don't know or don't remember what it's like to be living paycheck to paycheck anymore. |
| 1:14.5 | So we make our financial decisions accordingly. |
| 1:17.7 | The result is that this uncertainty, this unfamiliarity looms large in our lives. |
| 1:23.4 | It makes us conservative. |
... |
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