Your Saturday Stoic Review — Week of March 21-27

​ ​ PASSAGE OF THE WEEK: So whatever it is that's pissing you off today, let it go. We are all plenty guilty of our own sins and stupidity. Which is why we need to forgive and forget other people's. We need to give them the same clemency and patience we grant to ourselves (which is to say, basically, an unlimited amount). This is the essence of the Golden Rule. It's easy to treat others the way you would like to be treated when everything is looking up. It's when the chips are down that the Golden Rule is hardest to employ, which of course is when it is most important of all. — Let It Go, You're Plenty Guilty Yourself (Listen) YOUTUBE TAKEAWAY OF THE WEEK: In one of the most watched videos on the Daily Stoic YouTube Channel this week, Ryan Holiday summarized many of his favorite books in one sentence. Ryan summarized books like Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon, Hold Me Tight by Sue Johnson, and Essentialism by Greg McKeown, of which Ryan says, Marcus Aurelius says we should ask ourselves at every moment, 'is this essential?' When we eliminate the inessential, we do the essential better—that's what I think this book is really about. PODCAST TAKEAWAY OF THE WEEK: ​ On the Daily Stoic podcast this week, Ryan talked to author and historian and author Barry S. Strauss about his new book The War That Made the Roman Empire, the self-inflicted wounds that lead to the end of empires, the value of immigration and assimilation, and more. Early on in the conversation, the two have an interesting discussion about Marcus Aurelius and Nero and their near-parallel paths to power. Both were told early that supreme power was in their future. Both lost their fathers young. Both were given Stoic teachers—Rusticus to Marcus; Seneca to Nero—and both tutored in philosophy. So why did Marcus turn out to be Marcus and Nero to be Nero? One explanation emerged: parenting*. It was their mothers who made the difference, as Strauss said: Marcus Aurelius did not have the disadvantage of having Agrippina The Younger as a mother. That was a tremendous disadvantage for Nero…Marcus Aurelius's mother was somebody who paid attention to him and his education…I think one's mother is really important. In Nero's case, the mother is just a disaster. *If you are a parent or will be one some day and you enjoy the email we do here, you will love The Daily Dad—a daily email on parenthood, love, and raising great kids. It is one piece of timeless wisdom delivered straight to your inbox every day—subscribe today! WHAT RYAN HOLIDAY IS READING: Take, for example, the conception of privacy, as it applies to the notion of "doxing." The word "dox" comes from early nineties hacker culture, an abbreviation of the word "documents." A person gets "doxed" when someone publicly "documents" their personal information online, potentially exposing the individual to all kinds of real-world threats and attacks. Doxing has come to be classified as a form of violence, in and of itself. What's mildly amusing is that, prior to the internet, most Americans doxed themselves. Home addresses and telephone numbers were listed in the phone book, annually distributed to every local home for free. Phone customers were charged a monthly fee if they didn't want their home number included in the directory. And possession of the physical directory wasn't even necessary. It was possible to dial the telephone operator and request an immediate connection to almost anyone's home phone, without consent. All that was needed was the spelling of the person's last name and an educated guess as to the area code in which they lived. — The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman YOUR STOIC WEEKEND REMINDER: You are dying every day. It's easy to see death as this thing that lies off in the distant future. Even those of us who choose not to live in denial of our mortality can be guilty of this. We think of dying as an event that happens to us. It's stationary—whatever date it will happen at—and we're moving towards it, slowly or quickly, depending on our age and health. ​Seneca felt that this was the wrong way to think about it, that it was a mistaken view that enabled many bad habits and much bad living. Instead, he said, death was a process—it was happening to us right now. We are dying every day, he said. Even as you read this email, time is passing that you will never get back. That time, he said, belongs to death. (For more on this idea, watch this video!) THIS WEEK'S BEST SOCIAL MEDIA POST: ​ EMAIL OF THE WEEK: ​Do You Want To Join These Ranks? (Listen) Today's email is sponsored by LMNT, the maker of electrolyte drink mixes that help you stay active at home, work, the gym, or anywhere else. 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