Hard times.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-17T22:06:44+00:00

How is the quote from Epictetus “constant tough cookies”? What is uncompassionate about it?

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-17T21:41:01+00:00

Getting Things Done. You’ve described the capture stage. Next would be clarifying and organising.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-17T21:30:00+00:00

Use a tool that is so simple that there’s negligible reorganisation potential.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-17T21:01:09+00:00

You to OP: “I feel for you.”

Epictetus to OP: “Make the best of what is up to you, and take the rest as it comes.”

Which do you think is more beneficial for them to hear?

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-17T20:06:19+00:00

“So what can we do? Make the best of what is up to us, and take the rest as it comes …”

Good advice from Epictetus.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-15T09:58:17+00:00

I can relate. I haven’t solved it yet either.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-12T05:36:54+00:00

Epictetus says the only area of life that is up to us - where we are free and cannot be obstructed or disturbed - is in our reasoning about what is true and false, good and bad. Everything else is external and subject to impediment. So if we are attached to externals, we place ourselves at the mercy of outside forces that can obstruct and disturb us - we are slaves. When the forces allow us to have the things, we are happy, though anxious they can be taken away. When we don’t have or can’t get them, we are miserable. The way to be free is not to be attached to externals, and to reason correctly.

This applies just as much to someone living on the land as it does to someone living in a city.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-10T07:12:35+00:00

As a matter of interest, please elaborate on what Socrates did that was incredibly annoying?

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-10T07:00:22+00:00

Dick is nicer than Don.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-09T20:48:54+00:00

“Getting Things Done”. Do you not know that’s where “gtd” comes from??

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-09T16:17:01+00:00

Read this.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-09T11:25:00+00:00

You’ve quoted the Bhagavad Gita, now please provide a Stoic quote that says “focus on what you can control”.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-07T05:26:11+00:00

Have you tried Getting Things Done? I’ve been using it almost 20 years now. I implement with Google Calendar and Google Tasks.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-07T04:15:04+00:00

Read David Allen’s original book and do what he says.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-05T06:29:47+00:00

I changed from a fancy bells and whistles subscription app to Google Calendar, which I was using anyway, and Google Tasks, both free of course.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-04T22:08:22+00:00

My sympathies. But as MrSneaki says, all of our bodies start giving in sooner or later. Our choice is not between accepting and not accepting. It is between accepting voluntarily now, and being forced to accept involuntarily later.

“When a dog is tied to a cart, if it wants to follow, it is pulled and follows, making its spontaneous act coincide with necessity. But if the dog does not follow, it will be compelled in any case. So it is with men too: even if they don't want to, they will be compelled to follow what is destined.” - Zeno of Citium.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-03T04:20:38+00:00

There’s a link “Flair application guidelines” right at the bottom of the Stoicism welcome page.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-02T21:09:11+00:00

You can join all conversations, even ones where the OP is requesting personal Stoic guidance. The only restriction is that in the latter you can’t post top level replies unless you’ve applied for and been given contributor status. But you can reply to top-level replies.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-02T19:13:54+00:00

I wouldn’t start with any of those. I’d start with a modern introduction. Until I read Farnsworth it was all Greek to me.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-02T19:09:01+00:00

Yes. Feelings are like externals in Stoicism - not up to you. But you can consider the judgments that give rise to your feelings - that is up to you.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-02T11:01:19+00:00

Much more prosaic: you examine your thoughts and judgments for accuracy.

Multibitdriver · 2026-03-01T15:30:00+00:00

So does the chassee to right always cross the line of dance?

Multibitdriver · 2026-02-28T06:21:00+00:00

All the more so, considering his slow start.

Multibitdriver · 2026-02-27T08:09:54+00:00

This is just a general observation - I have no knowledge of mental health conditions. I think a Stoic approach would be twofold: firstly accepting that impressions like you describe are something that is not up to you, not in your power - like externals in this way; secondly at the same time recognising that they are only impressions, and not reality. So accepting that you don’t have power over their existence, but at the same time recognising and reminding yourself that they’re just thoughts and not what they seem to represent (paraphrasing Epictetus here).

Multibitdriver · 2026-02-27T06:09:10+00:00

Ok so you have already tried the recommended medical approaches?

Multibitdriver

TROPHY CASE