As part of my project to write the entirety of Seneca’s Moral Letters to Lucilius. I thought of this idea as I rewrote and summarized Letter 2,3,5,6,7,8,9,11. Some, if not all, of the ideas, are very modern.
Richard Feynman did mention this in The Meaning of It All when he recognized that while the norms, rules, and knowledge of the time change. Some philosophical ideas remain the same and relatively unchanged.
It was very interesting to me that I am reading letters older than dirt that has modern ideas about people I encountered in psychology, I will recollect what I thought of the Letters I rewrote. Some people will call these collective “common sense”. As an aside “common sense” is a bull-crap and useless idea, actually, it is only useful if you want other people to agree with you on status quo without expediting any energy.
Seneca Letter II mentions of achieving constancy, sticking to a subject, book, or a person. Just like how it was in Dao De Jing’s philosophy ingrained in my Chinese culture that a master of one is superior to a dabbler in many.
Seneca Letter V, the usual universal idea of trying to be better but not self-advertise, the quintessential collectivist community principle. Also to outwardly blend in with the people around you for practicality. Unless you’re Diogenes, then you can just never take a shower, say “get off my sun” to Alexander The Great, and still be alive.
Seneca Letter VII, where he discourages us from crowds, as peer pressure will get to you. Which is true back then and true today. Especially in schools.
Seneca Letter IX, the Stoic philosopher Hecato mentioned “If you wish to be loved, love” the good ol’ Rule of Reciprocity mentioned by Cialdini and probably many others. Also highly effective.
Again On Seneca Letter IX. It is a mine of gold. If you remember painting an art and just being happily self-absorbed, he noted it too. Nowadays called state of Flow by Csikszentmihalyi.
Another contemporary idea Seneca mentioned was of how what people say didn’t matter, but what they feel matters. A powerful variation of this was quoted to modern poet Maya Angelou “They won’t remember what you say, but they will remember how you make them feel”. For me with my terrible memory, this intuitively makes sense. I never forget how other people make me feel.
Letter XI, where he basically said to get a coach, a moral guide-person of sorts.
Which is really how world-class people get to improve. In business they keep talking about the importance of mentors, in academics, it is a given that Ph.D. candidate is mentored by the Professors. Athletes, top musician, and artists alike get coached continually. Like Itzhak Perlman coached by his wife, a quite demanding proposition she had to quit her main career path in the beginning. Even the well-known neurosurgeon Atul Gawande is trying to make this a thing, a continued coaching by requesting his retired Professor to coach him. Then proceeds to see an improvement in his surgical skills where he had stalled before.
No references for today, because this is me procrastinating from what I have to actually do.
Being Comfy 