On Thursday (when this was supposed to go out), I spoke in Reading, PA to a room full of small business owners about AI (of course - it's a conference!). And as much as I am talking about developments in AI, I am leading with fear.
It is really a fear of change. Of the unknown. Of a belief that our personal brand of value will decrease with any change around us-- especially one of the kind of magnitude that the leaders of the AI labs are claiming will happen.
So we put on our flight-or-fight hats and batten down the hatches while we prepare for the worst. But make a real big stink while we do it.
Well, some of us do. Others see what's happening and say "oh wow - cool!"
At least that's what I would have said in the 90's when saying "oh wow - cool!" was a cool thing to say. Now I would probably say "that's fire."
Stoicism helps us decide which type of person we will be in this scenario. We all claim that we are adaptable. Adaptability is really just creativity in the face of change. Stoicism teaches resilience, that we aren't in control of a lot and when something happens around us isn't going as we had planned, we have the Courage to face it and adapt and ride the wave. Instead of whining at it.
So we choose to be fearful. Or we choose to be courageous. We choose to be scared of centipedes or silverfish (those nasty bugs that enjoy chilling on my walls from time to time) or we choose to grab a paper towel and yell "not today vile beast!"
But I don't control my wife's irrational fear of ugly yet harmless insects (hi Kate!). But I do control how many hours of AI podcasts and videos I watch in a week to ensure I can know how quickly the wave is moving and how I can apply a bit of adaptive creativity to ride it.
Thus, when we saw a comrade, smoking his own cigarettes, we knew he had given up faith in his strength to carry on, and, once lost, the will to live seldom returned.
— Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
We defeat emotions with logic, questions, statements, root causes.
— Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is the Way
"Nothing is either good or bad. But thinking makes it so." - Shakespeare
— Well, Shakespeare by way of Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is the Way
Rads Take
Frankl in the first quote is observing a fellow concentration camp prisoner during the holocaust. I couldn't get this thought process moving. Just read the book is all I'll say for now!
For quote 2, eesshhh. Do we want to "defeat" emotions?" Or observe them and improve our standing while experiencing them? I would say the latter. But Holiday has said that "It is OK to be angry. But it is not OK to act out of anger." Crimes of passion, outbursts are generally not "OK" and they are generally something that we regret.
In the movie, The Ides of March, George Clooney is a presidential candidate that was being interviewed about the death penalty. He said if someone killed his wife, then he would, out of anger, take revenge on the assailant. But he drew a line -- not between the personal decision to take revenge or not but between a personal or state response to a crime being committed. His assertion is that a person has the leeway to commit a crime. But the state, acting as a civilized example of what 'should' happen does not need to take the life of the criminal.
Further, whether premeditated or consciously intentional, knowing that you are doing something illegal and unethical and still choosing to do it is a choice. One you would have to live with. One you might be OK living with. But in this official forum (yes, the Rad Stoic is an official forum), one I would not advise.
This kind of ethical debate and intricate detail is what philosophers do. And I guess lawyers (hi Nate!).
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"That rainstorm is mean." "This traffic is evil." "That person who made a choice to advance themselves while inadvertently blocking my efforts is a big jerk."
Is perception reality? Well, it is your reality. So if we are able to see that we control our perception, then we control our reality. True or false? Or a false choice? If Bill Shakespeare is telling us we are in charge of perceiving things as either good or bad, then maybe we should take more accountability for our perceptions. Accountability to ourselves.
How can we hold ourselves accountable? Write stuff down. Have goals that you share with others (which inherently commits ourself to them). Explicitly state this is what I am for and this is how I act.
"Hello Chris, meta thinking."
This newsletter makes me more accountable to myself. If I claim to be a certain way to my newsletter recipients, there is a stronger chance that I will hold to those ideals IRL.
See, I'm hip. I know the lingo.