[eref]

Maybe I misunderstand stoic philosophy, but the rule to override emotional responses to failure with serenity strikes me as overly broad. Sometimes it is simply easier to get angry and let it out; especially if that sends a valid corrective signal to someone who is at fault. And even if the failure was just bad luck, it seem totally fine to be mad for a couple of minutes or hours. It is simply the way our brains have evolved to work and that's fine as long it is not harmful as long as nobody is harmed. Just be careful to not turn it into a constant state of anger because that will likely worsen your life rather than improve it. All of that can be subsumed under rationality.

[ashark]

Aurelius, at least, doesn't rule out or condemn immediate physiological or knee-jerk emotional responses IIRC. The idea is to stop feeling the ones that are, it turns out, something you're choosing to feel past those initial couple seconds, assuming feeling them is unpleasant and/or unproductive (usually they're both).

[phren0logy]

I think you are referencing more of the conversational definition of stoic rather than the philosophy of stoicism.

[bitexploder]

Agreed. The Stoics allowed themselves to have emotions. It is a common misconception that stoicism is about deadening feelings and reactions to the world. Stoics acknowledge and even embrace our emotions, but what stoics aim for after experiencing emotions and gut reactions is some of the most interesting parts of stoicism for modern readers.

I always direct people to http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/goldsay.html for a taste of Stoicism. It is still tricky because what most Stoics thought of as "God" and what a modern reader would interpret as (the Christian) God are pretty different, but it is still easy reading. Other than that caveat it is pretty easy to understand.

As a sort of random aside, some of the most memorable sections of Epictetus for me are when he would referee to a pupil or discussion partner as a "slave". It always gave me a good chuckle. "My nose is running." "Why do you have hands, you slave?" e.g. quit complaining and wipe your nose. The color of comments like that really gives a feel for when the stoics think someone is being dense or wasting their mind. Some of the time now, when I am feeling particularly sorry for my self, Epictetus will pop up in my mind and call me a slave for complaining and it really helps me get over whatever random thing I was fixated on.

[beaconstudios]

It feels like an older version of "sheeple".

In terms of modern Stoic writing, I find Ryan Holiday's "The Ego is The Enemy" and "The Obstacle is the Way" (as well as his "Daily Stoic", although that's more of a daily devotional) to be very enjoyable and help to reframe the often hard-to-read writings of Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus into actionable advice.

[kucher12]

Met Ryan in person when he was on a book tour for Obstacle is The Way. Predominantly he is the one to introduce me to Aurelius and Stoicism in general. What do you think of Ego is The Enemy, a worthwhile read?

[tunesmith]

What is the singular of sheeple, anyway?

[thisrod]

Errson?

[wballard]

That is the best comment I’ve seen all year. Bravo.

[ghostbrainalpha]

Stoicism is about letting go of the things you CANT change, so that you have more energy and ability to focus on the things you can change.

If someone has wronged you, and sending a corrective signal is in your power, than Stoicism would be favor of you fixing that problem.

But... if on your way to fixing that problem, it were to rain on you, Stoicism would be against you getting angry at the clouds.

[yters]

It was less about eliminating emotion and more about recognizing what is and is not within our control, and not letting ourselves become mastered by things outside of our control.