Stoicism

[motherjuggs&speed]

I haven't read any stoic philosophy, maybe what I'm about to say is Stoicism 101, but: For a long time I have thought of emotional equanimity as something you have or you don't. I still think that mostly, but I also thought that it takes a big effort to be all stoic and I didn't have the effort or strength. I'm the last stable person who isn't the crazy guy ranting at strangers. But I have often been really unruffled when other people were losing it. Some guy out on the street shooting people, a dog who might have been on the rampage, something blowing up down the street, a minor medical emergency, things like that. It wasn't because I'm braver or stronger than those other people, I just didn't see those things as something to get flustered about. As opposed to 99.9% of my life. So I wonder if our response is actually more of a choice that I thought. Not in the Sam Harris "master your mind so you can be an emotionless drone like me" sense, but actually choose to not turn on those circuits, at least not as strongly when not needed. Thoughts?

This may be related to another tizzy I just had, and by just had I mean for the last 16 hours. I couldn't or wouldn't just chill. I think this one was partly brain fatigue so I think most/all people who are said to be mentally tough are actually physically stronger. If you gave Jocko my nervous system he wouldn't be so imperturbable, although he would handle my brain better than I do.

[Bennyonesix1]

Motherfucker I wrote some deep shit and it got ate by something in the ether between here and the bored.

Ah well, yes. SF dudes are eff'd up. Ignore. Yes. Think in terms of circuit breakers and operating systems inefficiently interacting. Let the hardware resolve hardware issues. Keep the OS from fucking with the hardware. Sanity is knowing you will eventually feel better.