Hacker News Reader

HNHacker News

Top New Best Ask Show Jobs

Comment by ak39 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

ak39·

Marcus Aurelius is asking exactly how will that be of _use_? (Even when you’re alive)

View on HN

I don’t think the quote is particularly insightful. It’s nice to be praised and respected.

This one always felt on the mark to me

http://smbc-comics.com/comic/stoicism

Feeling better about yourself is not useful? Influencing a large number of people is not useful?

Feeling better about yourself must never be a primary concern. It's true that you can't help but feeling good about your actions if they do good, but your ego should be be supressed as much as possible.

Marcus Aurelius being a writer on stoicism, I feel I have to point out that stoicism would suggest that you control how you feel about yourself and are only tying your feelings to external factors. You can feel good about yourself without external validation.

Influencing others is only practically useful in your lifetime, so posthumous fame doesn't really do you anything.

How this reads to me:

“You can feel good about yourself eating tasteless food. Eating delicious food is only useful while you’re eating it, so once it’s consumed it doesn’t really do you anything”.

But it does other people good after i die, and i care about other people even after i die.

but that's a different perspective - stoicism addresses the hedonism treadmill and how to get off of it (as well as how to respond to misery) - it isn't in opposition to charity or altruism. It's a totally different thing to try to have a great influence for posthumous fame and recognition, versus just trying to help people whether they know it was you or not.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com