The Obstacle is the Way Summary The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday is about the practice of Stoicism. The ancient Greeks had many philosophical schools, but the most pragmatic among them was stoicism, and this may explain why in the practical, modern world, it has gained in popularity. Ryan Holiday was a student … Read more
Lincoln Abraham Lincoln battled with depression his whole life. It was known as melancholy at the time, it nearly drove him to suicide. Though he had a penchant for jokes and vulgar humor, he suffered periods of intense isolation and pain. His life was defined by enduring and overcoming great difficulty. He grew up in … Read more
Demosthenes Demosthenes was born sickly and frail with a severe speech impediment. He lost his father at age 7. The large inheritance left to him was stolen by the guardians entrusted to protect him. They didn’t pay his tutors, depriving him of education. But he was determined to become a great orator, as he had … Read more
The Difference Between Observing and Perceiving Musashi, swordsman and author of The Book of Five Rings notes the difference between observing and perceiving. The perceiving eye is weak, but the observing eye is strong. The observing eyes sees simply what is there, while the perceiving eye sees more than there is. The observing eye sees … Read more
Michael T. Osterholm is an American public-health scientist and a biosecurity and infectious-disease expert, and he wrote Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs. Joe Rogan interviewed Osterholm, who answered questions about the COVID-19 epidemic. Epidemiology Epidemiologists deal with the control of diseases. They have two main goals. The first is to prevent. When that … Read more
Life is short. This is something that everyone knows, but it bears repeating, because we very often forget it. We forget that life is short, and then we end up living it badly. On the Shortness of Life was written by Seneca to his friend Paulinus. In the book, Seneca tries to convince Paulinus that … Read more
Sex at Dawn is a book that argues that polygamy, far from being controversial or harmful, is the most natural kind of relationship for humans. From Hunting to Agriculture Thousands of years ago, sharing was natural, because it made economic sense. Societies that shared resources and helped each other were not utopian, but far more … Read more
King, Warrior, Magician, Lover is a book about masculine archetypes. A problem that Jung identified many years ago, was that absent an appropriate rite of passage from boyhood to manhood, many men will stay stuck with their boy psychology. This is often due to a lack of father figure, or a lack of examples of … Read more
The Lover There are many forms of love. The ancient Greeks spoke of agape, or non-erotic love, what the Bible calls “brotherly love.” They spoke of Eros in the narrow sense of sexual love and the wider sense of bonding and uniting urge of all things. The Romans spoke of Amor, the union of one … Read more
The Magician The Magician is the knower and the master of technology. Whoever is guided by the power of the Magician can fulfill these functions by use of ritual initiatory process, usually conducted by the “ritual elder” who guides the process of transformation. The magician is always an initiate, and one of his tasks is … Read more