Jemma Spike

a lot so basically you cannot have a good life you cannot be happy if you cannot remove your biases from the objective reality of existence you need to know the difference between your assumptions and like the objective truth otherwise like you're always going to fail in logic you're always going to struggle with that so we can apply this by basically

Having a good sense of reasoning, having a good sense of judgment, really being critical as well of our own biases and being critical of what is true.

So let's take the example of like, you know, somebody has insulted you.

Somebody has said something that's upset you.

Your first reaction is probably going to be anger.

And Stoics would say that we all often react too quickly because we're not using sound logic.

We're not using appropriate judgment when approaching a situation.

Acting with anger would probably and will undermine the possibility of a good outcome, of a rational outcome, of a better outcome for yourself.

It's going to make it worse.

It's maybe going to ruin a relationship.

It's maybe going to upset people further.

So

Choosing your first reaction, choosing your first judgment is actually pursuing an irrationally bad outcome because you are not applying logic.

Before you react in anger to this perceived insult, a stoic would suggest that you just consider if this person actually meant what they said to be unkind.

You consider other aspects or the more objective reality of the situation.

Do they have a history of saying things like this to you?

Is this kind of just a one-off that's really weird?

Do they have a motive?

Are they a mean person?

Have you actually done something that's upset them?