Maria Semple

And not trying to make it any more complicated than that.

Good question.

Well, New York, as you know, it's a hard place to live.

We're all going through it.

So any help we can get, I think that we will all take.

And so, yes, stoicism can help that.

And I do believe, just because I have the personal experience, that I think that stoicism can help.

with just going through your day on a small level with career stuff, with relationship stuff, it just kind of reframes.

It helps you reframe and find like very helpful perspectives on situations that make you not kind of go crazy with obsessive thoughts and

regret and disappointment.

It is a structure that kind of inoculates you against all of that.

And so I think that that's good for any age because life is going to come at you.

Well, I have a stoic practice where I, every morning, I sit down in a chair, my old philosophy chair, and I write out the four stoic virtues, which are wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice.

And I write them out, and then I pick virtues to work on that day.

Like, for instance, if it's a writing day,

uh focus is a subset of temperance and so i really think that my job here is to focus it's not to write a bestseller it's not to make a lot of money with the book like i just have one job here it's to focus that's a hundred percent of my control you know i'm not wanting basically i i try to desire only what's a hundred percent of my control

And that, I feel like if that's your goal for the day, is not to want anything bigger, not to want outcomes, not to want to change people, not to... So you don't go through the world with expectations of other people.

Yes, and of things to turn out the way you exactly want them to turn out.

And so if that's the case, then you actually can go to...

bed feeling good about that day.