Massimo Pigliucci

But here's the kicker.

Out of the five questions, I'd gotten every single one wrong.

Every one.

The teaching assistant in his notes explained they were all arithmetic errors.

Little multiplication slip-ups.

So he just took off one or two points on each question.

And at the top of the exam, I kind of even remember him writing.

He said, you clearly know electromagnetics.

You just need to work on your multiplication.

Now, had I done the hallway review with my friends after the test the week before, I would have spent the whole week convinced I'd failed and imagine my future career ruined.

And it would have all been for nothing.

Exactly.

And Seneca, in fact, one of the stoics, the ancient stoic, makes that point repeatedly in his letters to his friend Lucilius.

He says, you know, a lot of the times we worry about things that are actually not going to happen.

And if that's the case, then why worry in the first place?

You're creating a problem that may not in fact exist.

Now, I'm happy that that was the conclusion for the listener.

However, it could, of course, have gone the other way around, and that would have certainly not changed the basic point.

I mean, even if it had, in fact, failed the test and done horribly, and it turns out he's a horrible engineer and maybe you should switch to, I don't know, music as a major, the same principle applies, right?

The thing was over, no sense in worrying about it until you are back in a position to do something about it.