Ryan Holiday

He didn't live in a time of propaganda and misinformation.

There wasn't spinning and selling the way that there is now.

And yet even then he had to practice, you know, just seeing through all the bullshit, seeing through to what things actually were, stripping them, as he says, of the legend that encrust them.

So when Epictetus talks about putting things to the test, this is what Marcus is doing.

He says, I'm not going to get distracted by my urges, by my immediate positive reaction to this, to the way my mouth is watering when I see X or the way that my eyes get big when I see Y.

He says, I'm going to really break down what I see here.

I'm going to describe it in the most unflinching, unvarnished, least sympathetic language possible.

And I'm going to see what that reflection back to me does, how it changes my opinion of it.

Right.

Sometimes, you know, there's that expression about seeing how the sausage gets made when you go and see the sausage gets made or you see, you know, underneath things, they lose their power over you.

And that's what this practice is really about.

And it's so important.

It's not that you'll never enjoy this or that ever again.

It's just you want to enjoy it with the deceit turned down a little bit, the legend, a little more thread there.

And this is an active practice we have to go through.

So as you as you walk out in a parking lot and, you know, you see a Lexus, remind yourself this is just a Toyota with fancier branding.

right?

When you see a $300 pair of Nikes, remind yourself of the sweatshop that this was likely made in.

When you hear someone talking about how they are a billionaire, remind yourself just how dumb a lot of billionaires have turned out to be, right?

When you're intimidated by someone's fancy degree, again, remind yourself who else has graduated from that institution.