All statements about stoicism

40 statements about stoicism in 12 sources, by upload date.

Back to stoicism.

2020

2020-06-21 · A HUGE Unboxing Day — Ali spends an hour recording an episode of Freshly Grounded with its host Faisal, talking about productivity, YouTube, being a creator on the internet and their shared love of stoicism. — 00:00:29
2020-09-25 · How Stoicism Made Me Happier — announcement: Ali and his friend Sam have just released a Skillshare class on Stoicism, How to Be Happier – A Stoicism Masterclass, on its five fundamental principles and five domains where they applied them. — 00:00:00
2020-09-25 · How Stoicism Made Me Happier — announcement: Ali: Over 12 lessons, How to Be Happier – A Stoicism Masterclass explores the key themes of Stoicism and how to apply its principles to live happier and healthier lives. — video description
2020-09-25 · How Stoicism Made Me Happier — Ali calls the dichotomy of control, that some things are within our control and some are not, the main idea of Stoicism, related to the serenity prayer he often thinks about. — 00:00:58
2020-09-25 · How Stoicism Made Me Happier — Sam found Stoicism at a low point, weighing over 322 pounds; it let him focus on what he could do instead of worrying about people's comments, driving his weight loss. — 00:02:57
2020-09-25 · How Stoicism Made Me Happier — Ali explains Epictetus's second quote: we think external events cause our negative emotions, but Stoicism says it is the story we tell ourselves about the event. — 00:04:12
2020-09-25 · How Stoicism Made Me Happier — Ali likes the idea that between stimulus and response there is a gap in which we choose our response; in Stoicism only our thoughts and actions are within our control. — 00:06:06
2020-09-25 · How Stoicism Made Me Happier — Sam adds that the Stoics allow an involuntary first response, proto-passions, such as a start at a loud noise, after which we can reason about the story we tell ourselves. — 00:06:50
2020-09-25 · How Stoicism Made Me Happier — recommendation: Sam says the Stoics taught voluntary discomfort 2,000 years ago: deliberately take on hardships such as a cold shower or sleeping on a hard surface, to be ready for difficult situations. — 00:11:21
2020-09-25 · How Stoicism Made Me Happier — recommendation: Ali explains the Stoic practice of premeditating adversity: prepare yourself for worst-case scenarios so you are ready when they come and feel more gratitude. — 00:12:17
2020-09-25 · How Stoicism Made Me Happier — Ali finds it amazing that the Stoics wrote this 2,000 years ago and it still forms the bedrock of most modern productivity and life advice. — 00:15:33
2020-09-29 · How to See Problems as Opportunities (The Obstacle is the Way) — Ryan Holiday (quoted): Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle Is the Way argues that we meet obstacles at every stage of life and, instead of avoiding them, must learn to tackle them and use them to our advantage. — 00:00:29
2020-09-29 · How to See Problems as Opportunities (The Obstacle is the Way) — Ali says Stoicism, the school of Greek philosophy The Obstacle Is the Way draws on, really resonates with him. — 00:00:29
2020-09-29 · How to See Problems as Opportunities (The Obstacle is the Way) — Ryan Holiday (quoted): In Ryan Holiday's account, perception is how we judge and interpret events: by controlling our emotions, putting things in perspective and examining them objectively, we see obstacles more clearly. — 00:00:58
2020-09-29 · How to See Problems as Opportunities (The Obstacle is the Way) — Ryan Holiday (quoted): Ryan Holiday describes will as the discipline of heart and soul: inner fortitude and wisdom that lets us put events in context, endure hardship and draw meaning from obstacles, the Stoics' inner citadel. — 00:06:17
2020-09-29 · How to See Problems as Opportunities (The Obstacle is the Way) — recommendation: Ryan Holiday (quoted): One Stoic way of strengthening the will that Ryan Holiday describes is premeditating adversity: imagining something bad happening to us so that we are more prepared if it does. — 00:06:46
2020-09-29 · How to See Problems as Opportunities (The Obstacle is the Way) — recommendation: Ryan Holiday (quoted): The Obstacle Is the Way teaches accepting what we cannot control, by the Stoics' question of what is and is not in my control: not natural events, others' actions or opinions, but our own emotions, judgments, attitudes and decisions. — 00:06:46
2020-10-27 · Think Like a Monk - @jayshetty - Summary + Key Points — Ali likens spot, stop and swap, observing, reflecting and then modifying our behaviour, to what the Stoics taught, and calls it a really good way of addressing negativity and also fear. — 00:01:56
2020-10-27 · Think Like a Monk - @jayshetty - Summary + Key Points — Ali often thinks of the Stoic idea of preferred indifferents: he may prefer a 49-inch ultrawide monitor with a fancy keyboard and mouse, but he does not need them to be happy and is not attached to them. — 00:02:55
2020-12-31 · I WAS WRONG - How I Set Goals — Ali says he never had goals for his YouTube channel: subscriber and view counts are outside his control, and as the Stoics say there is no point worrying about that; his system was to release one to three videos every week. — 00:00:29

2019

2019-03-30 · Monthly Favourites #7 - Ali Abdaal — Ali says The Courage to Be Disliked did not really change his worldview, because having read a lot about stoicism he was already fairly sympathetic to the philosopher's view. — 00:03:55
2019-05-02 · Monthly Favourites #8 - Ali Abdaal — Ali says Derren Brown's Happy is a book about philosophy, not magic, and a fantastic introduction to the Stoic school of philosophy. — 00:00:48
2019-05-02 · Monthly Favourites #8 - Ali Abdaal — Derren Brown (quoted): The cover text of Happy says Derren Brown traces ideas of happiness from the Stoics and Epicureans to today's self-help industry, and shows that its routes such as positive thinking, self-belief and setting goals can be disastrous and cause anxiety. — 00:01:46
2019-05-02 · Monthly Favourites #8 - Ali Abdaal — recommendation: Ali: When people ask how he seems so carefree, unstressed and content, Ali points them to Derren Brown's Happy, which he says explains the philosophy that makes him happy and content most of the time. — 00:02:15
2019-08-16 · Money, Relationships and Hair Loss - Answering your Assumptions — Ali credits his calm partly to stoicism, whose main idea he gives as: events do not make us angry or sad, the story we tell ourselves about them does. — 00:18:44
2019-08-16 · Money, Relationships and Hair Loss - Answering your Assumptions — recommendation: Ali: As introductions to stoicism Ali recommends Derren Brown's Happy and William Irvine's A Guide to the Good Life. — 00:18:44

Also named in: Life Advice Q&A with my Brother

2018

2018-03-21 · Q & A - 5,000 Subscribers! — Ali likes stoicism and the serenity prayer as a philosophy for dealing with rejection and as a way of living that reduces negative emotions. — 00:10:30
2018-03-21 · Q & A - 5,000 Subscribers! — recommendation: Ali says a romantic, academic or professional rejection is outside our control, so there is no point dwelling on it: treat it as a learning experience, take away a lesson and move on. — 00:10:59
2018-05-07 · Live Q&A + Hangout - Bank Holiday vibes - Ali Abdaal, Cambridge medical student — recommendation: Ali: To a student down about a bad OSCE history station, as his was too, Ali says feeling down only makes you feel bad: accept what you cannot change, like the serenity prayer, and move on. — 00:27:14
2018-05-07 · Live Q&A + Hangout - Bank Holiday vibes - Ali Abdaal, Cambridge medical student — Ali: Citing Stoicism, Ali says there is a gap between a stimulus and our response, and within that gap we have the space to choose our feelings about it. — 00:35:56
2018-08-03 · Life Advice - 50k subs Q&A — Ali says he can count on one hand the times he has felt stressed, partly because he likes the philosophy of stoicism. — 00:03:16
2018-08-03 · Life Advice - 50k subs Q&A — recommendation: Ali: On stoicism Ali always recommends Derren Brown's book Happy, and also William Irvine's A Guide to the Good Life, whose title he half-remembers. — 00:03:16
2018-08-03 · Life Advice - 50k subs Q&A — Ali's first principle of stoicism: external events do not directly cause a negative emotion; our response to them, the story we tell ourselves about them, does. — 00:03:40
2018-08-03 · Life Advice - 50k subs Q&A — recommendation: Ali: Facing a lot to do, Ali reframes "I have so much to do and no time" as "it is what it is, I'm going to do these things", so feeling bad about the work, which he takes to be stress, never comes in. — 00:04:10
2018-08-03 · Life Advice - 50k subs Q&A — Ali's second principle is the serenity prayer, which he calls the ultimate way of living: most things lie outside our control except our own actions and, arguably, our own thoughts. — 00:04:10
2018-08-03 · Life Advice - 50k subs Q&A — recommendation: Ali: Since he controls only his own thoughts and actions, Ali says nothing else needs to concern him; stressed friends tend to worry about what they cannot control, and worrying only about your own thoughts and actions makes for a stress-free life. — 00:04:55
2018-08-03 · Life Advice - 50k subs Q&A — Ali: When a consultant shouts at a junior doctor over the phone about a bad request, Ali says one person takes it as a lesson, with a growth mindset, while another feels a failure and has a bad day. — 00:08:03
2018-08-03 · Life Advice - 50k subs Q&A — recommendation: Ali: To have fewer bad days, Ali holds that the event is not what makes him feel bad but his story about it, so to stop feeling bad he only has to change his story. — 00:08:32
2018-08-03 · Life Advice - 50k subs Q&A — recommendation: Ali collects quotes; besides the serenity prayer, a favourite is one often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt: you will stop caring what other people think of you when you realise how seldom they do. — 00:15:22
2018-09-11 · My new podcast - Microphone setup + reflections — Ali calls having few expectations good practice according to stoicism and fully agrees with not having many expectations in life at all. — 00:11:07