Welcome to The Stoic Ledger, a daily money meditation from one of the Stoic sages.

53/365: Diogenes on ego

Self-deception, a snare set from ego, prevents the attainment of knowledge.

We have to be comfortable steeping the mistakes we’ve make for the rich lessons they yield.

But we don’t often do this. We preserve our minds through an array of defenses:

It couldn’t have been my fault. My strategies aren’t bad. If this wouldn’t have happened, then I would have made money. Bad luck. I don’t need your advice.

Tall walls keep us enclosed in our ego fortresses; fortified by impenetrable layers of self-deception, layers that prevent any real learning from ever getting through.