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

40/365: Epictetus on improvement

A lot of unnecessary suffering is manufactured from maintaining an illusion of knowledge.

Suffering that could be alleviated with a drop of the mask.

Oh, I’m not sure what you mean, can you explain?

As long as we wish to appear intelligent, knowledgable, or important, we will continue to erect guard towers of ignorance that prevent true knowledge from entering the gate.

It’s okay to not know.

Even though we’ve been exposed to the exchange and acquisition of money for some time, it’s wise to step back in order to advance forward with true understanding.

In a circle of “smart” people, it’s heart-stopping to show your hand, exposing your ignorance. But doing so is hardly ignorant. It’s the mark of real intelligence.

Epictetus is charging us to drop the act. And in doing so, we might move forward where previously stuck.