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January 29
Day 29/365: Epictetus on proper education
Logan
January 29, 2025
Welcome to The Stoic Ledger, a daily money meditation from one of the Stoic sages.
29/365: Epictetus on proper education
“What then is it to be properly educated? It is to learn how to adapt naturally and with ease to what happens, so that you may both obtain what you desire and avoid what you dislike. If you do not get what you desire, you know that it was not yours to begin with, and if something undesirable happens, you know that it was not unexpected.” – Epictetus
With games of risk, there’s a chance. A chance at gain and a chance at loss.
This proper education that Epictetus spells out is a win-win perspective to for us to adorn:
What you didn’t gain wasn’t yours in the first place
What you lost was the negative side of the risk coin — a reality we know to exist
With this perspective, we can maintain the equilibrium of a prepared mind.
But there’s a difference between a prepared mind and a worried mind.
The prepared mind accepts the events as they unfold, with knowledge and strategy from the preparation; the worried mind chews on events that might never unfold, ruminating on untold risks, making hasty decisions from a state of fear.
Things are too good.
This can’t go on forever.
I’m getting out.
Unthinkable wealth has been destroyed this way. Forgone returns from bad timing. Buying at the top because you don’t want to miss out.
Every game we play in life is a risk game with a chance coin. Our job is not to judge the favorability of the flip, but to take a Stoic look at the results and keep flipping.
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