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Comment by luigi23 | Hacker News Reader

Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day.

The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.

Seneca

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Meditations of Marcus Aurelius:

4.33 what would you gain from everlasting remembrance? Absolutely nothing. So what is left worth living for? This alone: justice in thought, goodness in action, speech that cannot deceive, and a disposition glad of whatever comes, welcoming it as necessary, as familiar, as flowing from the same source and fountain as yourself.

4.48 Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man - yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.

Why, do you not know, then, that the origin of all human evils, and of baseness, and cowardice, is not death, but rather the fear of death?

- Epictetus

I recently heard of Terror Managment Theory [1]. Sounds a lot like it.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory

What's wrong with good old-fashioned greed and selfishness?

Having the most fun before death, everyone and everything else be damned?

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.

see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_imperative

I think this is all a way of saying "don't wait for Judgment Day to get your shit together."

it diminishes the empathy and care you're willing to provide for others and maybe even worse it puts you into a never-ending rat race that you ultimately can't win, which is the point of most of these quotes. Greed just tends to cause more greed, with no tranquillity in sight.

It's not even a super deep insight or anything but it's still surprising how little attention it gets.

Time to re-read Meditations. I don’t remember any of what I read 5 years ago. On one hand it makes me sad that I’ve forgotten so much wisdom but I’m happy I get to rediscover it now.

> but I’m happy I get to rediscover it now..

This is much more in line with the passage quoted above. Enjoy what you have while you have it. "This alone".

I discovered once that humans don't usually remember that which they do not understand. As your understanding grows, so will your memory of it. It may be necessary to re-experience a thing many times before you understand it well enough to remember it.

Seneca also said that "Just as I shall select my ship when I am about to go on a voyage, or my house when I propose to take a residence, so I shall choose my death when I am about to depart from life."

If I took that literally, I would never start any projects that cannot be completed in a single day.

This! The carpe diem mentality has always had this flaw IMHO. Humans are what they are because they invented ways to deal with the future: being a good sport, a sense of community, trading, etc.

Just living in the moment isn't enough.

"Carpe diem" is just misunderstood. It's more an advice against procrastination than a suggestion to ignore the future.

You could not think of them as projects that must be finished, just work on whatever you feel like at the moment. Eventually they may grow to completion. If they don't, then you didn't like to work on them anyway.

(This is excellent advice from someone who has never managed to finish any personal project.)

The projects can be completed, even if you cannot complete them. Release early, release often :)

I would advise you to think hard about starting long projects for which the days of work that it requires do not individually seem worth the effort. Not only will you be miserable, but your chances of success will be low. However, I would also caution you not to assume that a long difficult task will not be satisfying day to day when approached with the right frame of mind.

The daily stoic emails are awesome. Ryan Holiday does an amazing job of making stoism practical to modern life. HIghly recommended.

https://dailystoic.com/email/

Thanks for sharing. That one hit me hard.

I can recommend this application, if you would like to read more of the stoics and happen to have an Android phone:

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.reading.stoic.stoicreadi...

I think Epictetos' Enchiridion is a good start.

I get frustrated with this attitude which assumes everyone is in a position to do these things.

I've lost many years of my life to physical disability, and pretty well all of my life due to mental problems which mess up my ability to deal with people[0], and without relationships you are nothing.

Reading this feels like someone telling others to "eat, drink and be merry", when those others are have no food or water - but the merry advice-giver has plenty, so what's the problem.

I'd never take away from someone else what I never had and likely never will, but frankly I wish more fortunate people would stop dishing out their insensitive, thoughtless advice.

[0] blah blah poor me with my sob story. Shit happens.

I don't think he's advising people to have some fun while it lasts or something like that. I think this specific quote, out of context, may be read like that, but I think the point is actually to ignore trivialities, such as "eat, drink and be merry" and instead prepare for death by focusing on what is important, like having a clear conscience and living a virtuous life. I think it's virtue that he advises we should not postpone- don't leave being a virtuous person for later, because detah may come at any moment, is my reading.

Is there something more effective that you can suggest from your experience?

The stoics aren't usually known for being party animals.

Yes, I was going to reply to the GP with:

Then there are those who are eager for it to end, but have to wait for biology or fate to catch up.

There should be a clean Quit button.

> Reading this feels

I don't disbelieve you, but I suggest you try reading it again with an open mind. I think you are unconsciously imposing a stereotype onto those lines.

without relationships you are nothing

A nugget of wisdom amongst all the shallow stoical comments in this thread.

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