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Comment by user_7832 | Hacker News Reader

To anyone full of regret, I'd just like to give a quote by Marcus Aurelius (a Roman Emperor and stoic philosopher)

Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly.

Life likely hasn't been perfect for almost anyone, but would you rather die right now (with likely unfinished desires, wishes and more regrets) or would you try to make the best use of what you have?

(It may be a bit difficult to fully live as per the quote even if you're already familiar with stoicism - it's quite hard for me too - but something that sometimes helps me is to literally visualize yourself dead as of now.

Maybe a stroke.

Would you be happy?

If not, you should do something about it.)

View on HN

Is quoting a stoic on HN the same as playing 'Stairway to Heaven' in a guitar shop?

I do love this quote of course (and all things Aurelius).

lol

...I had no idea it was common here on HN, though I'm not surprised. It was just something that's helped me a fair bit and I hope(d) it could help others too.

It's not just HN, stoics hit a "rational coder" approach to life chord with those who fight computers all day.

I think it might be more that a lot of people in tech have poor work-life balances and bad interpersonal dynamics, and this causes high stress and receptivity to coping mechanisms.

That's exactly what I think.

Much of what modern Stoics put forth appears to be an excuse to dissociate from emotional pain, not cope with unchangeable fate or hardship.

Thank you for this well put reply.

I think I need to add that I don't mean to judge for this. I've been in similar places too. It can be a fine line with many shades of gray between "dissocation" and "coping". Some of it may be useful to somebody. Falling into it as a trap is very human.

Stoics had (yet another—IIRC the last one was around the 1950s-60s) popular revival a few years back and now they're everywhere (especially Aurelius) and there's definitely a bit of "well I'll have to stop wearing that band's shirt out and about now that Wal-Mart's selling fake-faded reproductions of their tour shirts and most of the people you see wearing one can't name more than three of their songs" to it.

Funniest thing I read today. Thanks.

Thanks to GP, too. That’s a lovely quote.

Yes, and the guitar solo equivalent would be linking to a Paul Graham article.

Steve Jobs turned the ideas in that quote into a commencement speech after his cancer diagnosis. It concludes with:

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

It is handy when your heart is in something financially remunerative though.

My heart tends toward the gutter. Not complaining though.

I knew I would get your comment and almost left out the last line because of it. But, I wanted to keep the quote complete. It still works even if you leave out follow your heart.

It's a shame he never took the advice to heart. Jobs' last days were unnecessarily painful for both himself and his family, who desperately tried helping him only to be pushed away and insulted.

Jobs was good at echoing the wisdom of people smarter than him, but not so great at using those principles to fix his own life.

> Jobs was good at echoing the wisdom of people smarter than him, but not so great at using those principles to fix his own life.

This applies to most people.

Yep, my favorite philosopher, Alan Watts basically died from alcoholism. Though, I am not sure whether his teachings would condone that or not for I have seen a few people argue either way.

Oh, wow! I didn't know that. I've listened to him for hours and hours.

The thing with alcohol (and most psychoactive drugs) is it literally changes the brain - and by that the person. The young person that says: "I would never let it get this far!" is basically right when it says that. But prolonged use of the drug changes that person. And that new person definitely will let it get this far, because it sees new justifications for doing so.

I know from experience unfortunately.

I don't think sober Alan Watts would approve of severe alcoholism as something 'no better or worse' than any other activity to spend your day. But I can clearly see a drinking Alan Watts run circles around anybody arguing the same thing.

One of my best too! Best line i have ever read is quoted in a few lines i wrote here...https://www.pedefsou.com/posts/still-forgeting-to-live-the-m...

> Jobs was good at echoing the wisdom of people smarter than him, but not so great at using those principles to fix his own life.

One quote by Konosuke Matsushita that I've heard (which I think he quoted from a Japanese one) :

The light is darkest underneath the lighthouse.

Wait But Why had a great take on this: https://mobile.twitter.com/waitbutwhy/status/157156259595748...

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