An Experiment

[nyuanshin]

"You see, you must become a student again -- an animal whom all ridicule -- if you really intend to subject your opinions to honest examination; and you know yourself that this is not the work of one hour or day."
-- Epictetus, Discourses ("Concerning family affection")

Requesting a couple of minutes of your time. It might not be quite what you

Comments

[colinmarshall]

That's it, I'm readin' me some Epictetus.

Now to do this Window.

[colinmarshall]

Shit, this is kinda tough. My approach just shifted to "What do I think someone who doesn't like him would say about him?" rather than "What are his actual failings?"

[colinmarshall]

... which resulted in words like "cold", "brash", etc., since I imagine someone has glanced at your journal and deemed you insufficiently happy or whatever.

[queueball]

I guess that's what I was trying to say above ... the words are specific enough only for approach #1, not #2, which (I assume, maybe incorrectly) is (closer to) what it's intended for.

[nyuanshin]

Either works, sort of -- you can think of the idea as "pick the least unfit".

[queueball]

Well, I took the plunge.

[nyuanshin]

Cheers.

"Predictable" was the one that surprised, which makes it the most useful -- the others have been anticipated somewhat as possibilities, but there's been very little signal until now that being easy to figure out was a potential hazard. Though over a few relatively narrow domains it's indubitably true.

[queueball]

"Predictable," like the others, was subject to the "the terms of this thing are screwy, but if I had to pick some" test. "Chaotic" was on my initial list, by the way, but didn't make it down to the final six, only because I didn't regard it as a weakness except to the extent that it's a double-edged sword, seeming to provide at least as much strength. It was the last to go.

[_luaineach]

::nods::

[nyuanshin]

Of the Stoics he might not be the best read -- the rhetorical skill doesn't fully translate from Greek to English. Seneca reads a little more pleasingly, but still -- Epictetus is interesting as a sort of a proto-cognitive-behavioral therapist.

[csn]

He was a Buddha of the West.

[nyuanshin]

What he said.