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How Should We Manage Changes in Fortune? - Coggle Diagram
How Should We Manage Changes in Fortune?
Marcus Aurelius
From my understanding of the reading, I think Marcus was just relying on doing the bare minimum and ignoring the bad in the world, which doesn't seem like a viable option in being happy. This reminded me of Ursula Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas", especially in the manner that similar to the people who decide to stay in Omelas knowing of the child suffering, it says that we are the ones who decide to take things to be bad.
However, I do agree that we should think of the positive qualities of the people around us to cheer ourselves us. When we hold a mirror to the people we surround ourselves by, we can appreciate that those who are kind choose to spend their time with us, and that we are worth the time they spend with us.
When it comes to tackling changes in fortune, I think that as we make more income and find ourselves in spaces where people can be more and more entitled, and shout demands at us, we can control the narrative by being good-natured, and not let that energy get to us.
Wealthy, Successful, and Miserable
We should be more comfortable with taking risks that make us happy. As we have more income, we should be able to also build a cushion for ourselves in case we do want to make a career pivot.
What is a "good job"? Although the question is subjective, we can explore ideas of what the standards are for autonomy in the workplace.
Nichomachean Ethics
"Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit is thought to aim at some good...if there is an end for all that we do, this will be good achievable by action". This quote from the text stood out to me because it speaks to how multifaceted we are and how throughout our lives, so much good is done by just innate and subconscious actions, and that we should lean into that nature, because the natural good we commit from being virtuous or kind brings us happiness in of itself.
I find it interesting that this piece calls out the innate/subconscious nature of people to be kind, and it draws a line between doing it because it comes from the soul versus doing it for the sake of something else, like savior from a higher being. I draw this connection because of the use of religion in Marcus Aurelius' piece, where one should "Follow God's lead" and "remain[ing] mindful of God" as compared to being good and acting virtuous just because it comes naturally
Happiness and why "happily ever after" is a myth
We should manage changes by making the best of our situations. As we have more access to take action about what is going on in the world, we should do what we can, and appreciate what we have
The idea of embracing painful emotions was interesting because it conflicted with Marcus Aurelius' idea of seeing painful emotions like anger as a sign of weakness. Allowing ourselves to process the painful emotions makes us better empathizers and better friends/family members
Most Rejected Generation
"One young man told me the system caused him to value security and stability above all" Here we see the beginning of what we see in "Wealthy, Successful, and Miserable", where we choose to lock ourselves into stability because of the culture of competitiveness we see around us.
Long term effects of rejection: We are creating the work culture we don't want. In rejecting so many people, more and more applicants lose empathy and become more aggressive, making the workplace feel more isolating once they get the position.
Is a Life Without Struggle Worth Living?
What I was able to take from the Etinson piece was that it was a reinforcement of the idea that there is not finite happiness, similar to the Tal Ben-Shahar piece. Because there is no finite idea of happiness, we should take joy in our ability to enjoy and percieve the world through actions, enjoying our humanity
Not only enjoying our humanity, but the humanity in humans and their ability to be resilient and continue being creative
Analects of Confucius
Book 4 stood out to me because of how it seemed that the dao, or world transformation, as translated in the document seems to favor those who are aligned with their morals, rather than those who are guided by profit. Most if not all of the readings carry a similar sentiment of how we should not revolve our lives around profit
I also liked Book 6, because it reminds us that even if we get caught up in someone's deception due to us being kind, we shouldn't feel any shame, because we shouldn't take away from our kindness just because of how other people's greed or selfishness makes them act towards us. This reflects on how we should still stay kind-hearted even as we reach higher positions because we alsi aren't just being kind because it feels good to be, but because we set an example for others to follow that as we have more authority.