The Only Certainty Is Uncertainty Itself

[Music]

we’re going to take a look tonight at a

little bit of

philosophy and how philosophy might be

able to help us

cope with the inherent uncertainty

that’s out in the world we

got the coronavirus just to kind of

go through this one last time um you

know uh

hopefully we can start putting this

behind this this virus but

you know once the virus set in and it

became sort of the new normal for

society

um the uncertainty just kind of

went up in volume right so it was i mean

look at the date december 2019

this is when the coronavirus became a

global pandemic

and you can see a picture there sort of

the new normal if you will

um face mask gloves

hand sanitizer right these things are

still with us right now we got a double

mask

to get to get the numbers where we want

them right um and you can see the

coronavirus a picture of it right there

and so this little you know

this virus is throwing the world to

quite a quite a

different trajectory right and so we

start to wake up every day

and the first thought that’s you know

was on my mind for sure you know

how and when will this end you know we

know we know we have vaccines

so we know how it’s going to end right

we’ve got great vaccines out there

tremendous efficacy rates right

but still the uncertainty

lingers and so when is it going to be a

return of some normality

when can i go to the movies again right

these kinds of questions

and so what i wanted the argument i want

to make and what i want to submit to

everyone is that no matter

when a more certain future arrives

some aspects of life will nevertheless

remain the same

so as chaotic as things are now there

there are some things that just will

not change for us

and one thing that will not change

they’ll still be uncertain so

it’s a little little bit of descartes

here if you’re willing to philosophy but

um you know i think therefore i am or i

doubt therefore i exist

so the twist on that is the only

certainty is the uncertainty itself

even with vaccines even with a return to

a different world than we live now

it’s still going to be modified and

won’t be exactly the same

um social fabric is completely different

because of pandemics right history

merits this out

and we can look at economic data right

now and

just see the way society’s being changed

politically

to all right so all these different

facets and

still even you know despite all these

things it’s going to be changed

it’s still going to be uncertain we

don’t necessarily know how

things will be different in the future

just that they will be different

and this can make us very very anxious

about the future itself

and so what we would like to do is we

want to ask

questions that will help us retain power

and cope with this uncertainty

the same very thing that we’re doing

right now at this great ted tax talk

right

and so when we start to ask ourselves

these questions about the future about

what’s you know what’s in our control

what’s outside our control

we soon find out that much of what’s

happening just like the pandemic itself

is outside of our control

and the pandemic maybe kind of shifts

our focus

onto other aspects of our life that

aren’t in our control on a day-to-day

basis

and so when we start to ask these

questions

and really sort of dig into what is

making us

feel this anxiety um

the mere fact that we are sitting down

thinking about them

becomes a sort of meditation

intellectual rumination is a type of

meditation

you slow your mind down by asking

questions

what’s important what’s not what can i

control but can’t i control right

and this has a common effect

and so i would like to ask everyone

right

just recall the past experience

where you had to put reason in charge so

this could you know when it’s going to

be different for everyone um

so it could be a position where you were

uh

with your parents and they’re you know

you did something wrong or there’s a

misunderstanding your parents are kind

of

really coming at you and they you know

they’re going to discipline you and

you’re like

you know that they’re kind of wrong and

you’re right but you don’t say anything

because it’s not going to change

anyone’s mind or

you’re at a job and you’ve got this real

annoying co-worker

but you need to you need this job and

there’s plenty of times that you just

want to yell at this co-worker but you

can’t

reason’s got to get in charge and you

can’t become too emotionally

charged as a result of this and so

what we start to see is that when we

recall experiences like this

um and i can think of ones with my two

younger brothers

just they’ve emotionally got me

emotionally worked up all the time

uh you know just gotta let it go that’s

them right

some people aren’t gonna change and you

just recognize that and you move on

so on these notes right we’ve got this

reason

and emotion right we’ve got our good

sort of sense

and our emotional side you know we

struggle with this sort of reptilian

part of our brain right that amygdala

that emotional part

and it’s really hard work to put your

good sense in charge

um in fact this is what they call in

some ways growing

up right some people never grow up so

we’ll use that phrasal verb

for what it’s worth but you know to to

grow up in some way means become

conscious of yourself where you put

reason and charge over emotions

and the reason why when we start to slow

down and think about

whether or not something we should get

worked up about something is that

thinking informs the worth of value so

you go you know what

it’s just not and so

what i would uh would like to present is

that we want to use stoic philosophy

that takes this general um

this general point of view of the world

and says okay

what is worth worrying about and what is

not

is this particular thing i’m worried

about

should i get worked up about it now is

it something i can change is something i

can’t change

it’s outside of my control right and so

um

stoic philosophy isn’t comes out of the

ancient world right ancient rome

although we’ll see it’s got its roots in

ancient athens

um it helps keep your mind on the

present and

this is very much in line with what

meditation says

um that when you’re focused on the

present you’re again

less anxious about the future and you’re

not worried about a past that people

tend to get um a little depressed about

right so those are sort of

the two extremes there when you’re

focused on the present focused on the

now

your thoughts are within your control

and there’s a picture here of ancient

rome uh and we just i think it’s

important to recognize the context of

stoic philosophy

at least we’re going to look where it

was developed by the three main sort of

proponents of the most well-known

um ancient rome america right we come

right out of ancient rome our federal

form of government comes from rome

um the whole reason why we study history

is to learn lessons

and so um stoic philosophy is very much

a bow today

it’s back in fashion i should say and um

the fact that we uh our comparisons to

ancient rome

um in a broad way are very salient okay

i’m not talking about

sort of uh any particular comparison

from the broad strokes of history the

whole reason why we study history

is that um this is not only just in our

heritage but we seem to be as a nation

sort of in maybe the same spot as

ancient rome many people have written

about this

so i encourage you to look into the

similarities between modern america and

hbro

okay so stoicism let’s get a definition

of it right

it’s a type of virtue ethics and what

they argue that um

virtue practicing virtue or happiness is

necessary and sufficient uh thing to do

right so if you do not practice virtue

in your own life you will not be happy

according to the stones

um now stoicism is founded by a guy

named zeno

uh he’s preaching on the stowa porch

this is an ancient athens

and um the stoicism we’re going to look

at in rome it’s kind of a little more

evolved

300 years plus a little bit later and

what they come to find out is in this

big sprawling

uh imperial power of rome that there are

many things outside of your control

and that the imperial structure is so

large in the roman government you’re so

big the

the um army so expansive so on and so

forth

that you feel as an individual like

you’re lost because so much is out of

your control

and so what this with the stoics

emphasized was that

indifference to certain aspects of

society could help you practice

virtue by not worrying about every

little thing

but focusing on the important thing

which was your character

and developing it and worrying about the

things that were

necessary to worry about okay um and

last we have the bottom there revival in

the 21st century

with cognitive behavioral therapy and

similar approach so

again very much back today um

i’ll just say this on ancient greece

stoicism is a bit of a blending

of plato and aristotle at the end of the

day

uh they’re going to sort of fall in line

with plato

but they’re sort of developing the

praxis or practical side of virtue

because in order to achieve excellence

in your life is going to require you to

pee

to practice and that’s got to become

habitual

so the three we’ll look at three quotes

your three famous stoics

seneca the younger epictetus and marcus

aurelius all right so epic so seneca

first here

um you can see as this is moral letters

to the silliest

if you would put off all worry assume

that what you fear may happen

will certainly happen in any event and

whatever the trouble may be

measure in your mind and estimate the

amount of your fear

you will thus understand that what you

fear is either insignificant

or short-lived so the point when seneca

is

i think trying to make here is that many

times

we’ll just take let’s say you’ve got a

big assignment dude right and you just

put it off and you put it off and you

put the assignment off

and you’re like at some point the

assignment’s going to be due

right and so you have to you have to

tackle it and then

you actually sit down and you tackle the

assignment you go for it

and you go wow it’s actually

not that bad so sometimes the things

that we fear or we look

uh we’re not looking forward to doing

they’re actually not that bad in other

words

it’s not that things are good or bad but

thinking them

makes it so sometimes right and so

we are sort of deluding ourselves in

that in that respect

all right next one epic tears all right

so we go from

seneca who was a statement epictetus

who’s a freak he becomes a free slave

start to school

um he is free who lives as he wishes to

live who is neither subject to

compulsion nor to hindrance nor to force

whose movements to action are not

impeded whose desires

attain their purpose and who does not

fall into that which he would avoid

so the stoics are on to this

sort of um route to happiness that

it’s not it’s important what you do

that’s extremely important but of equal

importance is what you avoid

and so happiness it just doesn’t have

this positive connotation to it where

you can go out and achieve it and make

it happen

through your own willpower but you have

to avoid things

that are going to get in the way of you

practicing your virtue right

to become happy and so the that’s that’s

what they refer to sort of a negative

uh view of happiness right uh it’s that

it’s the absence of those things

so if you want to avoid them make sure

you avoid them

because they’re not going to help you

attain your purpose right

and the last person here is is the most

famous stoic of them all

today um he writes the very famous the

meditations

and marcus aurelius is the last good

emperor of rome um

the of the five and um

his book the meditations has become um

almost biblical in some ways in

leadership circles as we’ll see

um but here we go do not act as hebrew

as if you were going to live 10 000

years

death hangs over you while you live

while in your power

be good so if you become too emotionally

charged about some things you will

actually and you let other things

distract you throw you off balance

you’re going to forget to live your life

because you’re going to be too busy

worrying about fears that are really

really

may not be in your control kind of at

the end of the day

aren’t really fierce because you thought

they were but they really weren’t

and again focus on the present here

right

it’s time to get going right yes

um you can be uh get emotionally charged

by getting emotionally charged about the

right things right time is precious

and so um does the application of this

ancient wisdom does it really help

to achieve success or happiness in life

um this is big business nowaday uh

ladies and gentlemen

all right this is um uh we can look over

here stoicism

20 of the best books right um harvard

business school

books about leadership on stoicism

because if you make a bad business

decision

you can’t let that you know detract you

from the mission

right of the company or whatever it is

uh maybe you’re an entrepreneur

you know there’s a purpose here and if

you let

a bad past decision always come into

your mind

that’s good that’s just gonna be very

faithful okay

so you have to sort of order the inner

part of us it’s got to mirror what we

want on the outside right so we’ve got

to sort of

brush off the bad experience that we

have

and so barack obama down here uh famous

professed

stoic right he says he is um how to be a

stoic in the workplace

kind of talked about that earlier down

here i always like to shout out the

garden state right here in new jersey

um two guys from new jersey wrote a book

this on stoicism how it’s helped them

and

um podcast you know

so still podcast um the daily stoic

is um started by getting holiday

and you can get a stoic affirmation kind

of sent to you every single

day because again this takes practice to

remind ourselves

that we can’t let everything sort of

bother us we’ve got to keep our mind

on the aim and what it is and so just

just key takeaways here so we’ll kind of

wrap up

um stokes kind of remind us to stop and

reflect on what really matters in life

and what’s within our control

don’t waste your time because you’ll

never get it back right

virtue requires putting reason in charge

of her emotions to avoid

unnecessary uh anxiety by practice

so we build this sort of clarity of mind

and certainty in our mind

by through practice and through having

and at the end of the day

you have to be confident in your own

judgment um

you know oscar wilde you know famously

said ever be yourself everyone else is

taken

and i think that’s good advice here and

stokes remind us that um

you know your character is your

character and it um to go a little bit

further in their philosophy

they think that the universe is part of

a big grand design

and that your inner um

character what you’re interested in what

you want to pursue in life

that this is also part of the grand

design

and so for you not to pursue your

happiness

what’s going to make you know make you

feel like a like authentic person

uh you’re not really following what you

were put here for and

you’re depriving us of your greatness as

well so be the best you possible

right and so at the end here just kind

of bring it back full circle

there’s still going to be uncertainty in

the world once this coronavirus uh

pandemic you know

ends or gets muted or comes to a

conclusion whatever the case may be and

we evolve to

another aspect of it and hopefully we

can put it behind us

but you know the world’s still going to

be uncertain we’re still going to have

to judge

reason versus our emotion right and

um there’s where the certainty lies that

our thoughts are within

our control and so we’ll just we’ll just

uh end right here again with marcus real

it’s a quote by him

that is in your power whenever you will

to choose to retreat

into yourself

thank you

you