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