I enjoyed this piece, including references to the Stoics and Spinoza. It preaches serenity, goodwill, composure, etc.
As someone in their 30s with children, work and a generally busy life, I wonder if anyone can recommend some pieces with more direct application - that is, in this vein, but perhaps an operational / how-to guide. Sometimes, it's hard to translate principles to action.
As someone in their 50s with a kid, work and a busy life, I’ve found the unlovable fact of it is these things resist a How To guide. It’s sort of like the thing about anyone who wants to be a politician shouldn’t be allowed to. If someone is distilling these things into a How To, at best, they grasp the ideas but lack the perspective that their lived experience isn’t anyone else’s, so the context is all lost. The bits and pieces that I’ve come to think which map up with the author’s tend to be found in books that lack a goal or a point.
As an aside, the Internet-driven grindset that everything, even a hobby, should have a point is one to resist with all your might. Think of the times you laughed loudest playing with your kids; I doubt you all were trying to achieve a goal beyond being together having fun.
There's some fairly strange and dated advice in here, like entering a door before a woman being impolite (unless it's a revolving door; those require strength, which women do not have?) or being emasculated by shaking hands while sitting down?
As someone in their 30s with children, work and a generally busy life, I wonder if anyone can recommend some pieces with more direct application - that is, in this vein, but perhaps an operational / how-to guide. Sometimes, it's hard to translate principles to action.