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Stoicism in Five Minutes or Less (for Developers)

Stoicism in Five Minutes or Less (for Developers)

These are the slides for a Lightning Talk I gave at RailsConf 2019 after I noticed people kept mentioning Stoic ideas. It's a fast overview of some of the big ideas in a philosophy that tries to give a person an operating system for living a life that's worth living through personal improvement and usefulness to others.

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Andrew Neely

May 01, 2019
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Transcript

  1. You might know one of my coworkers Please stop using

    Hashie. — Michael Herold Hashie maintainer
  2. Stoicism is a philosophy of life. — It describes how

    to live a good (ethical) life, one that is worth living.
  3. Practice with these tools can create a sense of calm

    in the face of these challenges.
  4. When to act? — Do what you can and should

    do. — Accept what you can't control, such as what happens next.
  5. For whom do we act? — For ourselves, mostly to

    maintain our character — For our friends, colleagues, and loved ones, to be useful to them — For the broader good of all people, The Human Cosmopolis
  6. e.g. Market-based approaches have gaps in who and what they

    serve because individual selfishness isn't good under all circumstances. See DHH's mention of the Tragedy of the Commons in the opening keynote
  7. Tool - Dichotomy of Control When We Act — We

    only have control over ourselves, specifically our actions and reactions. — We accept everything else as either preferred or dispreferred indifferents.
  8. For example, JavaScript is the most popular language in the

    world and there's nothing I can do about it...
  9. That crack I just made may have felt clever or

    satisfying, but it's actually not helpful at all.
  10. Lots of under-represented people in our field come to programming

    through CSS and JS via design, marketing, and content strategy. — Maybe shitting all over what they're good at and enjoy doing isn't helpful to them.
  11. JavaScript and CSS are part of the most broadly adopted

    and freely accessible computer/human interface in history.
  12. I should be celebrating this for the people it has

    benefited and using them to build useful software not controlled by a single vendor.
  13. Actionable: — Hold yourself accountable. — Show up for others.

    You can choose to be inclusive. — Rewatch yesterday's closing keynote by Bärí A. Williams. It's fantastic and full of useful things to do and consider.
  14. Courage "How can [someone] be brave if [they] are afraid?

    That is the only time [they] can be brave." — [Spoiler] from Game of Thrones.
  15. Actionable: — Speak up for others, even when you have

    something to lose. — Apply to companies that you might not think will hire you. — Dive into projects you don't feel ready to tackle. — Give a talk at a public meetup or a conference.
  16. — Self control is a habit. It gets easier with

    practice. — Withhold judgement of others. It's harder than it sounds. — Strive to improve yourself.
  17. Actionable — Review your day. How did you do? What

    should you do differently? Try again tomorrow. — Form a practice routine. Even 20 minutes a day will snowball. — Exercism.io — Practicing Rails
  18. Wisdom (Practical Knowledge) It is impossible for a [person] to

    learn what [they] think [they] already know — Epictetus
  19. When you're facing a challenge, nature gives you Reason to

    ask: — What is actually happening right now? — Which virtue is critical in my situation? — e.g. Can I change my situation to remove the need to lean on my willpower? — Struggling: What don't I know? What do I need to learn?
  20. Am I wrong? — Failure is always an option. This

    can be a good thing. — It's one of our greatest teachers. — Your obstacles are often your greatest opportunities.
  21. Further Learning — Massimo Pigliucci — How to be a

    Stoic — William Irvine — Guide to the Good Life
  22. Daily Practice — Massimo Pigliucci — Stoic Meditations podcast —

    Ryan Holiday — Daily Stoic book and podcast