Nick Hutchison recommends The Daily Stoic for its April 25 entry on admitting error. Marcus Aurelius wrote that true strength means changing your mind when proven wrong, not stubbornly standing your ground. Hutchison credits the book with teaching him that greater knowledge reveals greater ignorance.
Chapters
Hello, Book Thinkers family! I have a question for everybody: are you afraid of being wrong? Today's book tip is going to come from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Steven Hanselman. This book is one of my most prized possessions. I read it every single day without fail, and it has absolutely changed my life in a million different ways. Stoicism is a philosophy that has a lot of actionable insight, and I really love it for that. The subtitle of this book is 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living, and it includes new translations from famous Stoic philosophers like Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. Every day you'll open it up, you'll read one passage, and then Ryan and Steven go and relate it to modern-day life. The passage on April 25th is one of my favorites. Every year when I get to this, I'm very excited. The title of the passage is There's Nothing Wrong with Being Wrong, and then the actual passage from the Stoic philosopher today is from Marcus Aurelius in his personal journal Meditations. He writes, quote, if anyone can prove and show to me that I think and act in error, I will gladly change it, for I seek truth. I seek the truth by which no one has ever been harmed. The one who is harmed is the one who abides in deceit and ignorance. When I was young, I used to think that sticking to your guns no matter what, digging your foot in and making sure that nobody could push you from your position, was a smart thing to do. It was a smart position to have, and it showed strength and courage. But that's not true. If you stand behind something that is wrong and is deceitful or ignorant, it will come back to bite you in the butt. And you don't want that to be true. After reading hundreds and hundreds of books by incredible people, I realized that the more I learn, the more there is to learn. The more I know, the more I don't know. And that's a very important lesson to have. I love being passionate about the stance that you might take, but if somebody tears it down with true logic and facts and proves you wrong, adopt that new principle and be just as passionate about it. You don't need to stand behind something that is wrong. And that might be harmful to other people. And so that lesson was so difficult for me to learn. And through Stoicism and a lot of meditation and reflection and growth in my personal and professional life, I've been able to adopt this. That's today's lesson. I hope you consider it. Have a great day. Go read something. Bye.
