Book Review: The Daily Stoic

Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman, The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living. Portfolio, 20216. ISBN: 9780735211735.

Genre: self help, Stoicism, philosophy

Subgenre: daily reader

Format: paperback

Source: Berea branch, Madison County (KY) Public Library 

 

This is a devotional style book that presents a daily quote from a Stoic philosopher. You get 366 days, which covers leap years. The book includes quotes from Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, plus a few others. The book authors strive to present Stoicism as a tool for wisdom, perseverance, and good living. 

The book is arranged as follows: 

• Introduction. Stoicism is defined, and we get a short historical overview. Introduction presents the three Stoic disciplines. The book is then arranged based on the three disciplines. 
• Part I: Discipline of Perception. This covers January to April. Each month has a theme too: January (Clarity), February (Passions and emotions), March (Awareness), and April (Unbiased thought). 
• Part II: Discipline of Action. Covers May (Right Action), June (Problem solving), July (Duty), and August (Pragmatism). 
• Part III: Discipline of Will. Covers September (Fortitude and resilience), October (Virtue and kindness), November (Acceptance), and December (Meditation on mortality). 
• Staying Stoic. Book authors' short promotion of their Stoic website. 
• A model of late Stoic practice and a glossary of key terms and passages. 
• A word on the translations, references, and sources. 
• Suggestions for further reading. A small list of books to read and learn more. They also recommend reading from the Loeb Classics series. 

Each daily entry includes: date, a headline/title, Stoic quote, and interpretation and lesson from the book authors about the quote. The interpretation is 2-3 paragraphs of text. The entries overall are all in one page. The explanation and interpretation explains the quote, provides some modern context, and can provide some reflection questions too. 

If you want to have a daily message on how to live life better and some advice, this book is a good option. It can also be a good option for readers who want a short daily read that is also secular. Messages are good and practical. For me, I am sure for some other readers, it is interesting to see the Stoics faced some of the same issues we face today. Much of their advice is very relevant in the Hard Times we live in. 

The book overall is a good read. You can read it as a daily reader. I think the book works better when you pick it up and just browse to find something inspiring at the moment. It is not all positive and sunshine. Some quotes can be challenging, so is life. Still, it can provide some good practical advice. I liked it. 

3 out of 5 stars. 

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Additional reading notes. Here are some quotes from the book I'd like to remember with a bit of my commentary. 

On the power of being able to say "I don't know" or at times better yet say "I don't care." 

"If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters-- don't wish to seem knowledgeable. And if some regard you as important--distrust yourself" --Epictetus, Enchiridion, 13a (38). 

You don't have to follow or keep up with everything. Aside from being informed at a basic level, there is a lot you can let go and not worry about. Declutter your mind. Now key here is appearing to be clueless; it does not mean you are actually clueless or stupid. You just let others think whatever they wish, and you go along. I can be informed and knowledgeable without the need to show it off. Plus there are things you can choose not to know nor keep up, and you'll do fine. As the book authors ask in the entry: 

"How much more time, energy, and pure brainpower would you have available if you drastically cut your media consumption? How more more rested and present would you feel if you were no longer excited and outraged by every scandal, breaking story, and potential crisis (many of which never come to pass anyway)?" (38). 

In recent years, for me cutting back on media consumption, especially news and current events is a work in progress. It's why I have a media and reading moratorium on politics, social issues, and activist material. Doing what I can to keep sane and calm. As much as possible let others waste energy on outrage. It does not mean I am totally uninformed. It means I severely limit exposure and keep quiet, try to focus on the positive. As I said, a work in progress for me. 

Along with the above, here is a reminder  you don't have to have an opinion. You can allow some things to be irrelevant and/or nonexistent to you: 

"We have the power to hold no opinion about a thing and to not let it upset our state of mind-- for things have no natural power to shape our judgments" --Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.52 (49).

A reminder it is OK to ask for help: 

"Don't be ashamed of needing help. You have a duty to fulfill just like a soldier on the wall of battle. So what if you are injured and can't climb up without another soldier's help" --Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.7 (182). 

A reminder to give thanks and be grateful: 

"In all things we should try to make ourselves be as grateful as possible. For gratitude is a good thing for ourselves, in a manner in which justice, commonly held to belong to others, is not. Gratitude pays itself back in large measure" --Seneca, Moral Letters, 81.19 (385).

Note: Book is subject to my boycott of publishers against Internet Archive. I read it prior to March 27, 2023. Portfolio is part of PRH group. It will not be promoted further on social media.

Book Review: American Kingpin

Nick Bilton, American Kingpin: the Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road Drugs Empire. New York: Portfolio Books, 2017. ISBN: 9781591848141.

 

Genre: true crime

Subgenre: technology, Internet

Format: hardcover

Source: Berea branch, Madison County (KY) Public Library 

 

This is the story of Ross Ullbricht, a graduate school physics graduate who decided that enabling crime and making it easier for others to commit crimes would be more lucrative. He went on to create the dark web site Silk Road as a virtual trading post for all sorts of illegal things from drugs to guns to human body parts. He used his libertarian ideals to justify his ultimate free market, but as libertarians are prone to do, he had little to no regard of the collateral damage and social costs of his actions. He was eventually arrested and convicted of various crimes, but it was quite the saga over two years to capture him and his associates as well as shut down the site. This book tells the story of that manhunt. 

Bright as Ross was, he was not a programmer. To be honest, he had serious gaps in his technical knowledge, a fact that amazed some in law enforcement trying to catch him. I was amazed by that little fact as well. He did have a very good mentor and advisor in Vanity Jones (online name), and Ross did get some good talent to help out. However, his lack of security expertise likely made it easier for some federal agents to infiltrate the site. That is another part of the story. 

The book goes back and forth between Ross' view, views from those close to him, and views from various law enforcement agents. The author takes these elements to present a coherent nonfiction narrative that reads a lot like a techno-thriller, but keep in mind this is all real. The author did his research, and he had a lot of access to materials including chat logs and message between Dread Pirate Roberts (Ross' online persona) and his employees. On these logs Bilton writes, 

"These logs were excruciatingly in-depth conversations about every moment and every decision that went into creating and managing the Silk Road. They showed startling details about decisions to sell drugs, guns, body organs, and poisons and showed how every aspect of the site was managed" (323). 

Additionally, the author had access to Ross' personal diary entries where he pretty much documented what he was doing and how. Often nonfiction writers take some liberties creatively to recreate dialogues and such, but given the massive amounts of evidence and documentation Ross left behind, and a lot of it poorly secured or not secured at all-- again showing his lack of knowledge in online security-- the author likely had little difficulty putting the narrative together and citing conversations. Ross left a lot of material behind, and that is not even counting all his normal social media activity. Social media activity makes for a lot of virtual fingerprints for any individual, a lesson all of us using social media need to heed. 

 

Then we have law enforcement. Given how chaotic their efforts were, frequent lack of cooperation between agencies, and even a couple of rogue agents that basically aided DPR, at times it seems like a miracle they were able to catch him at all. They got him because some very persistent and dedicated individuals, coming at the problem from different angles, eventually figured out how to work together albeit reluctantly. 

As I mentioned, this reads like a techno-thriller. Narrative is fast paced; it is arranged in short chapters, which makes the book very easy to read. It is a book that once you pick it up, it's hard to put down as the tension and pace pick up as you read. 

Overall, this is an interesting book with a thrilling crime tale. If you've heard the story, you might still enjoy it. If you have not heard the story, this is a good book to learn about the mastermind behind the infamous Silk Road. Sure, to this day Ross has plenty of fans, mostly libertarian types and other criminals, but as the story shows Ross himself was nothing more than a criminal kingpin, no better than mafiosi or heads of drug cartels. 

Readers who enjoy the true crime genre will likely enjoy this book. Readers who may enjoy reading about the Internet and technology will likely enjoy it too. I picked up the book in part because CNBC's American Greed did a segment on the Silk Road. Overall, this is a book I really liked, and it is one I recommend for true crime, tech, and I'd add business readers.

 

4 out of 5 stars. 

 

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Additional reading notes:  

Another reason it's a miracle the feds caught DPR is their often bureaucratic and territorial culture. Jared, a DHS agent, and his travails are an example of this problem: 

"To make matters worse, Jared's success made other agents look ineffective by comparison. Not getting credit on a bust meant you couldn't climb the bureaucratic ladder to increase your pay and vacation time" (26). 

And yes, his supervisor scolded him for "pissing off people all over the place" i.e. doing his job better than the others. 

The irony of criminals having certain "morals," which became an issue DPR and Variety Jones had to deal with: 

"Yet to some of the buyers and sellers on there, this freedom was a problem. The mellow people who bought and sold weed on the site didn't want to be associated with the speedy people who bought and sold cocaine. Some of the hard drug dealers didn't want to be in the company of the right-wing crazies who hawked guns. And some of the gun guys didn't want to be in the same shopping cart as the scummy heroin dealers. Round and round it went. 

Even though all these people were dealing in illicit activities, they each had a moral sense that their particular outlawed product was more just than another" (123). 

Agent Jared, as part of his research, read libertarian books that DPR/Ross recommended. He worried whether they made sense. Turns out he understood them perfectly: 

"To him, it appeared that the arguments made by the authors were a series of justifications for doing things in the world without taking responsibility for how those actions might affect other people" (152). 

In the end, the Silk Road lived on: 

"After Ross was arrested, the Silk Road Web site was promptly shut down. But it took only a few weeks before a new Silk Road 2.0 opened for business, with a new Dread Pirate Roberts at the helm of the ship. When that was subsequently shut down by the Feds, another Silk Road appeared, along with hundreds of other Web sites that anonymously sell drugs online" (314). 

 

 

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This book qualifies for the following 2021 Reading Challenges: