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One life has been issued to you. Don’t waste it begging for understanding. Screw being normal. The consequences are far too great as we learned from the death of Anthony Bourdain.

To seek normalcy is a path to insanity.

Instead, be yourself and embrace all the weird quirks you’ve created. Oscar Wilde’s advice is to “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” That’s the best way to exterminate normalcy.

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– Tim Denning

Tim Duncan is likely the greatest power forward in the history of the NBA. Five titles. Three NBA Finals MVPs. Fifteen All-star appearances. Fifteen All-NBA Team selections. Fifteen NBA All-Defensive Team selections. The most devastating turnaround jumper off the glass that basketball has ever seen. And he did it with a selflessness and poise that is almost unmatched.

Almost is the operative word, of course, because Duncan was helped along on this journey to greatness by his predecessor and teammate, David Robinson. How did these two superstars connect? How did one mentor the other? Duncan, who was recently inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, explained:

People always ask, 'What did he tell you? What did he show you?’ I don't remember one thing we sat down and talked about specifically. But what he did was he was a consummate pro, he was an incredible father, he was an incredible person, and he showed me how to be a good teammate, a great person to the community, all those things. Not by sitting there and telling me how to do it, but by being that.

The Stoics said we’re better off embodying our philosophy rather than talking about it. Marcus Aurelius actually said it was a waste of time to speculate or argue about what makes a good man, a good athlete, a good teammate. Our job, he said, was to be one. Similarly, the famous screenwriter’s maxim is “show don’t tell.”

And it’s this that explains the incredible culture of the San Antonio Spurs, beginning with David Robinson, who tutored Tim Duncan by example, who in turn instructed Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, who in turn instructed Patty Mills—the last remaining player from that championship run—who is in turn, modeling for a team of newer, younger players.


This is how it goes, in sports, in life, for parents. Sure, we can talk all we want. We can have great conversations. But what matters is what we model. What matters is what we are, for ourselves and of course, for those looking up to us...The DailyStoic

n June of 2001, Paul Wolfowitz, then U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, addressed the cadets at West Point. While the speech he gave was not itself a historical moment, one remark in it would go down in history. Because it was one of those quotes that history would, in retrospect, make particularly poignant, if not outright ironic.

“Surprise happens so often,” Wolfowitz said, “that it's surprising we're still surprised by it." It was time, he said, for leaders and soldiers and citizens alike to “replace a poverty of expectations with an anticipation of the unfamiliar and the unlikely." Just three months later, Wolfowitz and most—if not all—of the US government would be stunned when jihadists crashed two planes into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. Wolfowitz himself would come to call the events of 9/11 a “wake up call” and thus illustrate a timeless piece of Stoic wisdom.

That saying and knowing are not the same thing. That it’s incredibly easy, tempting even, to pay lip service to an idea without being able to fully integrate it into your life and profession. Remember when Seneca said the only unforgivable excuse is “I did not think it would happen.” We can nod our head at that, we can acknowledge how right he is, but it matters very little if you do not also, as Epictetus said, embody that philosophy.

Look at where we are right now. Plenty of people warned about the risks of pandemics. Plenty of smart people noted that a decade-long bull market could not last. Plenty of people spelled out the worst case scenarios that accompany cronyism, egotistical leaders, and political polarization. Michael Lewis wrote an entire book titled The Fifth Risk about what happens when governmental bureaucracies are allowed to operate understaffed, without clear priorities or accountability. Seneca asked you to do a premeditatio malorum…maybe you even carry a coin reminding you to in your pocket.

And yet, here we are. Surprised. Unprepared. Disappointed. We knew but we didn’t know. We talked about it but we didn’t live it.

So that’s on us. Let it never happen again. ... The Daily Stoic