Can You Be a 100% Listener?
A room full of executives said you can’t be a 100% listener. Marcus Aurelius wrote five words that say you can. Jimmy’s analysis of…
Perception
Three Kinds of People — and Marcus Aurelius Knew Which One He Was
Jim Lovell said there are three kinds of people. Machiavelli agreed. So did Marcus Aurelius — from a battlefield, without a spacecraft. Jimmy's analysis…
Erase Your Blackboard
Marcus Aurelius wrote that a limit of time is fixed for thee to clear the clouds from thy mind. John Locke said the mind…
What a Rubber Band Has to Do With Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditation I that the same man can be both resolute and yielding. Jimmy explains what that means with a rubber…
Everything Is Opinion — Including This
Marcus Aurelius wrote that life is opinion. Jimmy explores what that means through colorblindness, the sun problem, and Meditation IV.3 — the most radical…
Five Ways You Are Doing Violence to Your Own Soul
Marcus Aurelius listed five ways the soul harms itself in Meditation II.16. Not what others do to you — what you do to yourself.…
Kiss Your Child Like It’s the Last Time
Epictetus wrote: when you kiss your child, remind yourself they are mortal. A BBC professor called it stupid. She missed the point. Jimmy’s analysis…
Marcus Aurelius Figured Out What Einstein Proved
In Meditation V.13, Marcus Aurelius wrote that matter cannot perish into non-existence. Einstein proved it eighteen centuries later. Jimmy's analysis of atoms, change, death,…
The Man on the Corner Said One Word
A homeless man in San Francisco said one word: Amnesty. Marcus Aurelius wrote about it eighteen hundred years earlier. Jimmy's analysis of cooperation, kinship,…
What the Most Powerful Man in the World Said to Himself Every Morning
Marcus Aurelius was the most powerful man in the world — and every morning he wrote himself a warning. Jimmy's analysis of Meditation II.1:…
The Language That Paints Without Brushes
This post is about language — specifically, the language of Burton Raffel's translation of Beowulf. Aristotle named diction as one of his six elements…
Nobody Reads Beowulf Anymore (And That’s the Problem)
Beowulf has survived over a thousand years — and most people have never really read it. Jimmy opens a five-part analysis with translations, the…
