The Modern Stoicism group of psychologists and scientists has been organizing training workshops and blogging since 2012. Each year, Stoicon conferences are held in different countries, and small Stoicon-X meetings are held independently in different cities, including Toronto, Moscow and New York.
Philosophy appears to be undergoing a modern renaissance among the tech elite. She became interested in the founding principles of the philosophy of a virtuous life, the acceptance of the inevitable and constant contemplation of death. Must be a lot of fun!
What is Stoicism
The word stoicism and its derivatives are now perceived as the ability to "endure difficulties without complaints or emotional manifestations." But the philosophy of Stoicism is more complex than this short prejudice. Massimo Piliucci, professor of philosophy at CUNY and author of the How to Be Stoic blog , warns that no philosophy can be reduced to a short explanation or a bumper sticker.
But in order to briefly describe the essence for those who are not familiar with stoicism, let's still try to make a bumper sticker. Stoicism considers the most important thing in life to develop the four virtues: courage, self-control (namely self-control), fairness (which the Stoics described as treating everyone fairly) and having practical wisdom to navigate difficult situations. These virtues develop strength of character and wisdom. All this leads to a serenity and serenity of the mind, which allows you to look at events in life with some detachment.
Another important component is the Stoic mantra, where a person constantly repeats the idea that he cannot control most of the events in life. As a result, the Stoic must admit that he can control his own will and behavior, but not the final results of something, much less the actions of other people.
→ Check out my blog if you want to know more about Stoicism .
And what does stoicism have to do with IT?
Let's face it: IT pros are constantly under stress. We live from security threats to server failures, from network outages to bugs, manager requirements, deadlines, stand-ups and storypoints, and a thousand other things. It seems that we are constantly twisting and twisting, trying to somehow keep our sanity, so as not to fall to the bottom and not completely destroy our day. Sometimes it seems to me that it would be nice to have an IT armor. Some kind of shield to defend against slings and arrows.
And how often we have nothing but hard work and overtime. After all, no matter what we do, ultimately, the servers will go down, and the code will be with bugs. This is the nature of IT.
Now is the time to ask yourself: why bother about 2,000 years of philosophy? After all, what can a modern techie learn from a dusty old philosophy written by people with difficult-to-pronounce names who were born not so much before electricity, but before the plumbing and believed that the sun is god?
Well, metaphysical details aside, the Stoics were masters of willpower and a quiet life. I think it would be cool if we could find a little more peace of mind in a hectic, stressful life.
Applying stoicism to IT
Working in IT is stressful enough. There is statistics that employees of IT companies burn out on average 2 times faster than other professions. And stoicism is a whole philosophy of life that helps not only to achieve greater emotional stability, but also to gain a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in life and work.
I regard stoicism as an operating system for life in a highly stressful and demanding world. So stoicism has spread across Silicon Valley and across the sports teams. Stoicism has become the root of many learning systems for CEOs, founders, and trainers.
Let's take a look at the main strengths in Stoicism and how to apply them to IT professionals.
Remind yourself every morning that today you will have to face people who are obsessive, ungrateful, arrogant, insidious, envious, quarrelsome. - Reflections, 2.1, Marcus AureliusWe encounter dissatisfied clients and managers almost every day. There may be employees in the team who do not cope or do not perform their work in the required quality and pace. Arrogant peacocks are not worth talking about. The problem is that we allow ourselves to get upset when someone does not OK. Marcus Aurelius reminds that you should not expect other people from people, they will be intrusive, unfavorable, ungrateful, arrogant ...
Lesson: Do not allow yourself to be upset because of the actions of people. This is basically what all people do.
In the morning, when you don't want to get up, remember that you wake up to work like a real person. Why complain if you have to do what you were born for and why you were brought into the world? Or am I born to bask under the covers? - Reflections, 5.1, Marcus AureliusHow pleasant it is in the morning to press the snooze button on the phone for "another 5 minutes". But why? What am I trying to avoid? Important meeting? Serious talk? Handing over that difficult project? I can hardly do anything if I stay in bed all day. Each of us has something to do. Customize that ERP system, fix a bug, prepare for a report. "Get out of bed and do your thing," says Stoicism.
Lesson: Get up and do your thing. This is what you were born to do.
, , , . — , 13.4.,Remember something that you were afraid to do, and when you did, it turned out that there was nothing to be afraid of. Seneca argues that most of the suffering we experience in life occurs in our own heads and not in reality. Events almost never end as badly as we imagine.
Do you have a project that you are putting off because of fear? Do you put off a difficult conversation with your boss, fearing how he will react? As the Nike slogan says: "Just do it". It won't be as bad as you think. Of course, due diligence is worth doing. Nobody recommends jumping off a bridge without a bungee. But once you're ready, go ahead. Don't let your fear get in the way of action.
Lesson:It is very rare that things end as badly as we fear. Therefore, once you are ready, take action.
Of the existing things, some are in our power, others are not. - Enkhiridion 1.1., EpictetusThis very simple quote is at the heart of Stoicism. We spend so much time and energy worrying about things we can't control. Worried about finding a vulnerability in the service? Or are you worried that you will not be promoted as promised? Remember that there is no way you can control this.
In this passage from Epictetus there is a continuation: “In our power, opinion, striving, desire - in one word, everything that is ours. Outside of our power is our body, property, good name, career, in a word - everything that is not ours. "
It sounds rather passive and indifferent, but stoicism does not encourage passivity. When we admit that we cannot control something, we focus all our efforts on what we can still influence. For example, a Stoic would not take the time to complain about whether someone deserves to be a manager and to worry about the uncertain consequences of his leadership. Instead, he would focus on what he can change: his own actions and words, relationships with others, finding solutions to minimize the consequences, and even building relationships with a new manager.
Lesson: Don't worry about what you can't control. Focus on what you can.
Instead of output
People give too much emotional energy to things that are beyond their control - what others do, opinions, demands, even the weather. This is how they set themselves up for pain, anxiety, frustration, and fear. The Stoics recognized that it is foolish or counterproductive to become attached to what we cannot control when there is what we can - our thoughts, attitudes, and goals. Isn't it better to concentrate on this?
I am deeply passionate about the ethical and moral point of view of Stoicism. When you read Stoics, you often come across the word "virtue." They saw the purpose of a wise man to lead a virtuous life. Today the word "virtue" is unlikely to be heard, perhaps with irony. If you asked 100 people what their purpose in life is, hardly anyone would say that to lead a virtuous life.
Stoicism is now being applied to rather specific problems in modern workflows. Adam Pearcey, a process engineer, wrote an article on Development Stoicism (read it) on Medium , which explores specific ways to use stoicism to deal with stressful situations such as peer reviewing code. He also applies the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius to the task of getting programmer feedback.
I know how demanding developers are of themselves. Perhaps now you will think that all these fables about stoicism are nonsense and do not work at all, because there are more technological ways to pump yourself. But if stoicism has made its way into the IT world of the Valley, then maybe we also have something to learn?