Episode Details
Back to Episodes#45 - Meditations Book 7: How Much Does Happiness Cost? Instagram Life vs The Simple Life, The Happiest Man in the World, Elon Musk's Life Algorithm & Autotelic activities
Description
Can we just say, "What a chapter?!" Book 7 has many riveting themes, including... Simplicity!
Marcus says, "Always bear this in mind; and another thing too, that very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life." To explore that we compare how much it would cost to live the life of an Instagram Influencer compared to a simple life. The happiest *recorded* capacity for happiness was found in a man who lived in absolute simplicity, the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.
We use the Catchy Quaker Classic, Simple Gifts, as inspiration on what simplicity should bring, freedom. Aside from its catchiness, the song gives some great insights on living a simple life and how that will make life more cohesive.
Elon Musk gives a practical formula for simplifying things in business which we extrapolate to simplifying life. Then Winston Churchill gives a great example of an "Autotelic" activity.
For the Stoic Reimagining we thought we would challenge ourselves to simplify this episode. It may have worked too well...