8 Stoic Quotes That Have Helped Me As a Programmer
“In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business.” — Marcus Aurelius
A Brief Introduction to Stoicism
Stoicism is an ancient Greek school of philosophy. According to Stoicism, the path to eudaimonia (roughly translates to human prosperity) can be achieved by living a virtuous life and accepting the present moment.
The four virtues of Stoicism are:
- Courage
- Wisdom
- Temperance
- Justice
According to Stoicism, a wise man is one that leads a virtuous life without any passions or emotional sufferings like envy, anxiety, timidity, shame, anger, greed, hate, malice and so on. In it’s teachings, one should be apathetic to external things that are not in our control such as material wealth, which can be taken from us at any moment. However, one should reign over things that are in our power, such as our thoughts, beliefs and desires. In other words, we have limited control over things that are not our own selves. By eliminating our desires for external objects, we free ourselves from the burden of emotional suffering when we lose them.
Does Stoicism advocate for an ascetic lifestyle? Actually, no. The Stoics believed that material things were fine but they didn’t miss them when they were taken away. Zeno of Cyprus, the founder of Stoic philosophy, was a merchant and he was shipwrecked during a voyage. He lost almost everything. He continued on towards Athens, and learned philosophy under the Cynic philosopher Crates and Megarian philosopher Stilpo. Later in history, Zeno taught his followers at a location called Stoa Poikile (Painted Porch). This is where the term ‘Stoicism’ originated.
One can practice Stoicism in numerous ways. Some of them include journaling as a way of self-reflection, focusing on your work while disregarding approval, reducing our reliance on material possessions for happiness, and abstaining from activities that involve emotional suffering like jealousy or envy.
I think this is a good enough introduction to Stoicism. I do encourage you to read some Stoic literature yourself as I have reduced a large portion of it into two paragraphs. There are a number of Stoic philosophers such as Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and of course Zeno of Cyprus to read from. I will link to a few books and links near the end of this article.
The Quotes and Why They Have Helped Me
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
“If anyone can refute me — show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective — I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone.”
“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
— Marcus Aurelius
When I was learning how to code, I was often bogged down by thoughts of criticism like “Oh, my code might not run” or “No one will like my code!” Sometimes I would disagree with my peers about how to go about solving a problem. It’s alright. Everyone’s views (including yours) are different. In a field such as Software Development, it is important to take everyone’s opinions and analyze them, but we should not take them personally. For example, if a co-worker comes to you and asks you to optimize a part of a function, we should not jump to a conclusion like “Oh no! My function is bad and my co-worker is calling me a bad programmer.” We should instead understand why the function is poorly optimized and improve it. We have the power to not entertain unnecessary thoughts away while we work. Additionally, we should work for the intended goal and not for validation of others.
“We’re tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers.”
“If a person doesn’t know to which port they sail, no wind is favourable.”
— Seneca
To procrastinate is to waste valuable time. Time, unlike material possessions, once gone will never come back. I know that many of us have unfinished projects waiting to be finished. We are now in an information era where distractions are much more easily available and harder to ignore. We squander our time by excessively watching Netflix, playing video-games and scrolling through social media, when we should actually be completing our projects and studying new technologies. We should make our goals with purpose and commit to them by building good habits. Motivation has a shorter lifespan compared to Self-Discipline that is longer lasting.
“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. ”
“The true man is revealed in difficult times. So when trouble comes, think of yourself as a wrestler whom God, like a trainer, has paired with a tough young buck. For what purpose? To turn you into Olympic-class material.”
“Don’t hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace.” — Epictetus
When I learned a new programming language or framework, I was prone to being complacent. I didn’t try to look for the harder parts of the language or try to implement something beyond the given task. Because of such actions, I fell behind in my progress when I started to learn programming. The only path to mastery is through solving difficult challenges that stimulate the mind. Practice something everyday, even the things that you already know. Your mind is like a knife that requires regular honing and sharpening. If you face an unknown error, take the chance to debug and learn the source of the error instead of resorting to StackOverflow. There is always something new to learn.
Programming is a wonderful thing indeed. Modern computers have given us so many resources in creating tools that can help others. A Stoic Programmer, in my opinion, is a programmer that aims to create software that impacts the lives of others in a positive manner, and is a person that leads by example while remaining virtuous and abstaining from passions.
