It was Dr. Drew Pinsky, of all people, who introduced me to Stoicism. I was in college and I was invited to a small, private summit of college journalists that Dr. Drew, then the host of Loveline, was hosting. After it ended, he was standing in the corner and I cautiously made my way over to nervously ask if he had any book recommendations. He said he’d been studying a philosopher named Epictetus and that I should check it out.
I went back to my hotel room and ordered the book on Amazon along with another, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius, translated by Gregory Hays, arrived first. My life has not been the same since.
I want to thank Samantha, my girlfriend, whom I love more than anyone. We’d only been dating a few weeks, but I knew she was special when she went out and bought this book Meditations, the book I had been raving about. She deserves extra credit if only for enduring my many private and admittedly unstoic moments over the years. Thank you for coming on the many walks with me where I thought out loud. I want to thank my dog, Hanno—not that she is reading this—because she is a constant reminder of living in the present and of pure and honest joy.
The book you’ve just read would not have been possible without Nils Parker, whose editing and long talks shaped it. It would not exist without Stephen Hanselman, my agent who pushed for it, and my editor, Niki Papadopoulos, who believed in it and fought for what was a radical departure from my first book. Thanks to Adrian Zackheim for giving me my shot and providing a home for me as a writer at Portfolio.
I need to thank my master teacher and mentor Robert Greene, who not only subsidized my reading of many of the books I used as sources, but taught me the art of crafting a message and a book. His notes on my drafts were invaluable.
Thanks to Aaron Ray and Tucker Max, who showed me that a philosophic life and a life of action were not incompatible. Tucker, you’re the one who encouraged me to read (and the one who told me to follow up Epictetus with Marcus Aurelius. I just found some endearing old e-mails where I asked you a million questions after I did). Thanks especially to Aaron, who pulled me out of school and forced me to live in the real world. Thanks to Tim Ferriss for encouraging me to write about Stoicism for his site back in 2009 and for our long talk in Amsterdam, which provided great additions to the book.
I owe Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman for their excellent notes (and book on Cato), Shawn Coyne for his suggestion of a three-part structure, Brett Mckay of Art of Manliness .com for his book recommendations, and Matthias Meister for his insight and instruction in BJJ. Thanks to Garland Robinette, Amy Holiday, Brent Underwood, Michael Tunney, for their thoughts and feedback. Thanks to /r/stoicism on reddit, a great community who answered my questions and provoked many more. Thanks to New Stoa for their contributions to Stoicism online over the years.
In addition to the sources, I want to give profound thanks to the many other people and writers who exposed me to the stories and bits of wisdom in this book—I transferred much of it to my commonplace book and was so awed by the lessons that I didn’t always record attribution. I very much see this book as a collection of the thoughts and actions of people better and smarter than me. I hope you read it the same way and attribute any credit deserved accordingly.
I must thank the National Arts Club, the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the New York Public Library, the libraries at the University of California, Riverside, and a bunch of different Starbucks and airplanes where I wrote or researched this book.