Meditations

Although titled “Meditations”, it is much more a collection of short reflections and notes-to-self than anything else. A little context: Marcus was the emperor in the 2nd century AD, in an age where philosophy took the place of religion (Christianity was a persecuted cult back then) – and the dominant philosophy of the age for people like Marcus was Roman stoicism. Stoicism in general teaches for how to withstand the pains of life and accept things as they are, and the contents of Meditations are similarly pessimistic, melancholic, and morbid. As the book was Marcus’s personal notes, it does get somewhat repetitive of its core themes. If you’re interested in stoic thought, this is one of the quintessential works, but you should be familiar with stoicism concepts in general before diving in.

The most important point that I had gotten out of my first reading was asking myself “is this necessary?”. Life is fleeting, and the vast majority don’t consider much of how they spend their time, case in point the Netflix bingers or video game addicts. Marcus notes to himself that whenever he wants to do something he should ask whether it’s necessary for him to do it; what’s the purpose of the action, will doing it help someone or will not doing it hurt someone? I think it’s especially applicable to everyday works, since having faster access to everything means people who don’t ask “is this necessary” will be the stereotypical, busy workaholics who are part of the modern busyness plague. I’ve cut down my time spent on rather unessential things but this is a great mental shortcut to make sure that you’re making the best out of your fleeting and insignificant life, as Marcus would say.