Becoming Less Foolish

We are all thrown into this world with particular circumstances. For example, some of us are born into health and wealth, while others are born into sickness and poverty. The same is true for wisdom and its opposite: foolishness. Some of us are born into wisdom in various degrees and others into foolishness. 

I know many people who seem wise to me, and they did not read a fraction of the books I read and did not listen to countless galaxy brains explicating their theories and practices with teacherly authority. These people who seem wise do not even talk about wisdom; they were simply born into it.

I have a rule of thumb for people publicly concerned with wisdom: they are foolish and have a lot of foolish karma to pay off. These wisdom-speaking fools might have extensive propositional knowledge of wisdom and can speak impressively, but it is wise to avoid getting fooled by them. Talking impressively about wisdom is not synonymous with being wise. 

I am one of those people concerned about wisdom, and I apply my rule of thumb to myself. If I told you all the areas of my life where I was and still am foolish, I would be too embarrassed to continue writing now. I do not feel good about my foolishness and do not want to be a fool. I want to be a wise Stoic mensch dropping wisdom bombs all over the internet, a want that shows how foolish I am. I have become convinced that if I am to become wiser, I must honor my foolishness. 

It is April Fools' Day today, and I may be trying to fool you right now, but I suggest us self-identifying fools reinvent the tradition of this day. Instead of just trying to fool others to show how clever we are, let us lean into our foolishness, take a risk, and do something we always wanted to do but fear it could be foolish to do.

It could be buying a plane ticket to that place you always wanted to see, quitting your job, finally asking that person out on a date, or just having a day where you switch on zero fucks mode and speak truthfully to everyone you have been holding the truth back from. It's only one day of the year, and we are all fools anyway, so let us have our fools hang out loud and proud. No-harm heuristics will be needed, as fools are not cruel, but taking risks will be involved. There is no wise honoring of foolishness without risk. 

I will lead by example and do something I have wanted to do for a while. I will commit to one thing and predict a few things…

The Stoa's new mission: midwifing a wisdom commons, a place that makes wisdom more common. This place will not appear in obvious ways and will surprise everyone, even those stewarding the process. Multiple wisdom commons will compete against each other, and the most beautiful one will win. While this happens, words will melt away, and it will be evident that the world has gone insane, with the fools going "hypersane," guiding those they live for to make "the shift." Things will finally make sense in ways that are senseful, and a thousand flowers will bloom.

The Stoa plays a role in this blooming. It will be a place that blurs the digital, physical, and spiritual lines. Some specific predictions: The Stoa leaves behind its "Stoic punk" vibe and begins its "Stoic pop" phase. Its steward will still be a Stoic trickster but will mask himself as a total normie. The YouTube channel has grown to a million subscribers and is where the most psychoactive and alchemic conversations in the noosphere happen.

The Stoa cafe will open up. It starts as a pop-up cafe, existing temporarily as a "temporary autonomous zone" for what matters most. The online happenings will weave with the in-person ones, and "wisdom gyms" will form mysteriously without any galaxy brains interfering with their theories. A fixed location opens in Toronto, then in two other cities, inspiring a movement of "fourth-place" philosophical coffee shops to appear worldwide, trojan horsing the sacred into cities one cortado at a time. The Stoa's cortados will be the most delicious.

These predictions could bring more attention. From what I have seen from others and experienced myself, receiving attention outside the Dunbar number easily bends one out of their integrity. I have a trick to prevent this, which is also my approach to wisdom cultivation: become "less foolish." This approach avoids the risks of "wisdom signaling," the phony attempt to appear wise (often unconsciously) in the attention economy. 

To honor my foolishness and prevent greater foolishness from emerging, I have changed the name of this Substack from The Stoa to Less Foolish. This newsletter will be something other than becoming less foolish through a propositional lens, as that is a foolish thing to do. Instead, this newsletter will allow me to express what the "daemon" wants me to in a way that chips away at my foolishness.

I don't know what this newsletter will become. It may be a personal creative project or become a communal blog, similar to LessWrong, but with an orientation toward being wise via becoming less foolish rather than just being more rational via becoming less wrong. 

If this is where you get off the ride, I bid you farewell with a warm virtual hug. If you choose to stay on, it's time to buckle up.

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If you are new to The Stoa and the emerging wisdom commons scene, I presented the history of both at the UTOK Consilience Conference 2023: Unifying Knowledge and Orienting Toward a Wisdom Commons. You can watch that presentation here…