Episode

The Busy Trap: Seneca on Why You're Optimizing the Wrong Thing | 373

Podcast
Stoic Coffee Break
Published
Apr 7, 2026
Duration seconds
832
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://bleav.com/shows/stoic-coffee-break/episodes/the-busy-trap-seneca-on-why-youre-optimizing-the-wrong-thing-373/
Audio
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JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/stoic-coffee-break-6852210/episodes/the-busy-trap-seneca-on-why-you-re-optimizing-the-wrong-thing-373
Markdown
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Summary

Are you too busy? Are you working too hard to be productive with every minute of your time? In today’s episode I want to talk about the perils of over-optimizing your life, and what the Stoics had to say about managing your time. “So, concerning the things we pursue, and for which we vigorously exert ourselves, we owe this consideration – either there is nothing useful in them, or most aren't useful. Some of them are superfluous, while others aren't worth that much. But we don't discern this and see them as free, when they cost us dearly.” — Seneca