Stoic Street Smarts

Ed Latimore

Former pro-boxer and alcoholic, current writer and aspiring chess master, raised in the projects and earned a physics degree. I teach what I've learned from the hood, the ring, and everything in between.

Expected Value: An Old Way To Make New Decisions

Read on my website I recently had a consultation call with a client. We discussed whether he should go home to India to be closer to his family and accept an arranged marriage or stay in the United States and try to meet a woman and build a life. I told him to imagine the worst-case scenario of each path. Whichever one he could more easily endure, that was the path he should go with. You could stop reading this email right now, and you’d have enough to change your life. I truly believe...

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9 days ago • 5 min read

9 things I learned living next to crackheads and crack dealers...

In the ghetto, there are crackheads. In case you didn’t know, crackheads are people addicted to crack-cocaine. Crackheads and the ghetto go together like Kool-Aid and fried chicken. Crackheads get their crack from somewhere. That’s where crack dealers come in. I grew up in the projects. This means I spent a lot of time around crack dealers and crack addicts. However, my experience had a unique feature. I spent about 5 years living next to a certified crackhead. When I moved to another housing...

13 days ago • 1 min read

From 2-D for 4-D: Beyond the surface area of luck

Read on my website The "surface area of luck" refers to the idea that luck can be cultivated by maximizing your chances for positive, random opportunities through broad and diverse life experiences. Taking action expands the playing field where good fortune can take hold. The idea is that while luck can be thought of as a random chance, you can increase the chances of experiencing a lucky break by maximizing your exposure to potential serendipitous events. But is there more to luck than...

15 days ago • 8 min read

The Dichotomy of Control: A Street Smart Survival Tactic

Read on my website: edlatimore.com I occasionally get asked how I got introduced to Stoic Philosophy. I never had a formal introduction to stoic ideas. My everyday life, growing up in dangerous and destitute conditions, taught me the stoic concept of focusing only on what I could control. At school and in my neighborhood, I dealt with what is technically known as “bullying” and “teasing.” I say “technically” because although it would be classified as such, it went beyond what typically...

26 days ago • 4 min read

Dream Job or Pipe Dream? How to know if you're just an amateur or a bonafide pro

The Hard Lessons Inner Circle is open for enrollment this week. This membership is for people who want to learn faster, make connections, and better understand the world and themselves. See if you're a fit. What it means to be a professional in something A lot of people call themselves pros. Most of them are just amateurs waiting to get exposed. How do you know if you're dealing with a professional, a wanna-be, or an amateur? It ain't about the money. It ain't about the prizes. It ain't...

about 2 months ago • 7 min read

Most Self-Help Is BS. How to Become Unrecognizable in Just 1 Year

Yesterday, on Twitter and Linkedin, I outlined three things you should do for ACTUAL self-improvement instead of reading the latest New York Times Bestseller self-help book that every influencer and thought leader recommends. Twitter version. Linkedin version. I would love it if you liked, commented, or shared. Or all three. It helps, and it’s free!] I will continue the list in today’s edition of Stoic Street Smarts. I’m still starting with the first three for everyone who didn't see the...

2 months ago • 8 min read

The difference between being productive and busy

Productive people produce things. Busy people only look like they’re producing things. The busy person may or may not be producing things, but the productive person—by definition—is. When you’re busy, you’re able to fool almost everyone out there that you’re productive. When you’re productive, everyone else just assumes you’re busy. The difference between being busy and being productive is like the difference between moissanite and diamond: to most people, they look the same, but one is worth...

3 months ago • 4 min read

Brushes and Balance: Decoding the Eternal Duel between Art and Business

Sponsored by Impossible Nothing in your life gets better if you don’t sleep well. Lack of sleep affects your ability to focus, work out, and it even affects your ability to fight off the common cold. For most of my life, I had no trouble sleeping. However, I haven’t been as rested over the past two years. Especially with the stress of writing, training, and having a new baby.I mentioned this to my buddy Joel Runyon, and he recommended his product, Impossible Sleep. He even gave a free...

3 months ago • 4 min read

5 quick tips to control your temper and stop being scared

3 months ago • 4 min read

Why you want revenge—and why you shouldn’t get it

Retaliatory aggression is often a mood enhancement to ameliorate the pain of rejection. Rejected people harness the power of revenge to make themselves feel better. When students were given the chance to stick pins in a voodoo doll representing the grader who told them that their work was terrible, they felt a boost in mood greater than the boost in their mood than those who did not get a chance to retaliate. (Read more about it here) We want to strike back because it makes us feel better....

4 months ago • 3 min read

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