July 2023 - Stoic Athenaeum

Mental Health & Writing Insights From The Father Of Japanese Short Stories

He was upstairs in a bookstore.

Twenty years old at the time, he had climbed a ladder set against a bookcase and was searching for the newly-arrived Western books: Maupassant, Baudelaire, Strindberg, Ibsen, Shaw, Tolstoy…

This is the opening paragraph of a short story called The Life Of A Stupid Man by Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

This paragraph hooked me into the work of the father of the Japanese short story because of the author’s vulnerability.

His short stories offer several mental health and creative insights:

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Ciceronian Language Tactics For Upping Your Copywriting

Have you ever wanted to be more persuasive or found yourself wondering how someone convinced you to buy something or agree with their point of view?

Whether intentional or not, odds are we’re all tapping into the idea of rhetoric.

Rhetoric is an ancient system of persuasion that’s used in speeches, talks and written work and it’s got a bad rep because people often associate it with manipulation.

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Avoid This Machiavellian Mistake When Creating Thought Leadership Content

Creating a big piece of thought leadership content like a white paper is a great opportunity for a business to connect with customers, develop leads and build authority.

It makes me reflect that there are many examples of books or texts throughout history that carried the same purpose as a white paper.

Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince is a strong example. Machiavelli wrote about what an effective ruler or prince should do in the ends justify the means approach.

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What An Ancient Roman Philosopher Has To Teach Us About Email Writing

Dear Lucilius,

You ask me what should be easily avoided? I say crowds. Because no one can trust themselves among the crowd with safety.

I’ll admit a weakness of mine; I never bring back home the same character I left with.

Something that I’ve taught is to be calm within me is disturbed; some of the foes that I’ve removed within return again.

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