@HeyAlherii Apple TV+ takeover is “inevitable” 😭 Girl, you watched 3 Apple shows and started writing Netflix’s obituary. Netflix has a whole library; Apple TV+ has a curated shelf. You’re comparing a supermarket to a boutique and declaring it’ll conquer Netflix because 7 things are pretty
To be happy, you must eliminate two things: the fear of a bad future and the memory of a bad past.
- Seneca
Seneca (4 BC–65 AD), the Roman Stoic philosopher and advisor to Emperor Nero, believed that much of human suffering is self-inflicted.
In Letters to Lucilius, he wrote, “we suffer more often in imagination than in reality,” suggesting that fear of future misfortune often causes more distress than the misfortune itself. To Seneca, anxiety over what might happen reflected a failure to accept fate and the natural order. The Stoics taught that events beyond our control should be met with calm and reason. What matters is not always what happens, but how we choose to respond.
Seneca also warned against becoming prisoners of the past. In On the Shortness of Life, he argued that people waste their limited time by dwelling on what has already happened or constantly worrying about what comes next. The past is fixed and beyond our control, and repeatedly reliving it through regret or resentment only takes us further away from the present.
This did not mean forgetting the past or abandoning plans for the future. Rather, Seneca believed that becoming emotionally trapped by past suffering or future fears robs us of tranquility. His philosophy emphasized living according to reason, accepting mortality, and recognizing time as our most valuable possession.
For Seneca, freedom from fear and regret was not indifference. It was the ability to master our thoughts, focus on the present, and remain in control of our response to whatever life brings.