What Rules Your Ruling Reason?
A Stoic question for the age of the algorithm
A few mornings ago, I was reading The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday when I came across a question from Marcus Aurelius that gave me pause:
What influences the ruling reason that guides your life?
I read the sentence a few times, then wrote about it in my journal.
As I reflected on the question, I discovered that’s the question underneath almost everything I’ve been writing about lately.
What influences the ruling reason that guides your life?
This goes beyond what influences your actions, habits, and productivity.
What influences the thing that influences everything else?
Marcus Aurelius was wrestling with this question nearly 2,000 years ago. Today, I think the question may be more important than ever.
I find myself asking it constantly.
Sometimes it shows up in obvious ways.
I’ll catch myself browsing online for something I don’t actually need and have to stop and ask: Where did this desire come from?
Do I genuinely need a new jacket? Or a pair of shoes? Or another dress like ones I already own but in a different color or pattern?
Or did I spend fifteen minutes on Instagram looking at women my age who seem to have better clothes, better vacations, better homes, and more put-together lives than I do?
Did I arrive at this desire on my own?
Or was it planted there?
That’s not always an easy question to answer.
The same thing happens with personal development books, courses, technology, and ideas.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m pursuing something because it genuinely interests me or because I have absorbed the ambient anxiety of the internet and now feel behind.
The whole notion of “being behind” is a powerful marketing message. More content shows up every day that overtly suggests I am behind on AI, business, fitness, finances, or whatever the algorithm is serving this week.
The older I get, the less interested I am in judging myself for these moments.
What interests me is noticing them.
Because awareness creates a tiny bit of space.
And in that space lives choice.
Ryan Holiday references the famous question from the Roman satirist Juvenal:
Who watches the watchmen?
In other words, who is keeping an eye on the thing that’s supposed to be keeping an eye on everything else?
It’s a fascinating question.
Especially now.
For most of human history, our ruling reason was shaped by family, religion, culture, geography, survival, and the people around us.
Today, those influences still exist.
But many of us spend hours every day inside systems specifically designed to influence what we pay attention to, what we desire, what we fear, and what we believe is normal. Every one of those influences is tied to us parting with what’s in our bank accounts or still available on our credit cards in one way or another.
I’m not suggesting there’s a conspiracy or that we’re helpless to defend ourselves against these forces. .
I’m simply suggesting that Marcus Aurelius’s question deserves another look.
Because if attention shapes thought, and thought shapes action, then it might be worth asking what is shaping our attention.
Sometimes people ask me if the only answer at this point is to throw your phone into a ravine or smash it into tiny smithereens. To walk away completely from the device tethering us to these forces.
That’s not the answer. Too much of modern life now transpires through the phone.
Rather, it’s to become a little more aware of the forces acting on you before they become your forces.
Which brings me back to the question that stopped me in my tracks that morning:
What influences the ruling reason that guides your life?
And perhaps even more importantly:
How often do you stop long enough to find out?