Stoic Wisdom, No Nonsense: The Power of Indifferents

A 1978 study on happiness found that major lottery winners, a year after their win, were no happier than a control group. In fact, they reported getting less joy from everyday pleasures. In our last episode, we explored the idea of sympatheia—the interconnectedness of all things—and today we turn that lens inward, to the labels we attach to the events within our own lives. Because that automatic labeling of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is what so often determines our peace, or our lack of it. This brings us to one of the most misunderstood, and most powerful, ideas in all of Stoicism.

The concept of ‘indifferents.’ An indifferent is anything that lies outside our direct control, anything external to our own mind and character. This includes things like health, wealth, reputation, and their opposites—sickness, poverty, and obscurity. The Stoics argued that these things are, in themselves, morally NEUTRAL. They do not make you a good or a bad person. They do not, on their own, contribute to or detract from a truly happy and flourishing life. Now, this is where most people get it wrong. They hear ‘indifferent’ and they think ‘apathetic.’ They imagine a Stoic who doesn’t care if they get sick or lose their job.

That isn’t it. The common explanation isn't wrong. It's just incomplete in a way that becomes important later. The Stoics made a crucial distinction between ‘preferred’ and ‘dispreferred’ indifferents. Of course they preferred health to sickness, and wealth to poverty. Who wouldn’t? But they refused to call them ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Why? Because that gives them a power they do not have. The power to dictate your inner state. Let’s make this real. First, a promotion at work. You get it. The automatic label is ‘good.’ But the promotion itself is an indifferent. It is simply a changed circumstance.

It brings more money, yes, but also more responsibility, more stress, more meetings. The ‘good’ or ‘bad’ comes from how you RESPOND to it. Do you use the new position to mentor others, to lead with integrity, to build something of value? That is a virtuous response. Or do you become arrogant, neglect your family, and burn out? That is a vicious response. The promotion was just the raw material. Second, you lose something you value. Maybe your car gets a huge dent. The automatic label is ‘bad.’ But the dent is an indifferent. It’s an external event. The ‘bad’ is your reaction—the anger, the frustration, the replaying of the event in your mind for hours.

The Stoic challenge is to see the event for what it is—a piece of metal is bent—and choose a virtuous response. Acceptance. Patience. Problem-solving without the destructive emotional storm. The dent doesn’t ruin your day. Your judgment about the dent ruins your day. Third, a minor illness, like a cold. The automatic label is ‘bad.’ You feel miserable, you can’t work, your plans are ruined. But the illness itself is a preferred indifferent’s opposite—a dispreferred one, but an indifferent nonetheless. It is a fact of biology. The suffering comes from the story you tell about it: “This is awful, I’m falling behind, why me?” A Stoic sees it as an opportunity.

An opportunity to practice patience. An opportunity for forced rest and reflection. An opportunity to endure discomfort with grace. The value of the event comes ONLY from how you choose to use it. Here’s the turn. Wealth, health, reputation, promotions, a pristine car… these are not the components of a good life. They are the playing field. They are the circumstances within which you get to practice the actual components of a good life: courage, justice, wisdom, and self-control. It is the RESPONSE that is good or bad, virtuous or vicious. Nothing external can touch your ability to choose that response.

That is the only thing that is TRULY yours. So here is the work for today. Just for the rest of this one day, pick one thing you are currently labeling as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ A delayed train. An unexpected compliment. A difficult conversation you have to have. And practice seeing it as an indifferent. Don’t try to be happy about it or sad about it. Just see it as raw material, and ask yourself: what is the most virtuous way I can respond to this? Next time, we will take this a step further and explore the Stoic concept of the ‘reserve clause’—a mental tool for acting in the world without being attached to the outcomes.

The goal isn't to stop preferring health over sickness. It is to build a fortress inside yourself that no external event, preferred or not, can ever breach.