Ego is the enemy

I have recently read “Ego is the enemy” by Ryan Holiday and want to share his lessons and my thoughts on ego. The book is a must read when interested in practical usable philosophy. An important realisation is that ego and confidence are two separate things. Confidence is based on reality and objective truth about your ability to handle a certain task. Ego is an subjective idea, a product of your thoughts not based on realism. Confidence is important or better realism is important. You should know what you are capable of and what not. Only if you know what you are capable of you know where you can start to improve your skill set. The pretence of knowledge is our most dangerous vice, because it prevents us from getting any better. The ego is based on your thoughts. To break the ego you have to expand your horizon and experience life. Imagine you are 18 you lived your whole life in a small town without ever leaving. You get a sense of greatness you get the beautiful girls, you belong to the smart people in town because you have finished school, you can help anybody with your skills and your world is just your small home town anyway so your king. Your ego starts forming and you overestimate your abilities. But when you leave to experience the world and end up in the capital you will certainly feel tiny, overwhelmed and unimportant compared to all the students, professors, politicians and businessmen. Your ego took a hit because you experienced reality and as we established the ego isn´t based on realism. If you have an ego you assume you´re better than you really are. You overestimated yourself and your abilities. You think you have already reached the mountains peak why would you make the effort to climb any further? „It is impossible to learn that which one thinks he already knows. “- Epictetus To achieve greatness in life you need to learn and to learn is only possible when you accept that you know nothing or not everything. Being a student places the ego and ambition in someone else´s hand. Metallica´s star guitarist Kirk Hammett still sought guitar lessons even after being accepted into Metallica and after they have become successful. He could have let his ego and pride tell him he’s already good enough and he should rather enjoy his success as a rock star but he has not let pride get in his way. It is said that he accepted harsh criticism other guitarists would not. We should adapt his mindset and accept harsh criticism too because sometimes we truly fucked up or we're just not that good. You can think you are treated too harsh or even unfairly but nobody cares, if you want to become better you got to use everything you get your hands on. Only by leaving his ego behind could Hammett become one of the best guitarists in the world.

“I know that I know nothing.” Even Socrates on of the greatest thinkers in human history has realized how little he knows. Socrates could have easily fallen prey to his ego let it stop him from improving and to lay down his search for answers. Socrates could have succumbed to mediocrity and hedonism but instead he chose realism. Socrates went on to teach other great scholars and founded western philosophy. A lack of realism distorts our judgement this phenomenon is so prevalent that it has become a psychological effect. The Dunning–Kruger effect is defined as the tendency of people with low ability in a specific area to give overly positive assessments of this ability. When you let ego take control the assessment of the own skills isn´t grounded in reality anymore but an illusion of the ego. „Greatness comes from humble beginnings it comes from grant work. It means you ‘re the least important person in the room - until you change that with results. “ Ego also sabotages the ability to make compromise. When you are led by ego you hold onto your opinion for any price necessary instead of coming to an objective truth because accepting a truth you haven´t known or thought about before is accepting that you were wrong or at least did not know the whole truth, something the Ego can´t stand. An argument then becomes a fight between the egos about who ‘s supposed position is superior. Ego serves nobody here because these fights are a drain on happiness and energy as well as undermine the progress of the solution process. Realism serves you in moving forward in life so you got to turn down your ego to see things realistically.

One difference between humans and animals is the ability to feel compassion and empathy and to use our own resources to help others. This ability made us able to work in groups and build tribes which gave us an unfair advantage in the African savanna. Still to this day do we feel joy, happiness and fulfilment when we serve others or help them out. The ego makes us self-absorbed it tells us we are the centre of the world we deserve our way and we are great. Our ego precludes serving any larger mission we´re part of. Frederick the Great taught his nephew and successor Frederick William II. “The Ruler is the First Servant of the State”. It is our duty to put our ego behind and to give our work to humanity to help make the world a better place and to support those who struggle. To end it with the words of a wise poet: “The strongest poison ever known, came from Caesar’s laurel crown.” - William Blake