Happy Sunday Friends!

Here is 1 quote I’m musing, 2 Ideas, 3 of my favorite things from the week, and 1 question. If you find it useful or interesting, please feel free to forward this along to some friends or others!

One Quote I’m Musing

“When I think of all I have said, I envy dumb(Mute) people.”

-Seneca

Seneca gives us a powerful reminder to be thoughtful about the words we put into the world. They carry weight, our words, and once we speak or write them, they’re out there for good- no taking them back.

I was skimming his dialogues while travelling to North Carolina and came across it in book II. Musing on this throughout the week, I realized that words, despite the ephemeral feeling, are not fleeting; they endure, beyond the moment we express them. This is why it is essential that we are deliberate in their use, sure of what we intend to express before we let them leave our mind.

In the hyper-connected world today, this is even more relevant. We can broadcast our thoughts instantly, through social media, conversation, blogs, videos, podcasts, virtually any medium we can imagine is available instantly now. Every post, comment, or conversation becomes an extension of ourselves, recorded in others’ memories and in digital archives. Seneca invites us to pause, to reflect. Do we really mean what we are about to say? Does it need to be said? Are these words worthy to live on, potentially beyond us?

The weight of our words. I look back, think back on what I’ve written, what I’ve said in the past. Not everything has aged well. Words born of impatience, haste, anger, or frustration turn to regrets, learning points, and have me envying the mute. While seemingly justified, or appropriate in the moment can be a lack of thought or restraint. This week’s musing isn’t simply about avoiding mistakes- it’s about recognizing the lasting impact our actions have on our lives and the lives of others and treating them as such.

Like ripples on water, our thoughts given substance spread beyond their initial impact, affecting our perceptions and those of others. It’s about understanding our words create impressions, shape relationships, define who we are, who we will be in the eyes of others and, most importantly, are a decision, a vote, for the person we will be to ourselves. Being more intentional with our speech shows that we respect ourselves as well as those who hear and read what we have to say.

This is a lesson I have learned and will continue to learn repeatedly. Impulsive retorts, hastily written messages, immediate clap-backs, they don’t hold up well to age and don’t reflect, generally, who I want to be. And probably don’t for any of us. When we take a moment to think, count to 100, say the alphabet twice, before we bring words to life, we are doing more than just avoiding mistakes; we’re ensuring that our words align with our values and our aspirations.

You can’t take it back. As I alluded to in the previous section; Once said, our words are unleashed - forever. Reflect on a moment when you’ve said something in the heat of anger, out of frustration. Maybe you wrote something without fact-checking your sources and it turned out to be less than truth. Maybe a sharp retort during an argument, an email fired off in a moment of impatience. No amount of explanation can fully undo it. It’s like driving a nail into a fence. You can put in some extra effort to pull the nail out, but the hole remains as a scar of your actions. It lingers in the minds of others and in our own minds when we do it.

Words are a reflection of our inner state - our emotions, knowledge, and wisdom at the time. When we act impulsively, we risk overshadowing our best selves, the people philosophy wants us to be, with our worst impulses. Taking that little bit of extra time. To pause, to breathe, to think before responding can be all that is necessary to foster a deeper connection instead of creating a misunderstanding.

Intellectual Humility. Epictetus tells us that it is impossible to learn anything that we think we already know. Beyond care with our words, he speaks to the importance of being thoughtful about what we read, learn, and share. Recognizing the limits of our own knowledge and understanding that there’s always more to learn. It’s not enough to simply consume information; the real measure of growth lies in how we take that new information and shape our thinking and actions.

Both Seneca and Epictetus challenge us not to value information for its own sake, but to consider how it refines and shapes us. It’s easy to mistake volume of information consumed for applied wisdom. Real learning requires us to internalize and reflect on what we take in rather than simply moving on. It doesn’t matter that you read, it matters what you read, how you read. Don’t simply tell me you read a lot of books and show me a book. Show me what you’ve learned by thinking and reasoning better. The intellectual humility means approaching every opportunity to learn with an open mind, ready to be proven wrong or see things from a new perspective.

Learning and Improvement. Ultimately, Seneca reminds us that we’re all in a state of continuous improvement. What’s been said, what’s been done - it’s in the past. We can’t do anything to change it, we can only learn from it. Speak with the dead, so to speak, without dwelling on mistakes and regrets tied to our words is suffering over and over, but understanding that the goal is not perfection, but growth and progress as a guidepost helps us steer towards where and who we’d like to be.

The past is beyond our control, what is within our control is how we respond. Viewing mistakes not as permanent failures, merely some embarrassing ones, and lessons to learn from.

Seneca reminds us of the weight of what we put into the world. Being thoughtful with our words, maintaining intellectual humility, focusing on learning over mere knowledge, and accepting the past as a platform for growth are essential steps toward becoming more intentional in what we communicate. Once words are spoken or written, they’re out for good—so let’s ensure they’re worthy of that permanence.

Two Ideas From Me

1. In the face of today’s challenges, where the theater of conflict extends beyond borders into the digital and informational realms, current frameworks of war falter. Actors no longer wage war solely with armies or fleets, but with invisible lines of code, manipulative narratives, and autonomous capabilities that shape reality and erode foundations without a single shot fired. The tools of old—designed for finite battles and clear victories—cannot contend with an age defined by ambiguity and perpetual contest.

2. A new model, built for this modernity, must embrace the continuous nature of influence, the subtlety of digital disruption, and the blurred lines between state and non-state power. Such a model must harness all domains seamlessly and adapt to threats as swiftly as they emerge. Only then can we remain steadfast in the face of evolving conflict and ensure that, while adversaries may contest the field, they never hold dominion over it.

Three Favorite Things From Others

1. Multi-Agent Orchestration - Interesting innovation on handoff & routines patterns out of Open AI (SWARM) | Open AI - More

2. MITRE has introduced a new plugin they’re calling Caldera Bounty Hunter. It allows users to simulate full cyber attack chains. Enhancing training and testing via more comprehensive emulations. | More

3. There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

   The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

   Finally, the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

   The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there." | Unknown Author

One Question

Often, we give ourselves less time than we give others to respond and reply. How could you build in some extra time to think before you speak/write/send?

Have a wonderful week,

I’ll see you Sunday.
​-e