[f5ve]

Josh Hartnett's suave insouciance in Lucky Number Slevin (2006) is accounted for by him "having ataraxia." [1] That is, as if it were a medical condition. I'm sure it was intended as a joke, but apparently wiktionary says "ataraxy" is sometimes used in a similar way, although I've never seen that. [2]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjDTmTAy5rs

[2] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ataraxy#English

[n4r9]

Reminds me of the film Office Space, where Peter is hypnotised to (temporarily) have no cares in the world, but the hypnostist dies before snapping his fingers [0]. There's also a very similar trope in the first episode of the show Black Books, where Manny swallows the "Little Book of Calm", absorbs it into his body, and becomes a Jesus-like calm presence for a while.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfZpEe7KIJ8

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_dMEX_Lke0

[tessierashpool9]

but was jesus jesus-like calm?

    "And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."

    — Matthew 21:12–13, King James Version[10]

[throwaway71271]

I have a friend that has it.

On his first day of work he missed the bus, so he called our boss and just said "I missed the bus, the next one is tomorrow morning, see you tomorrow".

Working on any kind of problem with him is absolute joy, from outages to designing new features, including once when the server burned down and everything was lost.

[thunderbong]

Would love to hear some more anecdotes

[stakhanov]

> "having ataraxia." [1] That is, as if it were a medical condition.

There is kind of a noticeable overlap between the stoic ideal and a schizoid personality style. For people who are already left-brain-dominant / spectrumy, or whatever you might call it, which applies to a lot of people in the computing profession, getting into stoicism as a philosophy and lifestyle is probably maladaptive.

[keepamovin]

I'm gonna check that out, now! Thank you for the recommend :)

As an actor, I wonder if he was merely simulating ataraxy or if he genuinely had it? Perhaps, as an actor, there's no difference!

BTW that clip was hilarious thank you! Hahaha :)

[082349872349872]

Ataraxia? Upekṣā? 与道合一? 不動心? Don't harsh my mellow, man; they're all the same to me...