I

September 12th

BE DOWN TO EARTH, OR BE BROUGHT DOWN

“Zeno always said that nothing was more unbecoming than putting

on airs, especially with the young.”

—DIOGENES LAERTIUS, LIVES OF THE EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS, 7.1.22

socrates’s famous letter to Demonicus (which later became the
inspiration for Polonius’s “To thine own self be true” speech) holds a
similar warning to Zeno. Writing to the young man, Isocrates advises: “Be
affable in your relations with those who approach you, and never haughty;
for the pride of the arrogant even slaves can hardly endure.”
One of the most common tropes in art—from ancient literature to
popular movies—is the brash and overconfident young man who has to be
taken down a peg by an older, wiser man. It’s a cliché because it’s a fact of
life: people tend to get ahead of themselves, thinking they’ve got it all
figured out and are better than those that don’t. It becomes so unpleasant to
put up with that someone has to drop some knowledge on them.
But this is an entirely avoidable confrontation. If the bubble is never
inflated, it won’t need to be popped. Overconfidence is a great weakness
and a liability. But if you are already humble, no one will need to humble
you—and the world is much less likely to have nasty surprises in store for
you. If you stay down to earth, no one will need to bring you—oftentimes
crushingly so—back down.