I know I shouldn't accept compliments. But thank you Ryan for calling me an academic when I have only vaguely looked into Stoicism for a few months. Much appreciated.

But seriously. He does seem overly focused on using Stoicism as a tool for maintaining discipline. The discipline of action, and to a certain extent the pillar of courage do include developing this trait. The biggest 'ohno' for me is that this seems to be with the view of obtaining material success which is an indifferent.

In Stoicism you really cannot pick and choose what pillars or disciplines to follow as it all hangs in perfect balance where they all complement each other. Sure you can take any of them in isolation and they'll probably help to improve your life in some way. However, imo, and iso (in Stoicisms opinion) the external things taken in isolation mean nothing. He didn't even use the word 'Virtue' in the obstacle is the way. I understand this can be off-putting. It was to me at first but that's because I didn't understand it. Maybe a popular YouTuber like him could have helped me too. I looked back at my journal today, at an entry I'd written after watching his videos and I was just like omg. It was SO wrong.

It is very misrepresented. But that's not to say unhelpful to some. BUT it might be even more helpful to some people if they did find out what it's really about, and by creating an us and them narrative he is perhaps preventing people from doing so.