The Stoics called excessive self-focus 'philautia,' love of self so complete it crowds out everything else. The PM who makes every decision based on how it reflects on them, not what the project needs, is practicing the opposite of Stoic virtue. The project isn't your reputation management exercise.

Happy Birthday to the US Coast Guard! One month from today, on September 4, 2026, I will be launching the serialized version of my first fiction book: NORTHING; it’s a USCG action thriller. ryanerickson.com/the-northing... #serial #book #uscg #writing #thrillerbooks

The NORTHING Launches in One Month

Machinery Technician Second Class Jordan Cale takes the lead in this northern Coast Guard adventure, leaving us all to wonder if we really know our own.

ryanerickson.com

At 236, the service's claim on the SAR mission is operational, not ceremonial. Happy Birthday to the U.S. Coast Guard! https://sartimes.com/the-coast-guard-at-236-why-the-service-still-matters-as-americas-front-line-sar-agency/

The Coast Guard at 236 & Why the Service Still Matters as America's Front-Line SAR Agency

At 236, the service's claim on the SAR mission is operational, not ceremonial. Happy Birthday to the U.S. Coast Guard!

sartimes.com

The best project cultures have one thing in common: bad news travels fast. Nobody holds a problem to protect a schedule. That's not an accident - it's a leadership norm. It starts with one PM who chose honesty over optics.

Marcus Aurelius wrote: 'You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength.' Deadlines, budgets, and sponsors are outside events. Your preparation, your communication, your integrity are not. The practice is remembering which list is which, daily.

One thing Stoic PMs do differently: they decide in advance what they will not trade away. Before scope negotiations begin, they know which corners cannot be cut. That clarity makes every subsequent conversation faster.

Sometimes, hard lessons are necessary.  

The Stoic PM's approach to technical debt is the same as their approach to any deferred cost: name it explicitly, quantify what it will cost later, and let the team own the trade-off consciously. The worst technical debt is the kind nobody admits exists.

Epictetus: 'Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are.' A retrospective without blame looks like this. So does a good steering committee update.

The Stoic concept of the 'preferred indifferent' - things worth pursuing but not worth compromising your character for - applies cleanly to project metrics. On-time delivery is worth pursuing. It is not worth lying about or gaming to achieve. The metric should serve the project. Never the reverse.

One thing Stoic PMs do differently: they never deliver bad news in a crowd. They go to the person who needs to know first, privately, with the facts. Then they come to the group with a response, not a surprise.

Seneca wrote that the person who lives with full attention to the present day does not feel the brevity of life. For PMs: the project that gets your full, present attention in every phase tends to close better than the one you were already mentally done with two sprints early.

Today published my first #darkfantasy / #horror #story, ever. It’s not gruesome or gory, but it is different. Let me know what you think. #stories #writing #novella (super short novella) ryanerickson.com/the-little-j...

The Little Judge

A guilt-eating rabbit has always known good from evil, until a strange boy named Eli traps it in a house of hollowed-out adults. Inside his closet lies a collection of judged souls, and the rabbit mus...

ryanerickson.com

The project schedule is a model, not a promise. The Stoic PM treats it like a weather forecast: useful for planning, subject to revision, not a source of shame when it changes.

Justice in Stoic thought is not fairness. It's contributing to the common good, acting in the interest of the whole system, not just yourself or your team. The PM who protects their team at the expense of another team is not practicing justice. The Stoic keeps the whole project in view.

I’m super excited to announce that I’m launching a serialized story about government, service (Coast Guard), and who you can trust. Free, every Friday! ryanerickson.com/northing/ #serialfiction #uscg #writing #stories

NORTHING - Coming Soon

Book One of True North  |  Serial Launching September 4

ryanerickson.com

One thing Stoic PMs do differently: they document what they don't know. The risk register that only lists things you can quantify is missing half the picture.

The Stoics were suspicious of comfort. Not because suffering is good, but because the person who has only ever worked in good conditions is fragile. The PM who has managed a failing project, a toxic stakeholder, and a blown budget is stronger than one who hasn't. Hardship is preparation.

Amor fati: love of what is. Not resignation - active acceptance. The vendor missed the deadline. This is now the situation. What are the actual options from here? The PM who gets to that question fastest is the most useful person in the room.

Phronesis - the Stoic virtue of practical wisdom - is what separates a PM who can follow a process from one who can run a project. Process tells you what to do in normal conditions. Wisdom tells you what to do when conditions aren't normal. It's built through experience, not certification.

Congress has raised FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue funding for the nation's 28 task forces. https://sartimes.com/why-femas-new-urban-search-and-rescue-funding-matters/

Why FEMA's New Urban Search and Rescue Funding Matters

Congress has raised FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue funding for the nation's 28 task forces.

sartimes.com

One thing Stoic PMs do differently: they start retrospectives with 'what did the system fail to provide?' before 'what did individuals fail to do?' The distinction changes the room.

Marcus Aurelius spent the last decade of his life managing two military campaigns, a pandemic, and a financial crisis. His journal is full of self-corrections on patience and attention. He was not practicing Stoicism because things were easy. He was using it because things were hard.

The sunk cost fallacy is a Stoic problem. The project is behind, the ROI has shifted, but killing it feels like admitting failure. The Stoic detaches from past investment and asks: given what we know now, is this the best use of what remains?

Epictetus compared the mind to a field. Leave it uncultivated and weeds grow. The weeds in a project are assumptions that go unexamined, risks that go unnamed, resentments that go unaddressed. The Stoic PM tends the field. Not because they enjoy the work, but because neglect compounds.

Stoic philosophy spread through the Roman military in part because soldiers needed a practice that worked under pressure. The dichotomy of control is portable. You can run it in a boardroom or a Monday status call. The technique doesn't require favorable conditions.

What would you do differently on your current project if you knew it was your last one? That's probably what you should be doing anyway.

Logos in Stoic philosophy is the rational order underlying reality. In project terms: there are natural sequences, real dependencies, actual human capacities. The PM who plans against reality rather than with it is fighting the logos. The retrospective usually agrees.

I’m starting a side project for my fiction. ryanerickson.com/cold-trigger... #indiwriting #writting #serialfiction #stories #serial

COLD TRIGGER: Coming Soon

COLD TRIGGER: A thriller trilogy. Free, every Friday, starting September 4. Declan Mase buried his wife two years ago. The mountain road was icy. It was ruled an accident. Then, on an ordinary Monda...

ryanerickson.com

One thing Stoic PMs do differently: they separate the person from the performance. A team member who missed their commitment is not a problem to remove - they're a signal to investigate. What did the system fail to provide?