Episode · The Daily Stoic · 2025-06-28
Books mentioned on AI Isn't Stealing Creativity, It's Supercharging It | Rick Rubin (PT. 2)
Is AI the end of creativity, or the beginning of a new artistic era? Rick Rubin returns for PT.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Creative Act: a Way of Being [Spiral-Bound] Rick Rubin
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin is a profound and unconventional philosophical guide that reframes creativity not as a rare skill reserved for a chosen few, but as a fundamental aspect of human existence.
Discussed“Well, I think your I think your book is a great your first book of course is a great contribution to that and I think this new one's a uh for something that started as a joke, a a nice little uh uh a nice little thing...”
Where to get it
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Meditations
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is a collection of personal journals written by the Roman emperor, offering timeless Stoic philosophy on duty, resilience, and self-reflection.
Discussed“And yet, when I look at, you know, my copy of meditations, I can see all these different pens and highlighters and stuff over the years.”
Where to get it
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The Fish That Ate the Whale
The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen is a biography detailing the life of Samuel Zemurray, the influential figure known as the banana king.
Recommended“I one of my favorite biographies ever is this book called The Fish That Ate the Whale, uh, by Rich Cohen, um, which is about Samuel Zur, one of the founders of United Fruit.”
Where to get it
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A Farewell to Arms
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is a tragic novel depicting a romance set against the brutal backdrop of the Italian front during the First World War.
Discussed“Well, we talked about Hemingway um in A Farewell to Arms. He rewrote the ending like 35 times and each one of the endings is pretty [ __ ] good, you know.”
Where to get it
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Be Here Now
Be Here Now by Ram Dass is a seminal spiritual guide focused on meditation, yoga, and mindfulness that helped introduce Eastern philosophy to the Western counterculture of the 1970s.
Discussed“and and perfectly for the time like in the '60s Ramdas wrote be here now it's ancient teachings but it applied to the ' 60s and through now till now...”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“Yeah, there's a there's a story I have in Discipline is Destiny about Lou Garri.”