Should I Apply Æsop's Fables Teachings To My Life?

[Inbocca]

I remember having a book of Æsop's fables as a child. Most of them teach morals and wisdom that always seemed really obvious to me growing up. Things like "the grass is always greener on the other side," "you don't eat if you don't work", "you can't please everyone", etc.

When compared to things like the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene or How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, it doesn't hold much of a candle in terms of teaching you how to make the most of your life. Definitely entertaining, and I'd say the vast majority of lessons are on point, but I dunno how life-changing it is.

 

[Mr.Rob]

Should I apply Æsop's teachings to my life?

Good question...

I would ask you... Should you apply AEsop's maxim's to your life?

 

[Mr.Rob]

No... Yolo.

haha probably more fun that way

 

[Chase]

I'm a huge fan of Aesop.

Like Dale Carnegie a lot too, of course. Haven't read Robert Greene.

The nice thing about Aesop is that the lessons are extremely memorable, which makes them both teachable and retainable.

They're also highly applicable to all kinds of life situations. Whenever I have a situation in life where I find myself going, "What in tarnation happened there??" I go through a bunch of Aesop's fables and come out on the other end going, "Ohhhhh."

Awesome website with a bunch of Aesop fables:

http://www.aesopfables.com

One example of when I used these was when I had a business partner essentially destroy our business relationship and the business, and put all of us in desperate financial straights, after I specifically made him promise he would not (he'd done it with prior business partnerships of his as well; I thought I'd be able to get a different result from him, hubristically). At the time, all I could do was wonder what the heck happened, but after a quick flip through Aesop I came upon "The Frog and the Scorpion" and it clicked. Instead of psychoanalyzing the guy and trying to figure out what the reasoning was, I was able to just say, "It's in his nature."

Just generally for teaching / imparting wisdom, parables are quite possibly the most perfect vehicle. Jesus and Confucius both used them liberally, and both men were enormously talented teachers. Maybe analogy doesn't work as well for some people, but it seems like for a great number of folks, it's one of the most effective ways to learn and retain.

Chase