The Company You Keep Becomes You: Marcus Aurelius on Choosing Your Circle
Marcus Aurelius, the most powerful man alive, kept a private notebook reminding himself to be careful who he listened to — because he understood that attention is assimilation. You become what you give your attention to, and the five people around you are the loudest inputs you will ever have. Here is the Stoic case for curating your circle, what modern social-contagion research found, and how to audit your own inputs without becoming a snob.