Socrates and the Three Sieves; Steve Sims

Hey, how are you doing? This is Steve Sims. I remember a friend of mine, Jordan Harbinger, once said to me that we can get information from many, many centuries ago that can even be very common to us today. He said, basically there’s no answer that someone hasn’t written or no question that someone hasn’t written an answer in some book, somewhere. And I actually got sent this the other day, and I put it into a newsletter from a very, very smart man called Socrates. So if you’re sitting there now going, “Oh, I don’t want to copy this. I don’t want to repeat this. This is Steve Sims stuff.” It’s not. It’s Socrates and yes, I’m urging you, I’ll even go as far as to say kind of demanding you share it, because it is going to change the way people interact today. In basically a socially challenged world where we distrust everything coming at us, we need this more than ever.

So this was actually sent to me. I want to read out to you. In ancient Greece, Socrates had a great reputation of wisdom. One day someone came to find the great philosopher and said to him, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?” “A moment,” replied Socrates. “Before you tell me, I would like to test you on the three sieves.” Now I may be pronouncing that wrong, I apologize, but you’ll get the point. The guy turned to around and said, “The three sieves?”

He says, “Yes,” continued Socrates. “Before telling anything about the others, it’s good to take the time to filter what you mean. I call it the test of the three sieves. The first scene is truth. Have you checked if what you are going to tell me is actually true?”

“No, I just heard it,” said his buddy.

“Very good. So you don’t know if it’s true. We continue with the second sieve. That is all kindness. What you want to tell me about my friend, is it good?”

“Oh no, on the contrary,” said his buddy.

“So,” questioned Socrates. “You want to tell me bad things about him and you’re not even sure they’re true. Well maybe you can still pass the test of the third sieve, that of utility. Is it useful that I know what you are going to tell me about my friend?”

“No, not really.”

“So,” concluded Socrates, “what you were going to tell me is neither true, nor good, nor useful. Why then did you want to tell me this?”

Today in a world where we don’t trust what we’re hearing, it’s because a lot of the stuff that we’ve actually been putting out there has been shit. It’s been lies. How many times do you go, “Oh, did they do this?” You click on it only to go, “Oh no, they didn’t, but they could have.” It’s click bait. We’re in a world where there’s a lot of fake engagement, a lot of fake news, a lot of rumors just to justify headlines. Okay? I would love it in a world where you could actually trust everything you hear, trust everything you read, but we can’t.

Now you can be the change. You can be the one that turns around and actions those three sieves by stop putting out crap. Start focusing. Does it help us? Is it kind? Is it true? If we can be the change we want to see, then maybe we can start dictating how we want to receive information.

This is me, out. I wish you all the best and be the change you want to be. Bye.