Thucydides
The Vote He Regretted by Morning
Leave yourself a way to take back what you decide in anger
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 3 (the Mytilene debate)
You decided something in a rage and by morning wished you had not. How did Athens call back a death sentence it had already sent out?
What actually happened?
In 427 BC the city of Mytilene revolted from Athens and was taken. In the fury of the moment the Athenians voted to put to death every adult man in it and to enslave the women and children, and sent a galley to order the general to carry it out. The morrow brought repentance with it. The Mytilenian envoys and their friends asked for the question to be put again, and the assembly met a second time. The show of hands was almost equal, but mercy won. A second galley left at once, its crew eating as they rowed, and arrived just after the general read the first order.
At the height of your anger, do not decide
Diodotus, arguing for mercy, said that haste and passion are what most oppose good counsel. Haste goes with folly, passion with narrowness. He did not appeal to pity. He only said that these two keep you from seeing what you want.
A client has just shouted at you and you want to send 'we are done.' Write it, leave it in drafts, and look at it tomorrow.
What is sent out must be catchable
The first galley had a day and a night's start, and the second caught it only by rowing twice as hard. Repenting after the order goes out costs the person who has to chase it. The steadier course is to build a way to reopen the question before you do something irreversible.
Before you fire someone, finish the process and sleep on it. Do not announce it in the group chat tonight.
Reopening is not undoing, and not confessing
After the second vote Mytilene itself was spared, but more than a thousand ringleaders were still put to death, its walls pulled down and its ships taken. The people who calmed down did not turn into saints. They took back only the excess, and the rest still had to be answered for.
What you withdraw is 'dismiss the whole team on the spot.' It is not 'nobody was at fault in this incident.' The share that is yours, you still carry.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: in the heat you said something or settled something, and after a night's sleep it looks wrong.
Ask first: can this still be taken back? Who can chase it for me? Next time, can I hold it overnight before it goes out?
Where it goes wrong: turning 'sleep on it' into never deciding. The Athenians voted again the very next day, with the clock against them. A second look is meant to stop one irreversible step, not to defer responsibility for ever.
Lines to keep
I think the two things most opposed to good counsel are haste and passion
haste usually goes hand in hand with folly
Same situation, other people are asking
It hit me and I can't cool down.Some people set me off and I can't say why.I'm mid-rant and I've just realised I'm the one who's wrong.I'm halfway through the reply and it's getting sharper.Anger just took over · all 6 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.