How do we measure progress towards a goal? If you happen to be hiking a long trail, the trail markers make for a good objective measurement. If you’re saving up money for something, looking at the number in your savings account is likewise a good measure.

But what about measuring progress to a more abstract goal? What if your goal is to be “good” at something? How do you define success? Do you have to “go pro”, be the best in your league, monetize your hobby? Measuring progress in goals like becoming better in arts and skills or simply living as a better person can be challenging.

Measuring progress in philosophy was a challenge for the anchient philosophers who lived thousands of years ago. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus, who lived during the height of the Roman Empire, had an answer to this problem.

For the Stoics, the goal of studying philosophy was to achieve virtue. The Stoics defined not as some abstract goody-goodness, but in practical terms. To the Stoics, virtue meant peace of mind, happiness and proper living.

Like many ancient philosophers, we don’t have anything today written by Epictetus directly, though his teachings were recorded by his student Arrian. In his lecture on Progess or Improvement, Epictetus offers some timeless practical advice.

Beyond the book learning

Today, philosophy might sound like the ultimate “book learning” field, but Epictetus cautioned his students against focusing soley on book learning. While they studied the works of Chrysippus, another Stoic philosopher who lived a few centuries earlier, Epictetus reminded his students that just memorizing what Chrysippus had to say was not, by itself, progress:

“Who then makes improvement? It is he who has read many books of Chrysippus? But does virtue consist in having understood Chrysippus? If this is so, progress is clearly nothing else than knowning a great deal of Chrysippus.”

For the Stoics, it wasn’t enough to simply study philosophy. The lessons learned had to used to live as a better person. Epictetus would send away students who were only interested in study without living better: “If he has strained his efforts to the practice of reading books, and labors only at this […] I tell him to return home immediately.”

Epictetus made an analogy to athletes in training, where progress could be measured in terms of gain in muscle. For his students of philosophy, Epcitetus explained that progress was measured in terms of self-control and focusing of what is within their power. The student who has made progress in the one who “rises in the morning, bathes as a man of fidelty, eats as a modest man - this is the man who truly makes progress.”

Progress as a computer programmer

Epictetus’ lessons are not lofty academic material for the arm-chair intellectuals, but have practical applications today.

If you’re studying computer programming, how do you measure progress. Is it completing a computer science degree? Earning a bunch of online certificates? Is it building your hello world! apps in C, C++, C#, Python, Java, JavaScript and Ruby so you can add those skils to your resume?

Or is progress defined in what you can actually accomplish and build as a programmer?