One of the most interesting things about the Stoic tradition is that it really is that, a tradition. From Zeno to Marcus Aurelius, nobody bothered to write down the Ten Commandments of Stoicism. Compared to other philosophies or religions, Stoicism is more like the U.K. than the U.S.–there is not some expansive written constitution that lays out exactly what you’re supposed to do or not do.

Still, students of the philosophy have long struggled with this, even in ancient times. Epictetus tells the story of a student who was constantly asking him what to do. That was the wrong question, Epictetus said. Instead, it was better to ask how to be adaptable to circumstances.

In his new classic, The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel writes about Benjamin Graham’s famous book. “The Intelligent Investor is one of the greatest investing books of all time,” Housel writes of the book favored by Warren Buffet and others. “But I don’t know a single investor who has done well implementing Graham’s published formulas,” he continues. “The book is full of wisdom–perhaps more than any other investment book ever published. But as a how-to guide, it’s questionable at best.”

So it goes with Stoicism. It’s not that we ought to do exactly what Marcus Aurelius did, or parse Chrysippus’ words for precise instructions. That would be silly. Instead, we want to tie ourselves into the tradition, try to get ourselves to the intention, the underlying wisdom that the Stoics were themselves following. They can’t tell us what to do in every situation, but they can show us how to be adaptable to circumstances, they can give us a framework, a set of precedents to follow. The Stoics were not writing how-to guides, but how-to-think guides. It was about a mindset, an approach, a philosophy.

Pick that up…not pedantic rules.