PvI#118: Aphoristically w/ Andrea Roccella

PvI#118: Aphoristically w/ Andrea Roccella

From Philosophy vs. Improv by Mark Linsenmayer

June 5, 2026 · 50 min · Season 5 · Episode 118

About this episode

Mark and Mary discuss philosophical aphorisms with guest Andrea Roccella, exploring their implications and applications in self-help and personal development.

Mark and Mary are joined by Andrea, an Italian teacher with a broad performing background who’s written a book of philosophical, poetic aphorisms called Think Town : self-help reflections and directives about fear, ego, happiness, etc. There’s a long history of aphorisms in philosophy (Nietzsche, Heraclitus, Confucius, Laozi), and philosophy invented the self-help genre (the Stoics among others), but how does philosophy work given the lack of argumentation? We explore the monster under the bed, AI agents, making philosophy personally applicable, being receptive, DOT ego secretions, and more. Image Note : This is one of the options that MidJourney gave me given the directive to represent the concept of aphorisms. I was picturing, what, little dialogue bubbles with nonsense text in them? AI is clearly a bit disturbed here, and my demonstrating this is a good use of Tennessee lakes. You can choose to watch this on YouTube : Hear more PvI . Follow us at patreon.com/philosophyimprov to get an ad-free experience and post-game chatter for many episodes, now absolute free, or kick in a couple of bucks to get the remaining bonus content including our Redacted episode.

People in this episode

Host: Mark Linsenmayer

Guest: Andrea Roccella

Topics covered

  • aphorisms
  • philosophy
  • self-help
  • fear
  • ego
  • happiness
  • AI

Keywords

  • aphorisms
  • philosophy
  • self-help
  • fear
  • ego
  • happiness
  • AI
  • Think Town
  • Stoics

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Think Town

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