Do outcomes really not matter?

I'm responding to a thoughtful question from listener Alex Stevenson: if good decisions require us to learn from outcomes, then which outcomes should we actually value?

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I begin by revisiting a LinkedIn post about decision-making and the common mistake of judging the quality of our choices by the outcomes they produce. Using the example of helping an elderly woman across the street only for an unforeseeable accident to occur, I explain why outcomes alone can never determine whether a choice was right or wrong.

From there, I address Alex's question by drawing an important distinction in Stoic ethics. The Stoics never argued that outcomes are meaningless. Rather, they argued that outcomes cannot determine our moral character because they are never fully within our control.

To illustrate this, I use the example of parenting. We cannot guarantee that our children will become good people, yet their flourishing is still something worth pursuing. Their eventual character also provides valuable information that helps us become wiser parents in the future. Outcomes therefore matter in two important ways: they are often preferred indifferents worth aiming toward, and they provide feedback that strengthens our future reasoning.

What outcomes cannot do is tell us whether we acted virtuously. Moral worth belongs to the reasoning behind our choices, not to events that unfold long after those choices leave our hands.

This episode explores one of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of Stoicism: how to value outcomes without allowing them to become the measure of your character. It's a more theoretical discussion than usual, but an important one if you want to understand how Stoic ethics approaches decision-making.