History will one day tell us more about the meeting this week between Donald Trump and the biggest names in Silicon Valley. We will find out why these usually swaggering characters came so meekly to Trump Tower. Why Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple and Larry Page of Alphabet, who never appear in suits and ties, wore suits and ties. And why not Peter Thiel, who showed up in an open collar? What brought them together besides curiosity?
Leading up to the presidential election last month, Silicon Valley was mostly at odds with Mr Trump, both culturally, on account of his illiberal attitudes to immigrants, women and minorities, and economically, because of his condemnation of outsourcing. But the leading technology companies and the men and women who lead them are nothing if not shrewd. They have gulped hard and by showing up to meet a president-elect they might not care for, they are practising the resurgent philosophy of Stoicism — accepting what they cannot change and managing what they can.
Stoicism is the new Zen, a rediscovered set of ideas that seem tailor-made for a period of rapid change. The musings of Seneca and Chrysippus are being seized upon by entrepreneurs whipsawed by fate, and corporate leaders battered by disruption. Steve Jobs was fascinated by Zen Buddhism. But had he been starting out today, he might have been quoting Marcus Aurelius.