Lacedaemonia: Disrupt
I was reading the house rules of Startup Castle and thought it sounded familiar. And then I realized the reason was because this. is. Sparta.
Here’s a comparison of a few Startup Castle house rules (in bold) with parallel passages from Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus (in plain text).
Prefer organized systems and common rules
Things being in this posture at his return, he applied himself, without loss of time, to a thorough reformation and resolved to change the whole face of the commonwealth; for what could a few particular laws and a partial alteration avail? He must act as wise physicians do, in the case of one who labors under a complication of diseases, by force of medicines reduce and exhaust him, change his whole temperament, and then set him upon a totally new regimen of diet.
Watch more than 4 hours of TV/movie/game entertainment per week
In the next place, he declared an outlawry of all needless and superfluous arts
Exercise at least 15 hours in a normal week
Their discipline continued still after they were full-grown men. No one was allowed to live after his own fancy; but the city was a sort of camp, in which every man had his share of provisions and business set out, and looked upon himself not so much born to serve his own ends as the interest of his country. Therefore, if they were commanded nothing else, they went to see the boys perform their exercises, to teach them something useful, or to learn it themselves of those who knew better.
we even stock the ‘generosity kitchen’ with basic foods like eggs, milk, cheese, bananas, rice, beans, potatoes, oats, cereal, and anything else that gets contributed.
They met by companies of fifteen, more or less, and each of them stood bound to bring in monthly a bushel of meal, eight gallons of wine, five pounds of cheese, two pounds and a half of figs, and some very small sum of money to buy flesh or fish with. Besides this, when any of them made sacrifice to the gods, they always sent a dole to the common hall; and, likewise, when any of them had been a hunting, he sent thither a part of the venison he had killed; for these two occasions were the only excuses allowed for supping at home. The custom of eating together was observed strictly for a great while afterwards; insomuch that king Agis himself, after having vanquished the Athenians, sending for his commons at his return home, because he desired to eat privately with his queen, was refused them by the polemarchs; which refusal when he resented so much as to omit next day the sacrifice due for a war happily ended, they made him pay a fine.
Have more than one internet app date per week
And so [the bridegroom] continues to do, spending his days, and, indeed, his nights with [his bunkmates], visiting his bride in fear and shame, and with circumspection, when he thought he should not be observed; she, also, on her part, using her wit to help and find favorable opportunities for their meeting, when company was out of the way. In this manner they lived a long time, insomuch that they sometimes had children by their wives before ever they saw their faces by daylight.
Drink alcohol more than 3 drinks per week
It is confessed, on all hands, that the Spartans dealt with [helots] very hardly; for it was a common thing to force them to drink to excess, and to lead them in that condition into their public halls, that the children might see what a sight a drunken man is; they made them to dance low dances, and sing ridiculous songs, forbidding them expressly to meddle with any of a better kind.
Own any clothing, shoes, watches, or handbags costing over $500
After they were twelve years old, they were no longer allowed to wear any under-garment; they had one coat to serve them a year; their bodies were hard and dry, with but little acquaintance of baths and unguents; these human indulgences they were allowed only on some few particular days in the year.
