7Written as a moral essay to his friend Paulinus, Seneca's brilliant, timeless essay still packs a powerful punch two thousand years later. With its brash rejection of materialism, conventional lifestyles and group-think, On The Shortness of Life is as relevant as ever. Seneca anticipates the modern world. It's a unique expose of how people get caught up in the rat race and how for those stuck in this mindset, enough is never enough. The 'busy' individuals of Rome Seneca makes reference to, those people who are too preoccupied with their careers and maintaining social relationships to fully examine the quality of their lives, sound a lot like ourselves.