Epicurus on the Anxiety-Free Workday
Emily Austin's reading of Epicurus reframes pleasure as the actual goal of self-employment. Here are the practices that move closest to it, curated short.
Hub · Thinking
Mental Models & Self-Work
Frameworks that survive contact with reality. And the limits they don't advertise.
There's a version of "mental models" that's mostly LinkedIn theatre. Invoking second-order thinking the way other people invoke their CrossFit times. This shelf is the other version. The frameworks are real. The limits are stated. The application is to actual work and life, not to sounding smart in a meeting.
Some of the posts are about classic models like opportunity cost, sunk-cost reasoning, base rates, and second-order effects. Applied to freelance and solo-work decisions where they earn their rent. Some are about the smaller, quieter models that don't have viral names but that I keep going back to. Some are about self-work. Habits, attention, motivation. The honest reading there is that there's no clean framework. Just a few patterns that hold up if you respect them.
If a model in a post makes you nod and want to share it but doesn't change anything about your Tuesday, the post failed. The bar isn't insight. The bar is something you can use.
157 posts in this hub ·Personal Development · Timeless Lessons
Start here
A short shelf to begin with
If this is your first time on this hub, these are reasonable entry points.
Common Sense Is Usually Right (Even at Work)
Philosopher Michael Huemer argues that when smart arguments lead you to absurd conclusions, the arguments are wrong, not the common sense. That's a useful idea to bring to a pricing meeting.
Bloom's 5 Wealths Are Useful - Here's What He Misses
Sahil Bloom's five-wealths framework gets a lot right. It also collapses something important about how freelancers experience time. Here's the honest audit.
Why Your Business Problems Keep Repeating (It's a System)
Donella Meadows mapped out twelve places to push on a system to change its behavior. Most freelancers are pushing on the wrong six. Here's where the leverage actually lives.
Why You Can't Stop Working (Becker's Uncomfortable Answer)
Ernest Becker thought everything humans do is a strategy for dodging mortality. Apply that to the creator hustle and the picture gets very uncomfortable, very fast.
How to Spend Money Without Hating Yourself After
Morgan Housel wrote a whole book on this and freelancers still won't buy the nice chair. The FIRE shame spiral is doing more damage to your finances than the spending it's policing.
More in this hub
Recent posts
What Japanese Spiritual Traditions Teach About Modern Burnout
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Decision Quality vs. Decision Outcomes (Stop Conflating Them)
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The Story You Tell About Your Work Becomes Your Work
Every freelancer is running a private narrative about what they do for a living. That story either opens doors or quietly bricks them up. Most people never notice which.
The Career Pivot You Should Plan Before You're 50
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'Follow Your Passion' Is Newport's Favorite Punching Bag
Cal Newport's career-capital model is more interesting than his attack on passion. The model is what changed how I think about competence, career capital, and why most people pivot too early.
Spending Money on Happiness Without Lifestyle Inflation
Dunn and Norton's five Happy Money rules sound obvious. They are. Almost no freelancer actually applies them. Here's how to spend on happiness without your overhead quietly eating your raise.
How to Actually Read a Book (The Adler Method)
You finished 50 books last year and can't remember what was in any of them. Mortimer Adler diagnosed this problem in 1940 and his four-level method is still the best fix I've found.
Wyner's Language Method Works for More Than Languages
Gabriel Wyner cracked language learning with spaced repetition and a sound-first approach. The same two levers work for almost any skill you're trying to pick up in 2026.
Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit for the Age of AI Slop
Carl Sagan wrote a critical-thinking checklist in 1995 that holds up better than 90% of media literacy content written this decade. Here are the nine questions, updated for AI content and productivity grifts.
Re-Reading The Alchemist at 40 (It Hits Differently)
I loved The Alchemist at 22. I rolled my eyes at it at 32. I picked it up again at 40 and found a third book hiding inside the first two.
Why the AI Sentience Debate Matters to Your Day Job
Jonathan Birch built a framework for thinking about beings on the edge of sentience. I keep accidentally applying it to my Claude tab - and the question it raises about trust is one we'll all have to answer.