The Modern Alchemist
A personal publication on Substack, sharing experience, knowledge, and curiosity through stories and practical experiments across food, health, science, human behavior, philosophy, business, technology, and more. It also explores discipline, personal development, and the work of building a meaningful life.
A place to share what I have learned
I started The Modern Alchemist at fifty as a passion project: a way to give back by sharing the things I have learned, explored, and experienced over the years. Much of that knowledge had previously lived in conversations with friends, around dinner tables, or in my own notes and archives. Substack gave it a place to reach more people.
The main purpose is sharing and exploration rather than monetization. Writing gives me a reason to investigate subjects more deeply, question what I think I know, and keep learning as I put each piece together.
Why The Modern Alchemist
The name reflects the idea of transformation: taking experience, knowledge, and curiosity, testing them in real life, and turning them into something useful. The modern part is the ability to bring today’s science, technology, and AI into that process.
A second brain and a writing partner
For the past few years, I have been building a second brain called Noa, bringing together my research, notes, archives, and accumulated knowledge. That work gradually developed into an AI sidekick and ghostwriter that could help me share more of what I had collected and learned.
I speak my ideas, stories, and opinions, and Noa helps me research, organize the material, and turn those conversations into writing. That partnership is an open part of the project.
Fifty experiments in my fifties
The idea is to explore fifty experiments in my fifties, drawing on personal experience, research, and the questions that catch my attention.
Over time, I may choose to bring these experiments together as a book, with 50 by 50 as a possible working title.