A 400-year-old practice for the lost art of
One printed philosophical essay delivered to your mailbox every 30 days. A private practice in developing your own judgment.
$49 / month · US shipping included
Each issue begins a new investigation into a question worth thinking about. Through writing, observation, and discussion, we practice developing the judgment to know what we believe, why we believe it, and how to think through what we don't yet understand.
When every answer is available, what happens to the ability to arrive at one yourself?
Having an answer doesn't mean you've thought it through.
Think about how much of what you believe was developed through your own reasoning. How many opinions have you adopted because someone expressed them convincingly? How often have you felt certain about something until you encountered an equally persuasive argument for the opposite position?
We're surrounded by intelligent explanations, compelling arguments, and increasingly capable tools. I use artificial intelligence myself, extensively. But I've become interested in what happens to our judgment when we rarely have to exercise it.
The quality of our judgment affects the people we trust, the risks we take, the opportunities we pursue, and the lives we construct. I think it's an ability worth deliberately developing.
One question. Thirty days. Your own conclusions.
I've developed a habit of taking questions I don't know how to answer and writing about them until I begin to understand what I think. Sometimes I discover that an opinion I've held for years rests on an assumption I've never examined. Sometimes I finish with a better question than the one I started with.
Every month, we take one question and spend the following 30 days living with it. We observe where it appears in our lives, write about what we notice, question our assumptions, and follow the thinking wherever it goes.
I'm doing the same work alongside you. I don't know what I'll discover in advance, and I don't expect us all to agree. That's part of what makes the experiment interesting.
A question worth examining
Each printed issue closes with the question that begins our next investigation.
Think and write independently
Spend the month observing, reasoning, questioning, and developing your own position.
Bring ideas to The Symposium
Share your work if you wish, challenge assumptions, and let the investigation grow.
Nearly 450 years ago, a Frenchman began an experiment.
In 1580, Michel de Montaigne published the first edition of his Essais. The word means attempts, or trials. He used writing to examine his experiences, beliefs, contradictions, and uncertainties, revising the work as his thinking changed.
There's something beautiful about that approach. You can begin without a definitive answer. The writing becomes a way of discovering what you believe, and the conclusions remain open to examination.
Les Essais is my attempt to revive that tradition as a shared practice in a world where answers arrive almost instantly.
Some things deserve to exist on paper.
Every month, a new issue of Les Essais arrives at your home in an envelope. The writing is created exclusively for this correspondence. It isn't published online, turned into a newsletter, or made available as a digital archive.
I wanted to make something you could hold, annotate, disagree with, and return to. The printed pages have three punched holes, so you can keep each issue in a binder alongside your own notes and writing.
Over time, you build a physical record of the questions you've examined and the judgments you've developed. Imagine returning to an issue years later and discovering how differently you now see something you once believed with complete certainty.
A small society of independent thinkers.
There's a private group for everyone participating in Les Essais. We call it The Symposium, after the old tradition of philosophical gathering and conversation.
Each of us investigates the same question from a different position, with different experiences, assumptions, and conclusions. When we bring those investigations together, someone might notice something you missed. Someone else might challenge your entire argument. An idea can become larger than any of us could have developed alone.
You can share an essay, a paragraph, a question, or nothing at all. Your writing belongs to you, and whether you publish it or keep it private is entirely your decision.
The co-authorship happens through the investigation itself. What we discover together can help shape the next issue.
Twelve months. Twelve questions. A physical record of how your thinking has changed.
The next issue hasn't been written yet.
Every month, I investigate the same question you do. What I discover, what you discover, and what emerges through The Symposium can influence where we go next. I don't know exactly what we'll find, and that's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to it.
If you enjoy doing the work of thinking for yourself, I'd love to have you join us.
A monthly practice in independent thought.
Printed correspondence, a new philosophical question every 30 days, and a private society of people investigating ideas together.
- One exclusive printed issue delivered monthly
- A new question and 30-day writing practice
- Access to The Symposium
- Optional sharing and discussion
- U.S. shipping included
Billed monthly. International shipping is additional. Cancel anytime.