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Long-form essays, working tools, and short instruments for thinking clearly. Nothing behind a login. Nothing behind a paywall. Read what serves you, keep what does.
Long-form
Books and book chapters
The book-scale writing, free to read in full on the site.
Book · Chapter 1
One truth before the noise
The lead essay from the first published book in the 12X series. On the one clear thing that sits under everything else, and how the noise keeps you from noticing it.
Read the chapterLong essay
Return to grown-up capitalism
On the difference between building a business and running a growth-story, and why the second one keeps burning out the people who try it.
Read the essayLong essay
The clarity crisis
On the specific kind of confusion that has settled over the working middle of the century, and what a small honest set of questions can do about it.
Read the essayEssay collections
Fifteen essays, five subjects
Short-form writing on the subjects the Academy keeps coming back to. Attention, reading, difficulty, time, and the shape of a grown-up life.
Collection 01
Attention, belief, stress and growing up
Where a life ends up when the mind is pulled in a thousand directions. The body listening while the mind is elsewhere. What worship has to do with attention. What the daily pattern has to do with the gene.
Read the collectionCollection 02
Reading, craft and the use of time
On reading slowly, reading like an editor, on the alphabet as a technology, on the discipline of finishing, and on what Seneca knew about time that the calendar app does not.
Read the collectionWorking instruments
Tools and questions to sit with
Short, focused instruments. No login. No wait. Print them if you want.
Assessment · Adults
40 Clarity Questions
Forty questions honest enough that most of us have never actually answered them. About twenty minutes. Printable.
Take the questionsAssessment · Youth
15 Clarity Questions for younger readers
A shorter, age-appropriate version for readers between twelve and eighteen. Same intent, plainer language.
Take the questionsTool
Living Time Calculator
A plain calculator that shows how many active waking years remain, given your age. Sobering. Useful.
Open the calculatorLiving list
The Lost Lexicon
Thirteen words that used to mean more. Now, origin, and a question worth sitting with. A living list.
Enter the LexiconPractice
Praxis
Where reading turns into rhythm. Short daily practices tied to what the essays argue for.
Enter praxisDirectory
All tools
The full directory of working instruments across the Academy.
See all toolsPrivate letters
Occasional and by post.
One short letter a month, from Bruce, on what has been reading well and where the writing is going. No promotions. No affiliate links. Free.
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