§ Library · 42 long-reads
The long form. One library.
Essays, arguments, and slow reading. Independent of courses. Five to forty minutes each. Updated weekly.
§ The shelf · 5 spines
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Stoicism
Stoicism: The Complete Guide
32 MINOpen →
Calculus
Calculus & Linear Algebra: The Complete Guide
36 MINOpen →
DCF & Corporate Finance
DCF Valuation: The Complete Walkthrough (with a Worked SaaS Example)
36 MINOpen →
How to Think Better
Logical Fallacies: The Complete List with Examples
38 MIN2 pillars
Private Equity
Private Equity: A Complete Guide (How PE Actually Works)
40 MINOpen →
§01
Stoicism
· 9 articles
PILLAR · 32 MIN
Stoicism: The Complete Guide
A 2,300-year-old philosophy that refuses to die — and the practical case for letting it shape your week.
Article24 MINMarcus Aurelius's *Meditations*: A Complete Reader's Guide
The personal notebook of the man who, by accident of birth, ruled the largest empire on Earth — and worried, every night, about whether he was a good man.
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Article20 MINEpictetus and the Dichotomy of Control
The clearest single idea in two and a half millennia of moral philosophy — formulated by a former slave who became the teacher of emperors.
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Article21 MINSeneca's *Letters from a Stoic*: How to Read Them
The most readable stoic text in any language — written by a man who was, by any measure, the most morally compromised stoic of them all.
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Article14 MINThe Stoic Morning Routine (Without the Bullshit)
A five-minute protocol that has been refined by serious practitioners for two thousand years — and how to actually run it tomorrow.
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Article12 MINPremeditatio Malorum: The Negative Visualization
The stoic exercise that does not make you depressed — even though, on first description, it sounds like it should.
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Article11 MINMemento Mori in Practice
The stoic exercise on death that is not actually about death — it is about everything else.
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Article17 MINStoicism vs Buddhism vs CBT: A Serious Comparison
Three traditions for managing the gap between events and reactions — and the differences that get glossed in most introductions.
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Article14 MINThe Three Stoic Disciplines (Hadot's Framework)
The structural framework that organized stoic practice for the Romans — and the scholar who recovered it for modern readers.
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§02
Calculus
· 9 articles
PILLAR · 36 MIN
Calculus & Linear Algebra: The Complete Guide
The mathematics that runs modern science and engineering — explained without the textbook condescension, and without the YouTube oversimplification.
Article24 MINHow to Solve Integrals: Step-by-Step Methods
The most-searched calculus question on the internet — answered with worked examples, not just techniques.
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Article20 MINDerivatives Explained: From Definition to Application
The single most useful idea in calculus — explained from intuition to gradient descent.
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Article17 MINLimits and Continuity: The Foundation of Calculus
The single idea that makes calculus work — and the rigorous definition that took two thousand years to formulate properly.
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Article26 MINLinear Algebra Basics: Vectors, Matrices, Transformations
The mathematics that runs computer graphics, machine learning, and quantum mechanics — explained from first principles.
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Article14 MINEigenvalues and Eigenvectors, Intuitively
The most important concept in linear algebra after matrix multiplication — and the one most students never see clearly.
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Article20 MINProbability Theory Basics for Engineers
The mathematics of uncertainty — for people who need to make decisions, not just pass exams.
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Article14 MINSeries and Sequences: Convergence Tests Explained
The beautiful subject most calculus students skim — and the convergence tests that solve almost any series.
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Article16 MINDifferential Equations: First-Order Methods
The mathematics of how things change over time — and the techniques that solve almost every first-order equation.
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§03
DCF & Corporate Finance
· 8 articles
PILLAR · 36 MIN
DCF Valuation: The Complete Walkthrough (with a Worked SaaS Example)
The valuation method that the finance industry treats as foundational — explained without the bullshit, with a complete worked example and a downloadable Excel model.
Article18 MINWACC Explained: Cost of Capital Step-by-Step
The weighted average cost of capital — the most important rate in corporate finance — with every step shown.
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Article14 MINNPV vs IRR: Which to Use, and When
The two most-used metrics in capital budgeting — explained, compared, and ranked by which one you should actually use.
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Article17 MINFree Cash Flow: Calculation, Interpretation, and What Gets Hidden
The number that matters more than earnings — and the games that get played with it.
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Article14 MINEBITDA Explained (and Why It Can Mislead)
The single most-cited metric in finance — and the one that the best investors warn you to never trust on its own.
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Article14 MINReading a Balance Sheet Like an Analyst
The financial statement that shows what a company *is* at a moment in time — and what most readers miss.
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Article13 MINReading an Income Statement Like an Analyst
The financial statement that shows what a company *did* — and the lines that get manipulated most often.
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Article16 MINCapital Structure: The Debt vs Equity Trade-off
The most theoretically explored question in corporate finance — and the most underexplored in practical decision-making.
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§04
How to Think Better
· 7 articles
PILLAR · 38 MIN
Logical Fallacies: The Complete List with Examples
The errors of reasoning that have plagued public discourse for two thousand years — catalogued, named, and illustrated with examples you have probably encountered this week.
Pillar42 MINCognitive Biases: The Complete List with Examples
The systematic errors in human reasoning — discovered, named, and (occasionally) corrected. With the honest acknowledgment that knowing about them isn't enough.
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Article22 MINCritical Thinking: A Practical Guide in the Age of AI
The skill that's more important than it has ever been — and the most-misunderstood phrase in education.
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Article17 MINThe Trolley Problem and Why It Still Matters
The most famous thought experiment in modern ethics — explained, criticized, and applied to real decisions that engineers, doctors, and policymakers actually make.
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Article16 MINAd Hominem, Straw Man, Slippery Slope: A Deep Dive
The three fallacies that account for most of the bad arguments in public discourse — and the nuances that make them harder to detect than the surface labels suggest.
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Article13 MINConfirmation Bias in Everyday Decisions
The most consequential cognitive bias in modern life — examined in detail, with the honest acknowledgment that it's also the hardest to escape.
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Article12 MINSurvivorship Bias: The Hidden Pattern
The cognitive bias that makes successful people seem more strategic than they were — and the famous wartime story that named the pattern.
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§05
Private Equity
· 9 articles
PILLAR · 40 MIN
Private Equity: A Complete Guide (How PE Actually Works)
The industry that runs trillions of dollars and answers to almost no one — explained from the inside, with the parts the marketing brochures leave out.
Article28 MINLBO Model: Build One in 60 Minutes (With Worked Example)
The model that every private equity associate builds within their first month — explained line by line, with a complete worked acquisition of a fictional mid-market business.
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Article14 MINCarried Interest Explained: How GPs Get Paid
The fee that powers the private equity industry — and the structure that allows top GPs to make hundreds of millions of dollars from a single fund.
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Article13 MINDPI, MOIC, TVPI: Fund Metrics Decoded
The alphabet soup that LPs use to compare funds — explained, ranked, and with the games managers play to make their numbers look better.
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Article15 MINPrivate Equity vs Venture Capital vs Growth Equity
Three strategies that share the "private capital" label and differ in nearly every operational detail. Explained without the marketing.
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Article17 MINFamily Offices Explained: Structure, Strategy, and the Dubai Boom
The most secretive pools of capital in the world — increasingly headquartered in the Gulf, and increasingly competitive with major asset managers.
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Article17 MINSovereign Wealth Funds: ADIA, Mubadala, PIF, and the New Capital Map
The largest pools of investment capital on earth — most of them headquartered in the Gulf — and the role they now play in global private equity.
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Article13 MINOperating Partners: How PE Firms Create Value
The shift that defined the last 20 years of private equity — and the playbook that determines which PE firms actually outperform.
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Article13 MINThe 100-Day Plan After Acquisition
What private equity firms actually do in the first three months after closing — and how to anticipate it if your company is being acquired.
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