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Thoughtful Thursday | Meditations on The Good Life

by Stephan Joppich

I'm an engineer turned writer turned philosophy student. Join my weekly-ish treasure hunt for ideas that make life a little less sucky. No soulless blah. No advice to get up at 5 am. Just some succinct (and often unconventional) thoughts. New posts every Thursday - if my writer's block allows it.

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Featured Post

A better type of resolution

Hey there, I hope the year has kicked off nicely for you. January is almost over -- how have you been? Are you following any New Year’s resolutions? If you've been reading my writings for some time, you might know I'm not the biggest fan of resolutions. The last time I ambitiously set them was in 2021. At the time, I wanted to practice yoga, meditate, and journal. Every day. I think I managed to reach a spectacular streak of 21 days. Then, I got so frustrated by the pressure I had exerted on...

3 months ago • 8 min read

Hey there, In the last issue, I talked about my (non-)lonely experience of going to the cinema alone. Today's piece is going to be about the movie I watched that day. Or rather, the movie's core theme: death. Hooray! Honestly, even long before the movie, the thought of death had been lingering in my mind like spiders in a basement: sneaky and, upon discovery, scary. But the thing is, I find it impossible to think too little about death. Most of the time, we're merely thinking about it in the...

5 months ago • 8 min read

Hey there, Last night, I went to the cinema alone to see a movie about death. I know, I know, what a grim way to start this piece. Boo! Bombard him with tomatoes! Tie his hands before he writes more gloomy stuff! And yet, this venture tied together two ideas that have been ricocheting through my skull lately. Here's the first of those ideas. It's about loneliness. The next one is about death and will follow next week or so. And no, it's not all doom and gloom. The great thing about walking...

5 months ago • 3 min read

Hey there, whenever I get stuck in a rut, feel overwhelmed, or don't know what to do -- in other terms, when life gets difficult -- I've found that overwhelmingly often, the answer is simply to meditate. Which is to say, cutting the outside noise and listening to my inner turmoils. Which is to say, seeing things as they actually are. Which is to say, returning to the present moment. Meditation solves almost everything. It's a frustrating realization. Not just because meditation -- the simple...

6 months ago • 4 min read

Hey there, I've been procrastinating on this newsletter for weeks. Not because I ran out of ideas or didn't enjoy writing. No -- it was more because my perceived speed of life had accelerated like an illegally tuned drag race car. On Thursday nights, I would sit at my desk and think, "Eh, I'll write it next Thursday" -- but before I knew it, the next Thursday would roll around, and the next, and the next. But, at last, here I am, breaking the cycle by writing this on a Friday. Ha, take that,...

7 months ago • 5 min read

Hey there, Before we dive into today's idea: a quick recap of Medium Day last Saturday. First off, thanks to everyone who attended my sessions! If you missed my sessions (or any other sessions you planned to attend), you can catch up on them out here. (If this link doesn't work, don't worry; I'll soon receive recordings accessible to everyone.) I remember feeling so nervous before my first talk. So nervous, in fact, that my vision went dark and my heart overclocked. But why? I had prepared...

8 months ago • 4 min read

Hey there, exciting announcement before we dive in: Medium invited me to speak at Medium Day on August 12th! It's a virtual conference with expert-led sessions, workshops, and networking events hosted by authors, thinkers, and, well, yours truly. I'll be speaking about some of my favorite topics: loneliness, minimalism, and pen names. You can watch my talks at 9:30 am ET, 10:30 am ET, and 11:30 am ET, respectively. So, save the date! You can register here to secure your free spot. Or, check...

9 months ago • 4 min read

Hey there, I finished my last philosophy exam today. And I don't know about you, but the last few months went by in a blur. It's this weird dissonance: Easter seems so far away, but also, it could've been yesterday. Somewhere in this time scramble, I stopped to reflect on my previous exam period earlier this year. How stressed I was, how anxious, how tense. And more generally: how much I let external factors dictate my self-worth. I remember getting a grade in theoretical philosophy that was...

9 months ago • 4 min read

Hey there, Quick reminder before we dive in: my new book club -- The Bibliosopher's Club -- starts this Saturday, July 1st! You can still secure your spot before we start reading Dopamine Nation by Dr. Anna Lembke. When I first got the idea to start this club, I figured a handful of people would sign up. But now, an overwhelming amount of readers have already subscribed -- nearly 100 bibliosophers. And we haven't even started reading yet! So, thank you. If you want to join the fun, you can...

10 months ago • 4 min read

Hey there, Exciting announcement before we dive in: I'm starting a book club! I call it... *gazes into the distance* ... The Bibliosopher's Club. The reason I'm doing this is simply that reading books is a lot more fun and insightful when you read them with others. It's also less lonely, which is nice. Plus, reading in a community helps us break the cycle of finished books and challenges us to read more -- and more deeply. If I hadn't joined reading circles and seminars in my philosophy...

11 months ago • 5 min read
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