About Hacks Vitae

Hacks Vitae is a library of life hacks. We cover whatever makes life easier to run: mindset and motivation, work and money, psychology, fitness and nutrition, AI and tech, history and philosophy, and the questions people actually type into a search box.

It has been publishing since 2023. Everything on it is free to read in full. There is no account, no paywall, and nothing hidden behind an email address except the things that are genuinely sent by email.

How it works

A lot of what circulates as wisdom online arrives without a source. A quote gets attributed to Marcus Aurelius because it sounds like him. A battle gets a date because the film said so. A study gets cited as “research shows” with no study behind it.

So we go back to the sources. Each article in this library has been checked end to end against the sources it relies on — the letters, the chronicles, the papers, the primary texts. Where a quotation could not be traced, the article says so. Where a claim is an association rather than a cause, it says that too.

AI tools help with the research, the checking and the writing. A person decides what is published, and the sources are on the page so you can check them.

Then we do the part that makes it a life hack: take what holds up and turn it into something you can use — a habit, a system, a workflow, a better way to decide. Where we are unsure, we say so, and you decide what to make of it.

How we do it is set out in full on the editorial standards page.

What is in here

The library runs to more than 100 articles, organised into these sections:

History & War	The Crusades, Napoleon, the French Revolution, the World Wars, and the people who led through them
Philosophy & Meaning	Stoicism, ikigai, mortality, and the older ideas behind modern advice
Mindset & Discipline	Habits, motivation, fear, focus and clear thinking
Money, Work & Leadership	How money behaves, how work rewards, how people are led
Tools & Tech	AI, software, web design and product guides
Stories, Film & Culture	Lessons from film and fiction — labelled as fiction — plus the meanings and origins people search for
Music & Sound	Music-making software and visualizers, the history of recorded sound, and music myths checked

The sections grow as the library does. Fitness, nutrition, psychology, work, coaching, AI and tech are all in scope, held to the same standard: sources shown, and described rather than prescribed.

There is also a collection of quotes and words of wisdom, and a complete index of everything published.

Who writes it

Hacks Vitae is published under its own name rather than a personal byline. That is a deliberate choice, and here is what it means.

It means you are not being asked to trust a person’s credentials, because none are being claimed. You are being asked to trust the sourcing, which is why the sourcing is visible on the page rather than implied. Where an article relies on a study, the study is named. Where it relies on a primary text, the text and the passage are named, so you can check any of them yourself.

It also means this is a small operation, not an institution. There is no newsroom here.

What this site is not

It is not advice. Nothing here is medical, health, financial, investment or legal advice, and none of it is offered as a substitute for a professional who knows your situation. That is stated at the foot of every page on the site because it applies to every page on the site, and at greater length in the disclaimer.

The newsletter

There is a free newsletter. Free e-books and journals will be sent to the people on it as they are released.

Getting in touch

Corrections, questions, licensing, or anything else: hacksvitae@gmail.com

If you think something here is wrong, please say so — and if you can point at a source, better still. That is the fastest way to make this library better, and every message is read.

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Hacks Vitae · publishing since 2023 · editorial standards · privacy · terms · disclaimer