Dear Fellow Mortals,
We have more access to wisdom than ever. Books. Podcasts. Essays. Courses. Quotes. Notes. Ideas collected and saved for later.
The problem is rarely access.
The harder question is whether any of it changes how we live.
That is the idea behind a new project I’m launching here: The School for Mortals
The School for Mortals is built on a simple conviction:
A finite life is shaped by limits, tensions, and choices. Mortal wisdom is the art of learning to live well within them.
That core conviction will also shape the courses I share with newsletter members. Several times throughout the year, courses will unfold over several consecutive days, with one substantial lesson and practice each day.
The subjects will vary, but the aim stays the same: to take enduring ideas about the art of living and ask what they look like in ordinary life.
How do we become more disciplined?
How do we pay attention to a life that is passing?
How do we know ourselves more honestly?
How do we give what matters an actual place in our days?
These are philosophical questions. But they are also practical ones.
Remember to Live
The philosopher Pierre Hadot spent much of his work recovering an older understanding of philosophy. For many ancient thinkers, philosophy was not primarily something to study. It was something to practice.
Ideas about desire, attention, judgment, character, mortality, and the good life were meant to shape the person encountering them.
That is the spirit of The School for Mortals.
Not simply: “What did this philosopher believe?” But: “What would it look like to practice this?”
The measure of a course will not be how much you remember from it. It will be whether you remember to practice it in daily life:
A question you keep asking.
A habit you begin noticing.
A conversation you approach differently.
A practice you return to when you forget.
Because most of us already know quite a lot about how we should live. We know attention matters. We know relationships require care. We know time is limited. We know character is shaped by what we do repeatedly.
Knowing is not always the difficult part.
Remembering—and practicing—is.
Support the Project
The School for Mortals will be available exclusively to Dying Every Day members.
Dying Every Day is, at its core, a one-person labor of love. There is no team behind the scenes—just me, researching, writing, recording, and slowly building the project piece by piece.
If you find value in the work, you can become a member, join at 50% off, or, if cost is a barrier, accept a complimentary membership.
Memberships make projects like The School for Mortals possible. At the same time, I never want cost to be the reason someone cannot take part.
Resist and Persist
We begin next week with Resist and Persist: The Stoic Art of Self-Discipline.
For five days, we will explore a Stoic approach to self-discipline built around desire, action, and judgment.
Not simply how to force ourselves to do difficult things, but how to become less governable by impulse, mood, comfort, fear, and circumstance.
I’ll share more about Resist and Persist this weekend.
The first lesson begins Monday.
Welcome to The School for Mortals.
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Thank you, as always, for being here—and to everyone who helps make this work possible.
Until next time, remember to live.
J.W.
P.S. If you have any ideas for The School for Mortals, feel free to share them!