About Me & Sloww

Just looking for an overview of the site? Start here.

👋 Hi, I’m Kyle—the human behind Sloww.

I’m an ex-marketing executive turned corporate dropout and solopreneur who found and created my life purpose after an existential crisis―synthesizing the art of living for students of life. Here’s a little about my journey so far.

My “Old” Life: As recently as a few years ago, I lived the life of “workism” and “total work.” You would have found the old me working consistent 60-80 hour workweeks in marketing and advertising, consumed by busyness, and trying to offset my hard work by telling myself “I deserve this” while upgrading my lifestyle—buying a sports car and McMansion in the suburbs (aka “lifestyle inflation“). Life was heavy and depleting—one thing after another that I had to do. Externally focused. Lacking purpose. Superficial. Complicated. Reactive. Unconscious and spiritually poor.

“Every transformation demands as its precondition ‘the ending of a world’—the collapse of an old philosophy of life.” — C.G. Jung

My “New” Life: In 2018, I quit my decade-long career to pursue entrepreneurship. I’ve also been downshifting to simple and slow living while upshifting meaning and life purpose. In 2019, we sold the house (and the car will be out of here when we get around to it)! Life is lighter and regenerating—one thing after another that I get to do. Internally focused. Purposeful. Deeper. Simpler. Intentional. More conscious and spiritually rich—or, at least on the path of spiritual growth.

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.” — Joseph Campbell

What? Why? How? Let’s back up a bit.

In November 2015, I had an existential crisis. The crazy hours at work finally broke me for the first (and last) time. This is when the questions started. I questioned everything—everything I’d ever known, believed in, and thought was true. The acute portion of my crisis lasted six weeks—I started to give myself a deep, self-taught, crash course on life.

“I’ve never heard of anybody who awakens in their comfort zone.” — Eckhart Tolle

I struggled every single day with the new information I was learning (awareness) vs. how I was still living (action)—causing a high level of cognitive dissonance or what some may call “divine discontent.” I felt like I had a foot in two worlds:

“Many people who are going through the early stages of the awakening process are no longer certain what their outer purpose is. What drives the world no longer drives them. Seeing the madness of our civilization so clearly, they may feel somewhat alienated from the culture around them. Some feel that they inhabit a no-man’s land between two worlds.” — Eckhart Tolle

My crisis was the beginning of the end of my glorification of busy and unconscious consumption—and the beginning of my awakening to intentional living.

Previously, I had no idea there was another way (or a way out) of how I had been living. I had followed the typical path in Western society: go to school, get a job, get another better job that pays more, buy more, spend more, etc. I followed this path without questioning a thing for over a decade. Totally guilty of keeping up with the Joneses—a sucker for the modern definition of the American Dream.

“I’ve never seen any life transformation that didn’t begin with the person in question finally getting tired of their own bullshit.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

More and more things and experiences offered no long-term fulfillment. I was more miserable than ever. Many people already know money can’t buy happiness, but knowing and doing are two different things. I thought I knew too, but it took me living it to really open my eyes. I had to learn the hard way. I was a “high achiever” in school, sports, and work, but I had completely missed the most important subject: LIFE.

“You can get all A’s and still flunk life.” — Walker Percy

What was missing? I realized that things and experiences were really just band-aid solutions. What I really wanted was to align my life with my newly discovered purpose:

“I wanted more than a job. I wanted deeper congruence between my inner and outer life.” — Parker J. Palmer

Since late 2015, I’ve been exploring many different aspects of intentional living (and beyond): slow living, unbusyness, simple living, voluntary simplicity, downshifting, decluttering, minimalism, essentialism, financial independence, life purpose, meaning of life, death, happiness, self-actualization, lifestyle design, biology, psychology, philosophy, spirituality, systems thinking, cognitive biases, mental models, wisdom, transcendence, enlightenment, free will, and more.

I truly believe I’ve discovered secrets to living a fully alive life. Ancient spirituality has known these “secrets” for ages, but they are just now being validated by modern science.

“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.” — Kahlil Gibran

Welcome to Sloww

To get a deeper look into Sloww and how it has evolved over the last few years, check out: What is Sloww?

When I was in the midst of my existential crisis, I emailed my parents on Christmas Day 2015:

“Just bought the domain Sloww.co. Not sure what I want to do with it yet, but I’ve been inspired reading about downshifting, minimalism, simple living, and the slow movement.”

The seed was planted. It would germinate for another year and a half before my first post on the site in mid-2017. In the years since, Sloww has published 500+ posts. You can catch up on everything I’ve learned to date by reading “short” summaries of posts 1-100, 101-200, 201-300, 301-400, and 401-500. You can also see the 10 most life-changing ideas I’ve discovered after 500+ posts.

Sloww synthesizes lifelong learning that catalyzes human development. In other words, Sloww is creating the web’s deepest guide to the world’s wisdom through an interdisciplinary study across diverse (yet interconnected) disciplines:

What I do:

Everything you see on Sloww is a result of my existential crisis and a reflection/record of my journey since then. Sloww is essentially my public, digital, “commonplace book” where I’ve attempted to combine and align everything about myself:

my personality +
my purpose +
my play +
my philosophy +
my philanthropy

Thinking is my passion (what an epiphany to realize thinking itself can be a passion)! The term I’ve found that best describes what I do is “synthesizer” or “synthesist” but these also apply:

autodidact
philomath
generalist
comprehensivist
interdisciplinarian
knowledge integrator
knowledge networker
cognitive explorer
citizen researcher
life strategist

In short, the approach I take is:

self-taught +
syntopical reading +
summarizing +
synthesizing (as a thinking style and writing style)

I’m not a professor, philosopher, psychologist, sociologist, anthropologist, scientist, or guru. Who am I then? I’m an interdisciplinary dot connector across all those humans and many more. Some may view it as a negative that I’m not credentialed with special letters before or after my name. But, I view it as a positive because my mind isn’t siloed in one specific discipline. I greatly appreciate the efforts of all specialists, but my mind seems to operate best in generalist mode.

Another big positive that sets me apart is that I report to no one but myself—I’m not an employee, not in academia, and not operating off of someone else’s research funding who has a hidden agenda or perverse incentives. And, that means I can and do honestly share anything and everything that I’m actually thinking without holding anything back.

I’m a lifestyle entrepreneur. More specifically I’m pursuing the path(s) of:

solopreneur: it’s just me over here 👋

edupreneur: what I do could be considered part of the online learning/e-learning space

infopreneur: what I create are digital info/knowledge products like eBooks, Premium content, and courses (“d-commerce” as opposed to physical products or “e-commerce”)

innerpreneur: what I prioritize is personal development, and business development is just a byproduct (could also be considered “enlightened entrepreneurship,” “conscious capitalism,” “intentional business,” or “spiritual business”)

There’s no operating manual for life, but life is an open book test. We’re all copying the best of those who came before us and “standing on the shoulders of giants.” I do all the homework—researching, curating, reading, note-taking, summarizing, synthesizing, writing, creating, and sharing. You get all the highlights—so you spend less time on all those things and more time learning, practicing, and mastering.

What you get:

Sloww is a trusted resource of lifelong learning that guides you to see and understand yourself and the world in new ways—catalyzing your human development and transforming your entire life.

You get high wisdom-per-word content so you can get wise in less time:

Sloww Blog (Free): Hundreds of posts covering the world’s deepest knowledge.

Sloww Sunday Newsletter (Free): 100+ issues featuring the most interesting content on the web.

Book Summaries (Free): 100+ high-quality, detailed, nonfiction book summaries.

Book Recommendations (Free): 50+ best books I’ve read to date.

Reading List (Free): 350+ books selectively curated over the years.

Hierarchy of Happiness eBook (Free): 100+ perspectives on how to be happy physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Ikigai 2.0 Life Purpose eBook: A step-by-step guidebook to finding life purpose and making money meaningfully (plus bonus workbook).

Mini Mind: 365 daily emails of bite-size brain food.

Sloww Premium: 1000+ global members from 50+ countries get access to exclusive content and infographics.

Sloww Society Community: A priceless part of the Sloww Premium membership to connect with other students of life.
Online Courses: Coming soon for each “Sloww Stage” mentioned below!

Sloww is more comprehensive than virtually anything else out there. Here’s where it fits in your info diet:

Samplers = Social media content, podcasts, YouTube videos, short-form blogs, etc.

Heavy Appetizers = I feel like this is Sloww’s sweet spot. There seems to be a gap online between short-form blogs (300-1,000 word posts) and long-form books (50,000-100,000+ words). I’ve realized many of Sloww’s articles fall somewhere between 2,000-8,000 words. In a digital world of superficial content, this deeper level can better communicate deep, timeless insights. It also allows for connections across insights. Sometimes digesting a heavy appetizer will be enough on its own, and other times you’ll still want an entrée.

Entrées = Books, source material, etc.

No matter where you are in your journey, Sloww is your go-to guide to the art of living fully alive.

Sloww is for students of life:

Synthesizers cultivating lifelong learning and a synthesizing mind (supports all stages).
Shifters downshifting to slower, simpler, intentional living (Stage 1).
Seekers actualizing life purpose through hero’s journeys (Stage 2).
Sensemakers developing mental wealth and cognitive immunity (Stage 3).
Seers awakening and transcending the mind (Stage 4).