About Hacks Vitae
Hacks Vitae is a library of life hacks: we look into popular advice, quotes and ideas, show what holds up and what does not, and turn what works into something you can use.
HACKS VITAE ARTWORK (AI-ASSISTED)
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.
What the name means, and what we mean by a life hack, is on Hack and unlock your full potential.
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 | What happened, who did it and why it still matters |
| Philosophy | Stoicism, Epicurus, Confucius, the Buddha, the existentialists and the famous lines people quote |
| Money & Work | Ways people make, keep and lose money, how work and business really operate, and the money stories that do not hold up |
| Self-Improvement | Habits, skills, focus, fitness, sleep and learning |
| Ways of Life | How people find meaning and live well |
| Mindset | How we think |
| Motivation | Discipline, fear, resilience and comebacks |
| Tools & Tech | AI, software, design, security and the tools that make work easier and faster, digital and physical, with prices, licences and versions dated. |
Three collections cut across the sections: Book Summaries, Music & Sound and Film, Stories & Memes.
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: new articles and updates, and when you subscribe, free field guides (thinking tools, reasoning traps, thinking traps), a 7-day Stoic journal, printable versions of our free tools, an AI video prompt pack and a wallpaper pack.
Getting in touch
Corrections, questions, licensing, or anything else: [email protected]
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.
Elsewhere
Hacks Vitae · publishing since 2023 · editorial standards · privacy · terms · disclaimer