Welcome to The Polytechnist, the personal website of Stephan Reichl, where I create , share my , and collect .
Polytechnist is the archaic term for a person who studied at a polytechnic, loosely translating to "skilled in many arts”. As a multi-disciplinary lifelong learner I see myself as a practitioner of many arts, striving towards mastery. Here, I want to share actionable insights and tactics from my journey in hopes of empowering others on their path to reaching their full potential.
<aside> 🎯 Target audience: Fellow lifelong learners interested in actionable tactics in Data Science, Evidence-Based Living, or Performance Philosophy, including my future self.
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are blog posts that provide original, educational, and actionable content in a concise format (~1,500 words i.e., ~5 minutes reading time) covering (Biomedical) Data Science, Evidence-based living, and Performance Philosophy.
Each article follows the same structure by stating a clear Objective (Why), followed by a timeless Strategy (How), and concluding with actionable Tactics (What). Every post is inspired by a question from my network, this ensures that it is relevant to at least one person beyond myself.
Analogous to the firing of neurons, my aim to provide a large enough stimulus with a low threshold to trigger an unstoppable chain reaction in my readers, helping them reach their full potential. A little food for thought but mainly food for action. An antidote against analysis paralysis.
is a compilation of my routines (e.g., morning routine), frameworks (e.g., nutrition), protocols (e.g., workouts), and collections (e.g., packing list) ****that have evolved over time. They represent my current level of convergence (i.e., local optimum) toward reaching my idealistic full potential (i.e., global optimum).
You can view them as the ever-changing open-source code of my life, encoding how I try to program myself for success and offering a behind-the-scenes look at what works for me.
The entries aim to be minimalistic to mainly serve me and others in their pursuit of realizing their potential through self-experimentation. After all, getting to know yourself is one of life's greatest adventures, or as the Oracle already pointed out to Neo: "Temet Nosce".
is a collection of inspiring quotes and their quotees ****(yes, that is apparently a word), guiding questions (e.g., informing career decisions), useful laws (e.g., Parkinson's Law), and key principles (e.g., Be Prepared!) that helped and/or resonated with me along the way.
Most come from my favorite content like books, movies, TV shows, and articles, but also newsletters (e.g., James Clear's 3-2-1) or podcasts (e.g., Peter Attia's The Drive). Sometimes I provide contexts like alternative versions encountered across history or links to further reading.
“Practical” indicates my focus on wisdom being actionable and effective in real circumstances, rather than theoretical. Therefore, they are categorized by domains of life (work, health, growth, relationships, admin), with an additional small category where I collect quotes about me.