Syntropology is a philosophy for making sense of modern life.

It explores the forces that shape human flourishing, both in individuals and in the organisations and societies we build together.

The name comes from syntropy: the tendency of living systems to move towards greater order, coherence, and vitality. Its counterpart is entropy, the drift toward fragmentation that so much of modern life seems to pull us along with.

These essays and notes are an attempt to understand those forces and to work out a coherent worldview for a fragmented age.

The Mission

To identify where entropy has taken hold in our lives, organisations, and societies, and to explore the ideas and practices that help restore vitality.

The Syntropology Pocket Books

Some of the essays here have grown into short books. Each one is small enough for a coat pocket and can be read in an afternoon, and all author royalties go to charity.

A Short Book of Syntropology. Eight bearings for finding your way towards more life, and one question to carry into everything you do.

The Tao of Heidegger. Heidegger and Lao Tzu on the art of letting things be in an age that forces everything.

Ray Peat and the Energetic Life. Ray Peat’s philosophy of life as warm, energetic, and always becoming.

What Are You Playing At? Thinkers from Schiller to Fink on play as a sign of surplus life.

You can find them on Amazon.

Who’s Writing

I’m John Stoszkowski. I spent years as an academic researching how people learn and develop, then left in 2020 to work out what all that research means for how we actually live. I write from Cumbria, where I also paint, DJ, and grow far too many courgettes.

Go Further

My books, including my novel for young adults, The Syntropist, and more of my writing are at johnstoszkowski.com.

If you’d like to put the philosophy to work, Syntropise, the practice I co-founded, offers yearly membership for senior leaders, founders, and high performers at syntropise.com.