Start Here: How to Use The Filtered

Welcome. If you’re new here, this post will help you get oriented.

The Filtered is a working library that supports learning and intellectual growth. It’s not a newsletter you read once. Instead, it’s a reference space you return to. It’s built for people who care about reading and learning as a long-term practice and integral to their intellectual growth.

Where to start

There are a few easy ways in:

• Browse by collection
  Start with Reading Life, Learning Practice, or Thinking Better. Each one groups related ideas so you can explore at your own pace.

• Open a stack
  Within the collections are stacks, which bring together a small set of complementary pieces around a specific idea. They’re designed to be read together, revisited, and used.

• Explore an artifact
  Artifacts are single, high-value excerpts — passages, ideas, or moments worth referring to (e.g., commencement speeches). Think of them as anchor texts.

There’s no “right” order. Follow whatever you’re curious about.

How this library grows

New material is added regularly — sometimes a new stack, sometimes a standalone artifact. Over time, the collections deepen and cross-pollinate, creating a knowledge library you can return to.

Maybe you’re building a personal canon. Maybe you want to elevate your reading life. Maybe you’re interested in a sustainable self-education practice. The Filtered gives you a structured, navigable library you can use to support whatever intellectual project you’re working on.

What to expect in your inbox

Subscribers to The Filtered will get an email when something new is added to the library and point you to where it lives. Think of your inbox as the doorway. This library is the point.

About access

Members (aka paying subscribers) get full access to the entire library as it grows. Non-paying subscribers get a preview of new additions, and limited access to the archive.

Who’s Behind The Filtered

The Filtered is maintained by me, Lou Blaser.

I’m naturally curious, I read a lot, and I’ve always kept some form of personal knowledge library — notes, highlights, quotes, rabbit-hole trails.

The Filtered grew out of that habit. I wanted a place where the things I learn don’t disappear, and where the best materials I come across get collected, sorted, and made easy to revisit. Now I’m building that library in public for anyone who finds learning a lifelong companion too.

A promise to you:

The materials collected here are selected by me with intent: pieces that hold up to re-reading and feel useful beyond the moment they were published. Nothing here is automated. Every stack and artifact is added by hand, with the goal of building a library that compounds in value the longer it exists.

My aim with The Filtered is to create something that supports our learning and intellectual growth. If this is something that resonates with you, you’ve come to the right place and I hope you’ll join and become a member.

Warmly,
Lou Blaser