About Philosopher’s Notes
More Wisdom in Less Time. Handcrafted since 2008.
Philosopher’s Notes distills the best wisdom from the world’s most life-changing books into 20-minute, practical summaries—helping you move from theory to practice to mastery as you become the best, most Heroic version of yourself.
Each Note connects ancient wisdom and modern science with practical tools you can apply right now to close the gap between who you’re capable of being and who you’re actually being.
our mission
Help create a world in which 51% of humanity is flourishing by 2051
Philosopher's Notes was built by Heroic to make ancient wisdom and modern science immediately useful—to help people not just learn more, but live better.
Our aim isn’t to summarize books. It’s to activate wisdom—to give people the tools to think deeply, act decisively, and live with purpose, courage, and love.
Meet Your Heroic Philosopher
Brian Johnson has spent half of the last 25 years as a founder and CEO, and the other half as a philosopher.
as a founder
He built and sold two market-leading social platforms—eteamz and Zaadz—and later made history with the first $5M raised under the SEC’s new crowdfunding regulations as part of Heroic Public Benefit Corporation’s $11M Seed round.
as a philosopher
Brian has studied Socrates in Athens, Jesus in Jerusalem, Marcus Aurelius near the Danube in Hungary, and Rumi in Konya, Turkey.
He’s created a scientifically proven protocol that integrates ancient wisdom, modern science, and practical tools to help people close the gap between who they’re capable of being and who they’re actually being—moving from theory to practice to mastery.
Brian has produced over 700 Philosopher’s Notes, thousands of micro-lessons, and the Heroic app—a social training platform designed to help people flourish by operationalizing virtue in everyday life.
He has also trained over 10,000 Heroic Coaches from more than 100 countries through the rigorous, research-backed Heroic Coach Program.
Brian is the author of the bestselling book Areté: Activate Your Heroic Potential (with a foreword by Phil Stutz, author of The Tools and featured in the Netflix documentary Stutz) and was featured in the film Finding Joe alongside Deepak Chopra, Sir Ken Robinson, Robin Sharma, and Laird Hamilton.
He’s also trained elite special forces operators, including the top commanding officers within the United States Special Operations Command and Naval Special Warfare. He’s worked with elite coaches and athletes including Marcus Freeman and his Notre Dame Football team, and Luke Donald and his European Ryder Cup Championship team—and tens of thousands of everyday Heroes from every country in the world.
Join the Movement
Access the Philosopher’s Notes library and explore over 700 of the world’s most life-changing books in 20 minutes or less.
Feed your mind. Master your life. Help change the world.
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