Hi, I'm Melvin Poh.

I'm an entrepreneur, author, and philosopher. I founded Empirics, an open-access platform built on one premise, that insight shouldn't sit behind paywalls, which grew to publish over a million works of social scientific knowledge. From it came Librius, an AI that makes books more accessible; The Philosophy Club, a social journaling platform; and the Empirical Institute, a public-philosophy think tank. In 2025 I wrote DISCONNECTED, and through my writing and films online my work has reached millions who might never have opened a philosophy book. What ties it all together is one conviction: that philosophy belongs in modern life, not behind university walls. I trained at Harvard, Imperial, and Cambridge before becoming a barrister at Lincoln's Inn, and my work has been recognised by Southeast Asian governments, Forbes, Bloomberg, the British Council, and the Royal Society of Arts. But beyond recognition, my purpose is simpler: to restore depth in an age built for distraction. Amid unprecedented abundance, many feel restless, unmoored, and quietly disconnected, an unease that stems not from what we lack, but from what we've forgotten: the discipline of introspection, the pursuit of meaning, and the practical wisdom philosophy was always meant to provide.