Hi, I'm Melvin Poh.

I’m a philosopher and entrepreneur. I founded Empirics, an open-access platform built on one premise: that knowledge shouldn’t sit behind paywalls. It grew to publish more than a million pieces of free knowledge in the social sciences. 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, a philosophy for the digital age, and through my writing and films online, which put the great questions back into everyday life, my work has reached millions who might never have opened a philosophy book. And because ideas shouldn’t live only in books, I also design tools for thinking: objects that bring philosophy into the habits of daily life. I trained at Harvard, Imperial and Cambridge before becoming a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn, and my public 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.

We live amid unprecedented abundance, yet many of us feel restless, unmoored and quietly disconnected. I believe that unease comes not from what we lack, but from what we’ve forgotten: how to look inward, how to search for meaning, and the practical wisdom philosophy was always meant to provide. That conviction drives everything I do. Philosophy doesn’t belong to the academy. It belongs to anyone facing a hard decision, a restless mind or the question of how to live. My work sits where philosophy meets technology, using modern tools to put the oldest wisdom back within everyone’s reach.

As Recognised By

Hi, I'm Melvin Poh.

I’m a philosopher and entrepreneur. I founded Empirics, an open-access platform built on one premise: that knowledge shouldn’t sit behind paywalls. It grew to publish more than a million articles 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, a philosophy for the digital age, and through my writing and films online, which put the great questions back into everyday life, my work has reached millions who might never have opened a philosophy book. And because ideas shouldn’t live only in books, I also design tools for thinking: objects that bring philosophy into the habits of daily life. I trained at Harvard, Imperial and Cambridge before becoming a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn, and my public 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.