István Joós · author · guide · Budapest
Three mountains, two valleys, one order — and most of the advice you've been given was written for a mountain you're not on.
20+ years of practice · 1,000+ life stories · first map published 2015
The map
I named the mountains after what people long for when they stand at the foot of each one. What you find at the top is never quite what you were promised. And every mountain has a valley on its far side.
What you find: the castle.
The valley: prison.
What you find: freedom.
The valley: loneliness.
What you find: a cause.
The valley: importance.
Two camps of advice are at war right now. One says the search for happiness was a mistake — skip it, take on a burden. The other says it's the destination — stay. Both are wrong about the same mountain: you cannot skip it, and you cannot live there.
Read the mapWhere are you stuck?
The life you built still works, but you no longer believe in what it was meant to give you. That is not failure. It is the first valley.
Read the first valleyYou know yourself, and the knowing no longer moves anything. The freedom was real. It was also not the destination.
Read the second valleyYour cause works, and your place in it has started to become the point. This is the third valley, quieter and harder to see.
Read the third valleyWatch & read
The essay. The Skipped Mountain — why you can't reach a life that means something without going through the one you've been told to avoid.
The videos. I'm making these now, in this order. Subscribe for the next one.
If you want more than the map
Most people don't need me. They need to know which mountain they're on, and then they need to do the next timely thing, which is harder than any advice. Everything above is free and, for a lot of people, enough. If you want to go further, here is the ladder.
Free — the map, the three questions, the videos, the essay, the Sunday letter.
Basecamp — a seven-day foundation course, in preparation.
The Guided Group — small, twelve weeks, join fellow travellers, with goals and accountability.
Private Consultation — a single session to place you on the map and orient the next step.
Summit Mentorship — private work, 30 days, by application.
My story
In my twenties I was a successful internet entrepreneur, and deeply arrogant. Then I collapsed, and addictions buried the life I'd built. I began writing about my wounds as self-therapy, and people started to connect. 20+ years and more than a thousand life stories later, the same shape kept appearing, and in 2015 I drew it.
I'm Hungarian, I live in Budapest with my family, and I've lived in the United States. I'm not a therapist, a professor or a pastor. I'm a cartographer: I don't tell you what to do. I tell you where you are.
Read my storyWhat I'm building
Humania is an AI guide built on this map. Sherpa helps you understand where you are, take one timely step, and reach the people who matter — the ones you know, and later the ones you should. The first release is coming to iOS and Android, in Hungarian and English. The company behind it is Humania Inc., which I founded and run.
About HumaniaThe Sunday Letter
People, work, relationships, crisis and the next step. One short letter a week, on Substack. Nothing at the end of it but the next letter.
Subscribe on Substack