The Stoic Systems Thinker Book
Coming April 2026
The Stoic Systems Thinker is my first book to be published in April 2026. It combines the emotional resilience of Stoicism with the analytical precision of Systems Thinking to close the gap between how the world works and how we think.
The Thinking Gap
The world is growing more complex. Our ability to handle it is not.
We are living through a crisis of complexity. Everywhere we look — technology, economics, social networks — we see the unmistakable shape of the exponential growth curve. Meanwhile, our raw human intelligence has plateaued. We are running a cognitive deficit.
I call this space between the world’s complexity and our capacity the Thinking Gap.
Exponential Growth
Intelligence Plateau
For most professionals, this gap manifests as anxiety, burnout, and the sinking feeling that no matter how hard you work, you are just treading water. We are trying to navigate a non-linear world with linear thinking.
We don’t need more “hacks.” We need a new operating system.
A New Operating System: Systems Thinking + Stoicism
The Stoic Systems Thinker is an attempt to bridge two powerful disciplines that are rarely engaged together.
Systems Thinking provides the mechanics. It gives us the vocabulary to describe the reality we live in: a world of feedback loops, time delays, and emergent properties. It sharpens our ability to see the world clearly.
Stoicism provides the character. It stabilizes our emotional response and clarifies our purpose. It ensures we act with virtue regardless of the outcome.
Together, they create a foundation for an operating system for modern life. This combination can help to move from confusion to clarity, and from anxiety to agency.
What You Will Learn: Inside the Book
This is not a philosophy textbook. It is a practical field guide for leaders, creators, and operators.
In the book, I explore the powerful connection between systems thinking – a structured way of understanding complexity that I’ve applied throughout my education in engineering and my professional career as a consultant – and the philosophy of the ancient Stoics, such as Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca.
The book contains three parts:
In Part One, I explore the fundamentals of systems thinking, laying the groundwork for concepts that help us view the world in a new light.
In Part Two, I outline tools we can use to better understand how to find, synthesize, and interpret information.
And finally, in Part Three, I share examples of how you can apply these concepts in your everyday life.
Throughout the entire book, I connect these ideas to the Stoic principles to which they align. The book is filled with stories from my career and personal life, experiences as a consultant and a poker player, and examples from modern times and history.
This book is not about reaching some perfect state of thinking — it's about embracing thinking as a lifelong practice where we continuously get a little less wrong over time by combining the ideas of systems thinking with the wisdom of Stoicism.
Visualizing Complexity
I believe if you cannot draw a concept, you do not understand it. This book contains over 25 hand-drawn models to deconstruct our complex realities. Some examples within the book are below.
The Iceberg Model
Feedback Loop
MECE Example
Hierocles’ Circles of Concern
About the Author: Michael Lukich
I am an Engineer turned Data Executive who realized that most of our problems aren't technical — they are systemic. After 20 years of building predictive models and analyzing complex data, I found that the ancient wisdom of the Stoics provided the missing piece: the character required to navigate the complexity of life.
I wrote this book because I believe the world would be a better place if we could all think a little bit more clearly.
The book will be published in April 2026. Stay tuned for updates on this page about when and how to order.