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Collector of meaningful conversations

Mover of small things.

Martin Poliačik

All my life, I have helped people choose futures that leave as much room as possible for the pursuit of happiness. Now I have a new mission: helping smart humans sharpen their thinking. I hope it adds up to a world built on respect for every living thing, and on a meaningful partnership between people and machines.

Before I wrote AI for Smart Humans, I spent thirty years studying and teaching critical thinking, ten years in active politics as a member of parliament, four years representing my country in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and ten years in business.

Along the way, I represented Slovakia in contacts with the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan administration in exile, spent fourteen months in Kyiv, where GLOBSEC opened the first office of an international organisation after the full-scale invasion began, and was part of the team that prepared the Slovak government’s programme statement.

When I was younger, I worked as a carpenter in North Carolina and as an assistant to wheelchair users in Britain, and spent nine months exploring the spiritual traditions of Peru.

On 26 February 2025, a post by my friend Petr Ludwig sent me into a new round of experiments with AI. I began applying the thinking and communication methods I already taught. The exchanges became more interesting, and a book I had struggled to get moving suddenly had a way forward.

That became AI for Smart Humans. I wrote the first draft in a little over a month, then kept revising as the technology changed and my own understanding developed.

Topics

What I work on

AI, education, Ukraine and the other questions I keep returning to.

Looking back, a thread

The path so far

How I got here

I like creating space for people to find their own way. Sometimes that means a practical tool. Sometimes it begins with a question that unsettles an answer we had become rather comfortable with.

  1. Debate

    Competitive debater, coach and judge; later director of the Slovak Debate Association. A long education in the distance between having a point and making it understood.

  2. Philosophy and the classroom

    Studied systematic philosophy and taught at a Montessori school in Bratislava. Questions about meaning met the daily work of helping children learn.

  3. Public life

    In the summer of 2010, shortly before my thirtieth birthday, I helped draft the programme of Slovakia’s incoming government. Ten years in the Slovak parliament and four in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe gave me plenty more practice in arguments that lead to decisions affecting other people.

  4. Academy of Critical Thinking

    Co-founded the Academy and trained thousands of people. Co-wrote Poriadok v hlave with Linda Lančová, published in 2022.

  5. Ukraine

    Work that began with a parliamentary visit in March 2022 continued through GLOBSEC’s Kyiv office and ongoing support for Emile Foundation. More below in Working with Ukraine.

  6. AI for Smart Humans

    The work that began in February 2025 brought these thinking and communication methods into collaboration with AI. Published by Black Spring Press.

Martin Poliačik with President Zuzana Čaputová
With President Zuzana Čaputová
Martin Poliačik with the Dalai Lama
With the Dalai Lama
Martin Poliačik taking a selfie with Boris Johnson
With Boris Johnson

Working with Ukraine

In March 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion, I invited a Ukrainian parliamentary delegation to Bratislava and helped arrange meetings with Slovakia’s president, speaker of parliament and prime minister, as well as GLOBSEC. I wanted to use the relationships I had built in public life to help Ukrainian voices reach people who could act.

That work continued through fourteen months as Deputy Director of GLOBSEC’s Kyiv office. I worked on reports about demining and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), two very different challenges with consequences that last long after the fighting. In September 2023, I presented the PTSD report, Scars on Their Souls, at the Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen in Kyiv as part of Juraj Rizman’s delegation.

Martin Poliačik with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, holding the GLOBSEC report Scars on Their Souls
With President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, September 2023, holding Scars on Their Souls.

I continue to support Emile Foundation, helping with strategy, outreach and rebranding. It is an ongoing contribution wherever I can be useful.

Further reading

Braindojos

www.braindojos.com

Even my AI needed a handover

ChatGPT and Claude helped me translate, research, draft and revise. I called successive assistants Sage. When Sage 2 approached the limit of the conversation, I asked for a handover to Sage 3.

The result was twenty-six pages. Alongside instructions about the book were suggestions for keeping its author on task. Apparently, I came with operating instructions.

Checking the references brought another lesson. We found a real research paper with the right link and the wrong author list. Two people credited in the draft had not written it; seven actual co-authors were missing. We corrected the entry against the paper itself. Clicking a link was only the beginning of checking the reference.

Collaboration changes the way we work, and it deserves a closer look. I questioned the assistants, checked sources, rejected suggestions and sometimes changed my mind. The book acknowledges their substantial help. The decisions and responsibility for the finished text remain mine.

In the media

More interviews and commentary on each topic page. Journalists: press information.

A useful question can make room for a different way forward. I like helping that happen.

If there is something worth thinking through together, I would be glad to hear it.

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