Know your material, align to your i, and fly your why.

Flying on empty?Doing everything right and still drained, because the plan you're flying was never built for you.

You're not broken.You're mismatched.

Mind My Material helps you see yourself the way an engineer sees a material: what comes naturally to you, where your limits are, and who complements you. Be proud of how you're built. Then follow a plan made for you.

Find your material · free →

About 7 minutes · No account · Nothing you enter is uploaded

Bringing this to a team? For your organization →

Seven families of materials.Hover or tap a shape to meet one.

20+ yrskeeping aircraft safe from wear and cracking
PE · MSMElicensed professional engineer
2,515 daysof the founder's own logged record
5 booksin print, from memoir to picture book
Start here · Mind My Material

The first question isn't what's wrong with you.
It's the material that makes you.

Seven families of real materials. Do you bend and spring back, or hold rigid right up until you don't? Carry the load alone, or only in layers? It's a thought experiment with real materials science under it. And it's genuinely fun.

Hover or tap a family to meet a cadet and an instructor from the 𝑖Sight Air Flight Academy, the cast of A Polymer's Plight with Flight: two real materials from the same family, built for different jobs.

STEP 1 · 7 MIN

Find your material

Answer short, oddball questions. No right answers, nobody grading.

STEP 2

Read your spec sheet

Where you're strong, where you crack, and the weight you were built to carry.

STEP 3

Keep your card

Save or post your result as a card, then take it anywhere below.

Find your material · free →
One answer, five places it goes

Your material connects to everything else

Your materialfrom the free 7-minute quiz Where do you fit?

Flight Test

Test your material against eight kinds of life and see which one it was built for.

Free · Run it → Go deeper

The Deep-Dive

Pinpoints your one exact material, with a personal multi-page report.

Unlock → Watch the wear

Hindsight Daily

Your material sets how the daily app measures your wear and tear.

Try it → Do the work

Companion Workbook

Every worksheet of the program, on paper, with a filled-in example.

Softcover & hardcover → Read the story

A Polymer's Plight with Flight

The picture book: PC N8, a see-through cadet who wants to be seen.

In print →
Two ways in

Pick your hangar

Hover or tap a door to open it.

For you

Know your limits and keep them

For anyone flying on empty who wants to understand how they're built, and stop breaking on someone else's schedule.

For your organization

Know what your team is made of

Mind My Material for teams: a seminar where everyone finds their material, then the team sees who carries what, where the friction points are, and how to get the work done without burning anyone out.

See what we offer teams →

Research partner or program office? Pilot studies & research →

The tools

Five questions. A tool for each.

Plain name first, the engineering term in brackets. Every tool is free to try unless it says otherwise.

1 · What am I made of? know your natural strengths and limits

Mind My Material

(material characterization)

Seven families, 38 properties. Find the material you'd be, and why you respond to life the way you do.

FREETake it →

The Deep-Dive

(grade-level characterization)

Fourteen new questions, then a match against your family's seven materials. One exact material and a personal report.

$24.99 ONCEUnlock →

2 · Where do I come alive? find the life that lights you up

Flight Test

(mission fit)

Put your material through eight kinds of life (fast and intense, long and steady, and more) and see where it thrives instead of just survives.

FREERun it →

The Free Body

(loads analysis)

Name what lifts you, what pushes you forward, what weighs on you and what holds you back, and see whether you're rising or sinking.

FREEBalance it →

3 · What is life costing me? see the toll before it piles up

Hindsight Daily

(load & damage tracking)

One reading a night — lift, sink, or level flight — for your mind, a body symptom, or both. See how today compares with your usual, read where tomorrow most likely lands and how likely a hard day is (from your own nights, like weather), see whether last night's sleep shows up in today, get a heads-up when a rough stretch adds up, and learn how many days after a trigger a flare shows up.

14-DAY FREE TRIALStart your record →

Bounce-Back Time

(modal survey · ring-down)

After a hard hit, how long until you're yourself again? Read straight out of your own record.

FREESee how →

Hindsight 80/20

(fatigue analysis)

The method behind the app: the 20% of habits that drive 80% of how you're doing, from 2,515 days of real record.

READThe story →

4 · Is it paying me back? spend your energy where it returns the most

Return on the Cost

(return on damage)

Some hard seasons are worth it. The Daily shows which parts of your life give you good days for what they take, and which only take.

IN THE DAILY APPOpen the app →

The Hindsight Framework

(mission alignment)

How the Daily lines up what you planned to spend your life on against what you actually got back.

FREERead it →

5 · What recharges me? your own experiments, run by you

Test a Hunch

(coupon test)

Does a walk, a nap, or a day off actually recharge you? Set up your own small experiment in the Daily and get an honest answer, even if you skip days.

IN THE DAILY APPHow it works →

Repair Bay

(repair records)

Which of your recovery habits really replenish you, and which well-meant ones quietly make it worse.

IN THE DAILY APPSee the bay →

The Maintenance Loop

(inspection intervals)

Notice a rough stretch on day three, not week two. Name the break, then see whether it worked.

FREESee the loop →

The Repair Manual

(𝑖SRM · structural repair manual)

Figure out what kind of breakdown it is before you reach for a fix. It starts with why people buckle under loads they were handling fine.

FREEOpen it →

Also in the works: theWORKableME: the job that fits your material Engineer'd Mind: the story layer Your limit cards: limits you can't be talked out of

We run the lab itself by the same method: 𝑖FLY, our in-house flight line →

Writing

Books

From picture books to philosophical memoir, the same ideas through different lenses. Pick a book off the shelf. Every book on one page, with looks inside →

Cover of A Polymer's Plight with Flight

A Polymer's Plight with Flight

PICTURE BOOK · ALL AGES

PC N8, a see-through cadet who wants to be seen. Then the real engineering behind every bend, sag and crack, in plain words.

Buy on AmazonLook inside
Cover of The 𝑖SIP Companion Workbook

The 𝑖SIP Companion Workbook

WORKBOOK · ADULTS

Every worksheet of the program with plain-language bridges and a filled-in example. The free web tools are its companion sheets.

Buy on Amazon
Cover of Insider Threat

Insider Threat

MEMOIR · VOLUMES I–VI

The philosophy that drives the program: you are the load and the crack, so measure instead of trusting the feeling.

Buy on Amazon
Cover of Rhigle Rage in Timber Town

Rhigle Rage in Timber Town

TALL TALES ENGINEERING · KIDS

Twig learns that the rage inside him can be channelled to set him free.

Buy on Amazon
Cover of Feaver Fever in Spillage Village

Feaver Fever in Spillage Village

TALL TALES ENGINEERING · KIDS

A tall tale about the force of buoyancy.

Buy on Amazon
Cover of Six Pack Security

Six Pack Security

ILLUSTRATED ALLEGORY · IN THE WORKS

A comic about buckling: the sudden sideways collapse under a load you'd been carrying fine.

Where it stands
Join the lab

Keep the record running

𝑖Sight Labs is independently built. Membership funds the instruments, the films and the time to keep going.

Free

On YouTube

$0
  • Episode clips and teasers
  • Tool walkthroughs
  • Every free tool on this site
Watch ↗
Tier 1

Observer

$7 / month
  • Full episodes a week early, uncut
  • The weekly lab note
  • Members' question thread
Join on Patreon ↗
Tier 2 · Deep dive

Analyst

$25 / month
  • Everything in Observer
  • One long monthly teardown
  • Every worksheet as a printable PDF
  • Your questions answered on the record
Join on Patreon ↗
Why this is different
Why this is different

Others see your label.
Now see your inner i.

Most of us were handed a role, a pace, and a pile of expectations. So life gets heavier and more complicated, when what we really want is a life that's lighter, simpler, and a little more delightful.

People see your job title, your role, the label someone gave you years ago. They can't see what you're made of underneath. This helps you see past the labels to your inner i: what comes naturally, what you were built for, and the life that matches it. That's where a lighter, more harmonious life starts.

Jets and rocket motors are built on purpose and cared for on a plan. We rarely treat people that well. iSight Labs sees people as assets worth understanding, not liabilities to manage.

See the six differences, with examples
Popular tools
iSight Labs' tools
A type or a label
A picture of how you're built

What comes naturally, where your limits are, and what you were made for, drawn from 38 real material properties.

Example: "You're a ceramic. Precise and heat-proof, but a sudden knock can crack you."
A one-time result
A record that grows with you

One number a day. The app adds up wear the way engineers add up wear on a wing (fatigue analysis) and tells you when to check in.

Example: your last 90 days on one picture, with the rough stretch plain to see.
Advice on how you should feel
Check-ins timed to you

Set by how fast your own wear is growing (damage tolerance), not by guilt or a generic schedule.

Example: "Next check-in in three weeks. Sooner if hard days pile up."
One right answer for everyone
The life that fits you

Test your material against eight different kinds of life: fast and intense, long and steady, and more. Every material has a place where it thrives.

Example: polycarbonate's best fit is the trainer, then the aerobat.
"Fix your weaknesses"
Pair with people who complement you

The strongest materials are often two working together (a composite). Your limits are where someone else's strengths fit.

Example: a ceramic's precision beside a rubber's bounce.
Your answers on someone's server
You stay in charge of your record

No account. The free tools and the daily app do their math on your own device.

Example: no sign-up screen. Open it and start.
The method underneath (𝑖SIP)
Under the hood · 𝑖SIP

The method underneath

Every tool above is one step in a single six-step program. For the curious: it's the U.S. Air Force standard for keeping aircraft from cracking (MIL-STD-1530D), translated step-for-step onto a human life, plus one step machines never needed: finding out whose plan you're actually living.

One programSix steps. Step V loops back, so you keep checking in for good.
STEP 0Whose plan is it?Find who sets your demands STEP IWhat you were built forSay what you're actually here to do STEP IIWhat you're made of…and what's weighing on you STEP IIIMeasure the real thingTrack it, don't guess it STEP IVSet your limitsLimits, not wishes STEP VKeep checking inOn a schedule, for good
Read the program See it step by step on the map The full brief on one page
Films and podcasts
Watch & listen

Short films, plain explanations

They play right in your browser. No download.

1:48 · THE WHOLE PROGRAMThe Mission MapThe whole six-step program in under two minutes. 3:15 · WALKTHROUGHHindsight DailyThe daily app in under four minutes, captions built in. 0:26The Free BodyEvery force on you has a name. Put down what was never yours. 2:14 · ORIGINAL SCOREQuit or StayA career pushed to its limit, and the Monday-morning decision.
All the films
0:23𝑖SIP Has LandedThe whole standard online, in five frames. 0:30Inner 𝑖From twenty years of aircraft to finding your inner 𝑖. 0:30Mind My MaterialMaterials fail in predictable ways. So do people. 0:30Hindsight DailyThings wear out from thousands of ordinary days. 0:30Repair BayWhich of your recovery habits actually work? 0:30The Maintenance LoopOne hard day is a hard day. Three in a week is a stretch. 2:04Will It Hold?The repair manual: a column, a load, the sudden buckle.
Podcast · since 2014

The Smile High Podcast Club

Nathan and his brother Doug interview guests to help uncover their unique gifts: probing questions, 30-day challenges, and stories of triumph and defeat.

Apple Podcasts ↗All episodes ↗
Podcast · coming soon

The Mind My Material Podcast

How every material, like every person, has its own strengths and weaknesses. Join the lab note to hear when episode one drops.

Get notified →
Video

iSight Labs on YouTube

Short videos and teasers from the lab.

The YouTube channel ↗
About Nathan, and what this is and is not
About

The engineer behind the lab

I'm Nathan G. Phillips. For twenty years I kept other people's aircraft airworthy, working out how metal wears, where cracks start, and when to inspect so nothing fails in the air.

Every jet I touched had a logbook.
I didn't.

The job that kept them flying is what wore me down: too much, for too long, on a plan that was never mine. I broke down the way machines do: slowly, then all at once. So I gave myself the same rigor and the same tools I'd been handing out for two decades.

2,515 logged days later, I'm the engineer and the airplane both. 𝑖Sight Labs is what I built on the way.

What this is, and isn't

This isn't medicine and I'm not a clinician. It's an engineering method that was never meant for people, pointed at one anyway. Half engineering, half art.

I'm not here to fix you. The songs that got me through the worst nights never fixed anything either. They just reminded me I wasn't alone. That's what this is for.

20+ yearskeeping aircraft structures from wearing out and cracking
PE · MSMElicensed professional engineer · master's in mechanical engineering
2,515 dayslogged, the long record behind Hindsight 80/20
38 propertiesof real materials mapped to how people respond to life

Scope. 𝑖SIP is an engineering framework, not medical or psychological care. Persistent depression, crisis, or anything involving harm needs a qualified professional. Referring it there is a completed step, not a failed one. In the US, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is reachable by call or text at 988.