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The Paradox of Abundance
Information abundance, like all markets of abundance, is bad for the average person but great for a small number of people. Abundance is a paradox. Environments of abundance are bad for the median...
View ArticleThe Jerry Seinfeld Guide to Writing
Writing and editing should be separate activities. When I’m in this creation mode, I shoot for a flow state. I keep my fingertips on the keyboard and measure progress by how many words I put on the...
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Gagan Biyani: Building Silicon Valley Startups
https://perell.libsyn.com/ LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST | SPOTIFY My guest today is Gagan Biyani, the current CEO of an education startup (where I’m both an investor and an advisor) that helps...
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Tiago Forte & Will Mannon: Building Cohort-Based Courses
https://perell.libsyn.com/ LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST | SPOTIFY I have two guests today: Tiago Forte and Will Mannon. Tiago is my business partner and the creator of an online course called...
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Zena Hitz: Liberal Arts Thinking
https://perell.libsyn.com/ LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST | SPOTIFY My guest today is Zena Hitz, a tutor at St John’s and the author of an excellent book called Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures...
View ArticleWhat Networks Whisper
Every city changes you. San Francisco tells you to be powerful, LA tells you to be famous, Boston tells you to be smarter, and New York tells you to be richer. In the words of Paul Graham, “every...
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Li Jin: Creating the Creator Economy
https://perell.libsyn.com/ LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST | SPOTIFY My guest today is Li Jin, the founder and managing partner at an early-stage venture capital firm called Atelier. Before recording...
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The Microwave Economy
My life is better because of microwavable meals. They taste good and fill me up, and they’re ready in 5 minutes. Still, I wouldn’t want to have one every time I eat: I’d miss out on the joys of fresh...
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The Paradoxes of Modern Life
The Paradox of Reading: The books you read will profoundly change you even though you’ll forget the vast majority of what you read. The Paradox of Writing: Great writing looks effortless. But because...
View ArticleWhy You’re Christian
Becoming an educated citizen starts with understanding the lineage of your beliefs. For example, look at this iconic line from one of America’s founding documents: “We hold these truths to be...
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Ash Fontana: Building Artificial Intelligence
https://perell.libsyn.com/ LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST | SPOTIFY Ash Fontana is an entrepreneur, investor, and author. As an entrepreneur, he was only of the early employees at an online investing...
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Chrisman Frank and Ana Lorena Fabrega: How Childhood Education Will Change
https://perell.libsyn.com/ LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST | SPOTIFY This week, I have two guests. Both are affiliated with Synthesis, a new kind of online school where kids learn through games and...
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Rob Henderson: An Internet Academic
https://perell.libsyn.com/ LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST | SPOTIFY Rob Henderson is one of my favorite up-and-coming writers. I like him because he’s one of those people who doesn’t fit into a...
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How Philosophers Think
Philosophers are the most rigorous thinkers I know. Like intellectual boxers; they come to understand ideas by making them fight with each other. Their style of analysis is effective because it’s so...
View ArticleThoughts on Free Will
My friend Chris Sparks says: “When it comes to creating your environment, assume you have free will. When it comes to living in it, assume you have no free will.” Here’s an example: I lost my love of...
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Saving the Liberal Arts
Co-written with Jeremy Giffon “If colleges don’t change their business model, they’re going to go bankrupt,” I told my professor, two days before I graduated from college. She looked at me in...
View ArticleLifting Alone
Gyms were once communal places. Nobody wore headphones. People helped each other out and talked between sets. Today, things have changed. Everybody is plugged into their own virtual reality world...
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How Learning Happens
Inspiration is the keystone of learning. It’s the engine behind a student’s motivation and the glue that makes ideas stick. But because our school system undervalues the necessity of inspiration,...
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People Don’t Actually Read
My friend Justin Murphy made a good point recently: “People overestimate how many books other people read.” The trend may even be accelerating. I’m in a friend group of intellectually curious people,...
View ArticleShould You Write Every Day?
When I started working out, I hated it. I wanted to gain muscle but dreaded working out. Eventually, a friend got fed up with my laziness and told me what I needed to hear: “If you want to build the...
View ArticleIntellectual Loneliness
I have a confession to make: I leave most parties early because I’d rather read a book. That’s not what I tell people though. Usually, I make up an excuse. Something like “Oh, I have early plans in...
View ArticleThe Stupid Test
Peter Thiel once said: “As an investor, you want to find things that are so stupid that other investors are embarrassed to invest in them.” As an example, he cited the FAANG stocks (Facebook, Apple,...
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Against 3X Speed
Mike boastfully reads 100 books per year. He listens to audiobooks at 3x speed whenever he drives and swears he can remember it all. His browser has a plugin that lets him speed up YouTube videos, and...
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How Should You Write?
There are two ways to write: The Printer Method and the Pixel Method. With the Printer Method, you write and rewrite every sentence until it’s perfect. Nail the first sentence, then the second, and so...
View ArticleThoughts on Montreal
I visited Montreal for the first time. Here are my general impressions of the city, based on walks around town and casual conversations with friends: Culture: My favorite thing about Montreal is its...
View ArticleThe Counterfactual Theory of Value
The Labor Theory of Value argues that the value of a product or a service is determined by the amount of labor required to produce it. If so, something that takes 100 hours to produce is worth 10x...
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Hugging the X-Axis
I’ve always struggled with commitment. In a world as grand as ours, shouldn’t we try to experience it all? Change it up. Visit every country. Try a bunch of careers. The menu of life is vast, and it’d...
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Annual Review 2021
Introduction 2021 was the year of commitment. I committed to my writing, committed to my business, committed to my existing social circle, committed to my longtime hobbies, and committed to my new...
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Imitate, then Innovate
Imitate, then Innovate is my motto for improving at any skill. It’s counterintuitive, but the more we imitate others, the faster we can discover our unique style. In the entertainment world, there’s...
View ArticleWhat I Got Wrong About Business
In high school, I dreamed of becoming a professional golfer. I was fortunate to work with one of the world’s top coaches who had a deep background in the technical and scientific sides of the game. We...
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The Book You Need to Read
There is an epidemic of people who bash Christianity but haven’t read the Bible. I don’t care where you stand on faith. I’m not here to convert you. I’m here to improve how you think and educate...
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What’s Up with Austin?
Austin is a mediocre city, but a great place to live. Since I moved to town, a bunch of people have asked me, “What’s up with Austin?” This article is an answer to that question. It’s the answer I’d...
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The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online
I was a terrible writer growing up. I got a C- in my college writing class. At one point that semester, I skipped ten of those classes in a row because I didn’t see the value in learning to write....
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The TWA Hotel
If you go to JFK Airport, you’ll see a hotel that looks like an alien spaceship and the Sydney Opera House had a baby. The hotel was originally built in the 1960s as an airport terminal for TWA...
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Annual Review 2022
Introduction My life completely changed this year. At the beginning of the year, Write of Passage was a middling lifestyle business. I’d planned to keep the team small and run two cohorts per year....
View ArticleSensitivity Isn’t Static
People assume they’re born with a fixed level of sensitivity, which I define as sensory awareness. But the strength of our senses adjusts in response to our environment. This is important because...
View ArticleLearning to Actually Listen
I’ve been listening the wrong way my entire life — with just my ears. Maybe you’ve been doing it wrong too. True listening is a totalizing, full-body experience. It transcends language. It’s about...
View ArticleSurrendering to Your Nature
We don’t choose our gifts. They choose us. A mark of maturity is surrendering to the person you actually are instead of the one you wish you were. Most people never get such clarity, and they’re...
View ArticleAmbitious People Need Each Other
Ambition breeds a particular kind of frustration, and the more ambitious you are, the larger it looms. Without like-minded peers, ambitious people become suffocated by life — chained by tall poppy...
View ArticleI Hate Writing (and So Will You)
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” — Ellie Wiesel To commit to loving something is to commit to sometimes hating it. It’s easy to love your daily writing routine when you’re...
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Where the Liberal Arts Went Wrong
We’ve lost touch with the ultimate purpose of education: to transform our being and improve our character. A century ago, the purpose of education was so widely accepted that it wouldn’t have been...
View ArticleA Divine Intuition
There are two kinds of intuition: a secular intuition and a God-inspired one. Under a secular mindset, intuition comes from a vague sense of feeling what moves and excites you. It’s all about you —...
View ArticleOwn It Mentality
At times, I’ve taken on too many responsibilities, only to pay the price later with poor follow-through — which is ultimately more painful than saying “no” at the outset. My poor follow-through is...
View ArticleHow I’ve Studied the Bible
I went from thinking the Bible was the most boring book ever to seeing the magic in it. Years ago, I realized that the Bible is the foundational book of Western civilization. If I was going to be an...
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