“I hate tennis.” This is the opening message of Andre Agassi’s biography, Open . Agassi was the son of a tyrannical father who cared for little beyond creating a tennis champion out of his little boy. Steered by his father’s heavy hand, and often against his will, A … | Continue reading
We live in the age of Performative Reading. Consuming as many books as possible has become a competitive sport for knowledge workers who want to show off their intellectual curiosity. To do so, they race through books like they’re collecting mushrooms in Super Mario Kart. … | Continue reading
Pseudonyms are coming back. The most interesting articles I read and Twitter accounts I follow are increasingly penned by pseudonymous authors. People like Jesse Livermore , Modest Proposal , and The Stoic Emperor can avoid ridicule and pursue unpopular ideas because they a … | Continue reading
Here’s a list of 20 values I’m going to remember as I build Write of Passage . | Continue reading
44 million Americans collectively owe $1.5 trillion in student debt, a 457% increase since 2003. Since 1991, tuition has increased by more than 300%, according to the US Department of Labor’s “tuition and school fees” component of the Consumer Price Index. Tuition isn’t ri … | Continue reading
Written by Mason Hartman | Continue reading
The news is just like cereal. Even though cereal is now viewed as over-processed and sugary, it was once viewed as a health food. Americans heard about the health benefits of cereal and ramped up their consumption. From the beginning, companies made heavy investments in ad … | Continue reading
Written by Jessy Lin | Continue reading
Written by Oshan Jarow | Continue reading
This essay was originally shared in my weekly Monday Musings Newsletter . | Continue reading
People aren't deliberate enough about choosing what to work on. To paraphrase the words of John O'Donohue , we are blind to the complacency that passes for ambition in modern society. Too many of our smartest minds are working on trivial tasks and spending their time in c … | Continue reading
I write a weekly email called the Monday Musings . The most popular part of the newsletter is a section called “Coolest Things I Learned This Week.” Subscribe here if you want to see ideas like this every week. It’s fun and eclectic, interesting and intriguing. This is a … | Continue reading
San Francisco is a city of contradictions. From a sociological perspective, you won’t find a more interesting city to study. I grew up in San Francisco, but rarely spent time in the areas I visit when I return to the city. I grew up in neighborhoods like the Marina, the Presidi … | Continue reading
Algorithms distort the world. They can trap us in local maxima, and restrict the kind of random serendipity that makes our personalities liquid. On Tuesday, I had lunch with a friend who invests in artificial intelligence startups. To my surprise, he doesn't use any algorithms … | Continue reading
When an airplane falls out of the sky, everybody stops. Families cry. Friends grieve. Journalists race to the scene. And all of us turn to the news. Airplane crashes capture an outsized share of attention. Even though they represent a small fraction of transportation-relat … | Continue reading
Here are the quotes that stuck out from Peter Thiel’s interview with Peter Robinson on Uncommon Knowledge . I’ve organized the quotes into discrete sections. And at times, I paraphrased Peter for the sake of clarity. Unless otherwise noted, everything below is a quote from T … | Continue reading
"I am the Lord your God.” — 1st Commandment Human culture began with a murder. And that murder was fueled by a rage so strong that it’s the secret origin of all religious and political institutions. In The Bible , The Cain and Abel story is the first act of life after t … | Continue reading
“Grand strategy is the art of looking beyond the present battle and calculating ahead. It requires that you focus on your ultimate goal and plot to reach it.” — Robert Greene, The 33 Strategies of War | Continue reading
Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast Subscribe to my Monday Musings Newsletter to Keep Up with the Podcast | Continue reading
LeBron James didn’t always have thick calves, a raging six-pack, and arms like the Incredible Hulk. Ask LeBron about his off-season training regimen, and he’ll share a detailed run-down of his workout plan and on-the-court practice routine. When he entered the NBA, LeBron wasn’t … | Continue reading
In Silicon Valley, ambition matters more than financial success. The interestingness of your ideas matters more than the size of your bank account. The culture is built to support companies and entrepreneurs who want to pursue moonshot ideas. Silicon Valley culture is a perspec … | Continue reading
Technology advances faster than social norms. Large gaps between accelerating technologies and stagnating social norms create lucrative opportunities. But these opportunities are only available for a limited time. In that moment, people can capitalize on the difference between … | Continue reading
Maps don’t have to be accurate. In fact, many of the best maps are inaccurate. On purpose. Every map serves a goal. Sailors use maps to navigate the distant seas, pilots use maps to navigate the expansive skies, and drivers use maps to navigate the winding pave … | Continue reading
“The real enemy is the man who tries to mold the human spirit so that it will not dare to spread its wings." - Abraham Flexner | Continue reading
Writing online is the fastest way to accelerate your career. It’s the best way to learn faster, build your resume, and find peers and collaborators who can create job and business opportunities for you. Content builds on itself. It multiplies and compounds. Day and night, yo … | Continue reading
"Reading books is the real-life version of collecting mushrooms in Super Mario.” — Some random guy on Twitter Reading is a cheat code. Improving what you consume is the fastest way to accelerate your pace of progress. Time is scarce, so you can’t read everything. Y … | Continue reading
Netflix has a new superpower: manufacturing virality. In the past two months, Netflix has launched four viral hits: Bird Box , Fyre, You, and Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. Each release has a different takeaway. Together, they illustrate Netflix’s in | Continue reading
First, the pivot to video. Then, the pivot to podcasting. Now, the pivot to subscription. What’s happening? Media companies are struggling. They’re missing revenue targets and laying off employees. Cash is drying up. Runways are shrinking. Mic raised $60 million and gr … | Continue reading
"Reading books is the real-life version of collecting mushrooms in Super Mario.” — Some random guy on Twitter Reading is a cheat code. Improving what you consume is the fastest way to accelerate your pace of progress. Time is scarce, so you can’t read everything. Y … | Continue reading
“The real enemy is the man who tries to mold the human spirit so that it will not dare to spread its wings." - Abraham Flexner | Continue reading
I write a weekly email called the Monday Musings. The most popular part of the newsletter is a section called “Coolest Things I Learned This Week.” It’s fun and eclectic, interesting and intriguing. This is a collection of the most popular insights I shared in 2018. Not … | Continue reading
Writer. Host of the North Star podcast. David Perell blog. Exploring the future of media and technology. Podcast guests include Neil deGrasse Tyson, Seth Godin, and Tyler Cowen. | Continue reading
The future of holding companies will be built around audiences, not industries. Today, many of the biggest direct to consumer (DTC) and digitally native vertical brands (DNVBs) battle for the same affluent urban Millennials. Silicon Valley marches to the beat of three words: Gr … | Continue reading
It’s 10 am. An entire block in New York City’s NOLITA district is shut down. The streets are closed and cops are everywhere. Social media celebrity, Logan Paul, has opened up a pop-up shop at the corner of Mulberry and Kenmare. Eager fans have feverishly interacted with Logan Pa … | Continue reading
Instagram. Snapchat. Twitter. Facebook. You name it. We live in a “Never-Ending Now.” A story for you: Earlier this year, I attended a comedy show at The Stand with a handful of digital natives (my term for the post-millennial generation). The comedy club was across … | Continue reading
“His achievements are on the level not of any Roman emperor but of Rome, and not so much of any generation but of entire civilizations.” — Ryan Holliday | Continue reading
“Everything I’ve been writing is bullshit.” — Robert Caro Robert Caro’s is the world’s greatest biographer. Like a treasure chest, his works are a window into a whole new world. The Power Broker, written by Robert Caro is a first-rate examination of the political forces th … | Continue reading
Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast Subscribe to my Monday Musings Newsletter to Keep Up with the Podcast | Continue reading
Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast | PlayerFM Click Here to Keep Up With the North Star Podcast | Continue reading
I’m in San Sebastián, Spain, but I could really be anywhere. I’ve flown halfway across the world, but from inside this coffee shop, I can’t tell what country I’m in. They say that travel allows you to see different ways of living, but that’s definitely not what I’m doing … | Continue reading
Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast | PlayerFM Keep Up with the North Star Podcast Here | Continue reading
“Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the human spirit is colored by such impressions.” – Marcus Aurelius Creativity moves the world. Creativity can’t be created directly, but it can be cultivated. As we soak up wisdom and engage in new exp … | Continue reading
Singapore has leaped from third-world to first in just 53 years. When Lee Kuan Yew took over the country as the nation’s first Prime Minister in 1965, Singapore's per capita GDP was about $400 a year, similar to Mexico and South Africa. Today, Singapore has a per capita GDP of a … | Continue reading
“The real enemy is the man who tries to mold the human spirit so that it will not dare to spread its wings." - Abraham Flexner | Continue reading