
Hi, I’m David Perell.
I write, host a podcast, and run a writing school called Write of Passage.
Each week, I write two popular emails.
Monday Musings is a collection of the coolest things I learn every week. Meanwhile, Friday Finds is a links-only newsletter where I only share the kinds of ideas you won’t find anywhere else.
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My essays cross between topics like travel, culture, media, marketing, and technology. Nevertheless, the majority of my essays orbit around our relationship with information, especially how we make sense of the world by consuming ideas.
My most popular short articles include The Price of Discipline, The Never-Ending Now, and One Big Idea. And if you want to read some long-form essays, I recommend What the Hell is Going On, News in the Age of Abundance, and Peter Thiel’s Religion. Or, if you want a short introduction to my thinking, you’ll like 50 Ideas that Changed My Life.
If you want to see all my writing on a single page, you’ll find all my essays here.
I’m on a mission to teach thousands of people to write online, share their ideas, and build an online audience. In order to do that, I teach an online course called Write of Passage. In five weeks of intense instruction, I give hundreds of students the tools to publish their ideas, build an online audience, and accelerate their career. The essence of the course is described in my essay, The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online. Students also leave with a network of friends who share their curiosity for learning.
The next Write of Passage cohort begins in February 2021. If you want to join, let me know by entering your email here.
Beyond the world of writing, I host two podcasts. One where I do the talking, and one where I do the interviewing. The Write of Passage Podcast is a collection of deep-dives into the writing process. Meanwhile, the North Star Podcast is a collection of almost 100 interviews with all kinds of high-performers including Seth Godin, Ryan Holiday, Erika Nardini, Tyler Cowen, and Jason Fried.
You can also find me on Twitter and if you want to email me, send a note to hello@perell.com.
Thanks,
David Perell
My Travels
Photos from my travels in Morocco, China, Israel, Chile, Holland, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Spain, and across the United States.
Popular links
To help you find something that interests you, I’ve made a list of my favorite creations below.
Popular podcasts

Keith Rabois: Accumulating Advantages
LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | Overcast | Spotify
My guest today is Keith Rabois, a General Partner at Founders Fund where he focuses on the consumer internet, education, enterprise, financial services, and digital health.

Tyler Cowen: Production Function
LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST | SPOTIFY

Erika Nardini: Authenticity, Media, and Memes
LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST | SPOTIFY
Download the Full Transcript
My guest today is Erika Nardini, the CEO of Barstool Sports. Barstool was started by Dave Portnoy in 2004. And Erica first learned about the company when she was living in Boston and she immediately became a fan. Now if you don’t know about Barstool Sports, they are one of a kind. They cover sports and pop culture through a uniquely Barstool lens and they produce blogs, videos, and podcasts. They are part-media company, part-subscription service, part e-commerce company, and Barstool is responsible for many of the memes I grew up with. They are all over the place. For example, Barstool has an amateur boxing league with pay per view events called Rough and Rowdy. And some of their other shows include Chicks in the Office, Pardon My Take, Spittin Chiclets, and Schnitt Talk. In this conversation we explore every aspect of Barstool – from personalities like Big Cat, Uncle Chaps and El Presidente. We talked about the future of advertising, how Barstool thinks about its future, and how memes on social media become e-commerce products. Then we talked about Barstool’s hiring philosophy, and how being an internet native impacts ad reads and content strategy. I hope you enjoy this episode.
Popular Short Blog Posts

The Price of Discipline
If we want to raise healthy, high-agency children, we should give them the freedom to make decisions without removing them from the consequences of those decisions.

One Big Idea
Many of the most successful people I’ve studied have found their edge by putting their faith in one big idea.

The Never-Ending Now
We’re trapped in a Never-Ending Now — blind to our place in history, engulfed in the present moment, overwhelmed by the slightest breeze of chaos.
Popular Long Blog Posts

What the Hell is Going On?
In the past decade, the information environment has inverted from information scarcity to information abundance, and the effects are evident in every corner of society.

Peter Thiel’s Religion
“I am the Lord your God.” — 1st Commandment

News in the Age of Abundance
Both cereal and the daily news began as well-intentioned efforts to improve American lives. But just as cereal turned into sugar for the body, news turned into sugar for the mind.