The Concept of Selfish Writing and its Relationship to Howard Marks' Memos

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Selfish writing involves expressing thoughts for personal clarity rather than solely for an audience's benefit. Howard Marks, a successful writer and investor, initially wrote memos for himself, not for others. He crystallized his vague hunches and clarified his thoughts through writing, leading to personal growth. Marks only shared his writings after years of solitary writing. This approach is echoed by the speaker, who aims to write for personal growth and problem-solving, rather than pandering to an audience.

When people ask me what good online writing looks like, I point them to Morgan Housel. Why? He takes dry financial concepts and breathes life into them with captivating stories.

And he’s been doing it for a decade and a half. Before Morgan wrote “The Psychology of Money” — one of the world’s most popular finance books that’s now sold over 4 million copies — he spent years as a prolific writer. He wrote 2-4 articles a day when he worked at Motley Fool (3,500 in total). Then, he wrote a bunch more articles for Collaborative Fund and The Wall Street Journal.

Morgan didn’t “explode onto the scene” as a newbie. He put in years of early mornings and behind-the-scenes work. The result? His voice is clear, concise, and narrative. His ideas excavate the relationship between money and human psychology. His creative process is uniquely lazy — a bold contradiction to the productivity advice of today.

Morgan is a master of two things: storytelling and brevity. And the aliveness of his writing has made him one of the most successful writers on the Internet.

In this episode, you’ll learn how Morgan captivates millions of readers with his writing. We cover topics like selfish writing; ruthless self-editing; writing with brevity; and making dry ideas come alive on the page.

Website: https://collabfund.com/blog/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/morganhousel

Books: "Save Even More" and "The Psychology of Money" - https://a.co/d/8IEWwtO

Want to learn more about the next course with Write of Passage?

Click here: https://take.writeofpassage.school/writing-sprints

Want to learn more about How I Write?

Website: https://writeofpassage.school/how-i-write/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DavidPerellChannel/videos

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-write/id1700171470

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2DjMSboniFAeGA8v9NpoPv

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices