Morgan Housel is one of the world's best storytellers. He's sold...
David Perell@david_perell
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Oct 16, 2025
~3 min read
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Morgan Housel is one of the world's best storytellers. He's sold almost 10 million books, and this episode is chock full of lessons he's learned about how to write well.
Some highlights:
1. Get to the point. Just get to the point.
2. The person with the best story wins. Simple as that.
3. Nobody likes a lecture. Nobody likes to be shamed about their mistakes. But if you give them enough stories about psychology, they'll figure it out for themselves.
4. Storytelling was a survival strategy for Morgan. Telling people what the Dow Jones did this morning isn't a viable career strategy. If you're not telling stories, you're out. You're gone.
5. Whenever you're telling a story, any time you can show the reader how they're reading about themselves (as much as somebody else), you have a much higher chance of hooking them in.
6. It's rare to find a great writer who works for a publication because creativity can't be scheduled. It's hard to write well when you have to go to an office, sit in a cubicle, dress up in corporate attire, and listen to your editor say: "Now, be creative."
7. Good ideas come from independent and unstructured writing time because that's when you actually get good thinking done.
8. A mantra for reading: "Wide funnel, tight filter." Start a lot of books, but don't force yourself to finish them.
9. Delete the parts that a reader would skip.
10. It's important to write concisely — but concise does not mean short.
11. You don't need to write something new. You just need to write it better.
12. One of the interesting things about reading is that you never know which chapters flowed out of the author's brain and which sentences took a month of agony to get right.
13. Your best ideas tend to be the easiest ones to write.
14. Good writers spend a fraction of their time writing, and most of their time reading and thinking.
I've shared the full conversation with @morganhousel below.
If you'd rather watch on YouTube, or listen on Apple or Spotify, check out the reply tweets.
Some highlights:
1. Get to the point. Just get to the point.
2. The person with the best story wins. Simple as that.
3. Nobody likes a lecture. Nobody likes to be shamed about their mistakes. But if you give them enough stories about psychology, they'll figure it out for themselves.
4. Storytelling was a survival strategy for Morgan. Telling people what the Dow Jones did this morning isn't a viable career strategy. If you're not telling stories, you're out. You're gone.
5. Whenever you're telling a story, any time you can show the reader how they're reading about themselves (as much as somebody else), you have a much higher chance of hooking them in.
6. It's rare to find a great writer who works for a publication because creativity can't be scheduled. It's hard to write well when you have to go to an office, sit in a cubicle, dress up in corporate attire, and listen to your editor say: "Now, be creative."
7. Good ideas come from independent and unstructured writing time because that's when you actually get good thinking done.
8. A mantra for reading: "Wide funnel, tight filter." Start a lot of books, but don't force yourself to finish them.
9. Delete the parts that a reader would skip.
10. It's important to write concisely — but concise does not mean short.
11. You don't need to write something new. You just need to write it better.
12. One of the interesting things about reading is that you never know which chapters flowed out of the author's brain and which sentences took a month of agony to get right.
13. Your best ideas tend to be the easiest ones to write.
14. Good writers spend a fraction of their time writing, and most of their time reading and thinking.
I've shared the full conversation with @morganhousel below.
If you'd rather watch on YouTube, or listen on Apple or Spotify, check out the reply tweets.
68:58
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I asked Morgan Housel: "What's the worst piece of writing advice you hear?"
His response: "Know your reader."
His response: "Know your reader."
1:30
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How does Morgan choose books to read?
He uses a mantra called: "Wide funnel, tight filter." He'll start reading any book that looks 1% interesting. If he's curious, he'll give it a try. But then he's merciless about quitting books that aren't working for him. He'll slam it shut and go right to the next one.
He says: "Too many people force themselves to read bad books."
He uses a mantra called: "Wide funnel, tight filter." He'll start reading any book that looks 1% interesting. If he's curious, he'll give it a try. But then he's merciless about quitting books that aren't working for him. He'll slam it shut and go right to the next one.
He says: "Too many people force themselves to read bad books."
1:20
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It's important to write concisely, but concise doesn't mean short.
Take the example of Doris Kearns Goodwin. One of her books is an 800-page biography of FDR during World War II, and not a single word should've been stripped from it. There are no wasted sentences.
So, concise doesn't mean short. You can write at great length if your stuff is good.
The opposite of this is all the 500-word articles, where 495 of them didn't need to be there. You could've summed them up with a pithy quote.
Take the example of Doris Kearns Goodwin. One of her books is an 800-page biography of FDR during World War II, and not a single word should've been stripped from it. There are no wasted sentences.
So, concise doesn't mean short. You can write at great length if your stuff is good.
The opposite of this is all the 500-word articles, where 495 of them didn't need to be there. You could've summed them up with a pithy quote.
1:07
