Start Here: Everything You Need to Know
Welcome!
If you’re looking to go to bed smarter than when you woke up, you’ve come to the right place.
Farnam Street (or FS as we call it) focuses on timeless lessons and insights for work and life. We do this by ‘mastering the best of what other people have already figured out.’ After all, it’s much easier to benefit from lessons that other people have already paid the price for than making all the mistakes yourself.
You won’t find fads, sound-bytes, or strategies that work for a while then fail when things change. Instead you’ll find insights and wisdom that makes things easier, not harder.
Let’s take a look around.
Where to Start …
Ok, let’s dig in.
What We Do
Our weekly newsletter offers quick and useful multidisciplinary wisdom. Our articles explore timeless ideas and people. Our podcast offers deep and nuanced conversations. And our books offer a deeper exploration of ideas that never expire.
Every Sunday we send out our newsletter to stimulate the minds of over 300k people. We share a selection of thought-provoking material, including links to articles and podcasts, book recommendations, and more. Feed your brain and enrich your life with the best of human thought.
If you haven’t yet, give it a try and see what you’ve been missing.
We write about enduring topics like making better decisions, accelerating learning, and more. You’ll also find articles explaining how to use mental models, how to read better, and finding your purpose.
Since we focus on timeless wisdom, you don’t have to read anything when it comes out. Articles from 2014 are just as useful and relevant as the one we wrote last week.
Ready to explore? Here are some popular articles:
- The Feynman Technique: The Best Way to Learn Anything
- The Difference Between Amateurs and Professionals
- The Best Summary of How to Win Friends and Influence People
- The Munger Operating System: How to Live a Life That Really Works
- Second-Order Thinking: What Smart People Use To Outperform
- How to Remember What You Read
- The Buffett Formula: Going to Bed Smarter Than When You Woke Up
Scroll the whole archive, peruse some random posts, or explore categories.
Nuanced conversations that are both timely and timeless. The Knowledge Project is like the mentor you’ve always dreamed of having in work and life.
Host Shane Parrish interviews guests ranging from Nobel Prize winners to CEOs of the largest companies in the world and everything in between.
Learn the actionable lessons picked up from years of hard earned experience, go behind the scenes for big moments, and learn the mental models other people use to make decisions.
Get started with some of our most popular episodes:
- #18 Naval Ravikant: The Angel Philosopher
- #82 Bill Ackman: Getting Back Up
- #68 Daniel Kahneman: Putting Your Intuition on Ice
- #57 Decoding Difficult Conversations with Sheila Heen
- #67 Keeping the Flywheel in Motion with Jim Collins
- #94 Chamath Palihapitiya: Understanding Yourself
Or explore the episode archive.
Join us every second Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.
The FS Learning Community is a place to meet people like you, solve your problems, get feedback on your ideas, and deepen your understanding. As a member, you’ll gain access to:
- AMAs (Ask Me Anything) – Get your burning questions answered by experts, with past guests including James Clear, Ryan Holiday, Mark Manson, and Josh Kaufman.
- Knowledge Library – A treasure trove of exclusive original resources, updated regularly, ranging from curated advice to in-depth guides.
- Online Courses – Members get free access to 3 of our most popular online courses; The Art of Reading, Productivity That Gets Results, and The Art of Focus.
- Podcast Transcripts – Our members love printing these for reference and note-taking.
And we’re always adding more! Take your learning to the next level here.
Books
The more ways from which you can view a problem, the clearer the solution becomes. That’s what The Wall Street Journal bestselling book series The Great Mental Models book series aims to provide. By holding the core ideas of all the major disciplines in your mind, you can make connections that others can’t see.
We’re publishing four reference books covering the most useful mental models found in many different fields of study. Two of them are out today.
Volume 1, The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts. The Instant Wall-Street Journal bestseller. This volume details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making, productivity, and how clearly you see the world. You will discover key concepts that have wide applicability and how to focus your efforts so you can harness them to your advantage, rather than fight with them or worse yet— ignore them.
Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry, and Biology The second volume of the popular Great Mental Models series. Discover how the core ideas of biology, physics and chemistry can improve your communication, increase your productivity, help you think more clearly, and eliminate stupid mistakes.
Why the Name Farnam Street
Early inspiration for Farnam Street emanated from the ideas of billionaire investor Warren Buffett and his business partner Charlie Munger. Both write and speak widely about mental models and interdisciplinary thinking. Our name is a homage to the pair; the address of their business, Berkshire Hathaway, is 3555 Farnam Street. We call it FS for short now.
Who We Are and Where to Find Us
Founded and led by Shane Parrish, Farnam Street is run by a small but exceptional team. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram.