Michael Lewis
American author of Liar's Poker, Moneyball, The Big Short and The Undoing Project, and host of the podcast Against the Rules.
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What they believe
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The job of a writer is to get the reader into a state of mind where they will follow you anywhere, including into subjects they never knew they wanted.
you grab the listener like I try to grab a reader and get them to the state of mind where they'll let you take them anywhere uh and teach them about stuff that they don't even know they want to learn about.
youtube.comSaid 15 Dec 2025This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These one: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
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15 December 2025
From one piece 10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) 15 beliefs · youtube.com
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korrents.com
You should only start a book you believe is going to be great, whatever it turns out to be.Their words
And only do it if it's great. If you only do it, it's it's a long-term strategy. I mean, it's not that I think all my books are great. I don't write them, though, unless I think they're going to be great.
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Their words
When you're in any kind of creative thing, there is this benefit to not just following the financial incentives and and not trying to kind of like milk every last penny out of it. And to creating scarcity, not just for the sake of the scarcity, but for the sake of the quality.
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Their words
somehow if you take your deadlines seriously, that's the key. You take the deadlines deadly seriously and you just refuse to violate them. Um then you're serious when you establish them and you your mind just finishes when it needs to finish.
+ 12 more
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Their words
I just don't know where this is going. I don't know what the end is. When I don't know what the end is, I don't know what the beginning is. And it's that simple.
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korrents.com
The aim of a story is to be so complete that once it has been told there is nothing left to say.Their words
I want to give something that's good and pure and true and is like is like the thing that will once it's said there's nothing else to say. It's like done.
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Their words
You are gathering before you make judgments. You're open to learning things. You're trying to be the world's best student. You want people to want to teach you.
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Their words
You don't call uninformed. You call knowing as much as there is to know and then you start picking the brains of people who might know more and have not said.
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Their words
So this is a filter. Like if I'm talking to you, it takes effort to put it down on the page. I don't record anything that I've filtered it. It's interesting enough to me that it belongs on the page.
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Their words
The audience is waiting for you to get through this thing because they know nothing's going to happen. Like whatever's on that page, that's what's going to happen.
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korrents.com
The best sign that a subject is worth writing about is that you are interested in it and nobody else is.Their words
And I've learned just to not even talk about it cuz it kills my interest to watch it kill their interest. But I know why I'm interested and why it's important and I'm not I'm not relying on the world telling me it's important.
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Their words
I see no evidence that I'm dragging people along with me. I feel like each each book feels like another startup and that I've got to go out and make it happen almost as if I've not written one.
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Their words
That's a really intelligent way place to land because what they will do is woo you with their enthusiasm and then take you down a rabbit hole where you will spend years of your life and have nothing to show.
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korrents.com
An audience is not buying the subject you cover; it is buying your interest in the subject.Their words
They learn to trust you that if you're interested, they'll be interested. That what in fact what they're buying into is not the subject, but your interest in the subject.
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Their words
In fact, if most journalists started there, they'd be accused of heography
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Their words
you grab the listener like I try to grab a reader and get them to the state of mind where they'll let you take them anywhere uh and teach them about stuff that they don't even know they want to learn about.
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Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 16 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
The job of a writer is to get the reader into a state of mind where they will follow you anywhere, including into subjects they never knew they wanted.
you grab the listener like I try to grab a reader and get them to the state of mind where they'll let you take them anywhere uh and teach them about stuff that they don't even know they want to learn about.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
Starting from what worked rather than from what failed is a different starting point from almost all journalism, and a journalist who did it would be accused of hagiography.
In fact, if most journalists started there, they'd be accused of heography
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
An audience is not buying the subject you cover; it is buying your interest in the subject.
They learn to trust you that if you're interested, they'll be interested. That what in fact what they're buying into is not the subject, but your interest in the subject.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
Show 13 more
Hollywood will woo you with its enthusiasm and then take you down a rabbit hole where you spend years of your life and have nothing to show for it.
That's a really intelligent way place to land because what they will do is woo you with their enthusiasm and then take you down a rabbit hole where you will spend years of your life and have nothing to show.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
A writer's audience does not carry from one book to the next: every book is another startup you have to make happen from scratch.
I see no evidence that I'm dragging people along with me. I feel like each each book feels like another startup and that I've got to go out and make it happen almost as if I've not written one.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
The best sign that a subject is worth writing about is that you are interested in it and nobody else is.
And I've learned just to not even talk about it cuz it kills my interest to watch it kill their interest. But I know why I'm interested and why it's important and I'm not I'm not relying on the world telling me it's important.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
An audience disengages the moment it knows nothing can go wrong, which is why a speech read off the page is dead on arrival.
The audience is waiting for you to get through this thing because they know nothing's going to happen. Like whatever's on that page, that's what's going to happen.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
Taking notes by hand is a filter, and recording an interview removes the one filter that decides what is worth keeping.
So this is a filter. Like if I'm talking to you, it takes effort to put it down on the page. I don't record anything that I've filtered it. It's interesting enough to me that it belongs on the page.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
You never call a source uninformed: you call knowing everything already known, and then ask for what has not been said.
You don't call uninformed. You call knowing as much as there is to know and then you start picking the brains of people who might know more and have not said.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
Good reporting is being the world's best student: gather everything before making judgments, and make people want to teach you.
You are gathering before you make judgments. You're open to learning things. You're trying to be the world's best student. You want people to want to teach you.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
The aim of a story is to be so complete that once it has been told there is nothing left to say.
I want to give something that's good and pure and true and is like is like the thing that will once it's said there's nothing else to say. It's like done.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
Until you know how a story ends you cannot know how it begins, and that is why a book with material but no shape cannot be written.
I just don't know where this is going. I don't know what the end is. When I don't know what the end is, I don't know what the beginning is. And it's that simple.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
If you take a deadline deadly seriously and refuse ever to violate it, your mind simply finishes the work when it needs to be finished.
somehow if you take your deadlines seriously, that's the key. You take the deadlines deadly seriously and you just refuse to violate them. Um then you're serious when you establish them and you your mind just finishes when it needs to finish.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
In creative work there is a real benefit to not following the financial incentives, and to creating scarcity for the sake of quality rather than for its own sake.
When you're in any kind of creative thing, there is this benefit to not just following the financial incentives and and not trying to kind of like milk every last penny out of it. And to creating scarcity, not just for the sake of the scarcity, but for the sake of the quality.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
You should only start a book you believe is going to be great, whatever it turns out to be.
And only do it if it's great. If you only do it, it's it's a long-term strategy. I mean, it's not that I think all my books are great. I don't write them, though, unless I think they're going to be great.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
An athlete who moves his family across the country for a few million dollars more is trading a life that loves him for money that will not improve it.
the average athlete who's taking a few million dollars more to move his wife and kids from one family, one city that they loves him and that he loves to some strange place where everybody's going to be unhappy.
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis) Said 15 Dec 2025
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Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 5 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Liked The Innocent Anthropologist
There’s a book, I’ve never seen anybody talk about it or write about it, but when I read it, I thought, in a funny way, it was helpful for Liar’s Poker. It was a book called The Innocent Anthropologist.
tim.blog 14 May 2020
Recommends My Family and Other Animals
There are memoirs that I’ve given more than once to people. Clive James’ Unreliable Memoirs. Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals, essentially comic memoirs.
tim.blog 14 May 2020
Recommends Unreliable Memoirs
There are memoirs that I’ve given more than once to people. Clive James’ Unreliable Memoirs. Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals, essentially comic memoirs.
tim.blog 14 May 2020
Show 2 more
Recommends A Gentleman in Moscow
The other book, my pandemic reading gift I’ve been giving to people, because it’s a perfect pandemic novel, is Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow
tim.blog 14 May 2020
Recommends The Long Ships
it’s one of these books that, it’s just a miracle of a book. It’s called The Long Ships, and it’s by a Scandinavian historian.
tim.blog 14 May 2020
Where they publish
Podcast Against the Rules with Michael Lewis Hosts the Against the Rules with Michael Lewis podcast.
Recent
- A Bad Week at the US Institute of Peace 3 Nov 2026
- Blockers: A New Audiobook from Michael Lewis 4 Jun 2026
- Live with Nicolle Wallace 16 Dec 2025
Show 17 more
- Michael Burry Speaks 2 Dec 2025
- How the Financial Crisis Broke Politics 25 Nov 2025
- How the Financial Crisis Broke Wall Street 18 Nov 2025
- Lessons of the Great Depression 11 Nov 2025
- Lender of Last Resort 4 Nov 2025
- The FrontPoint Boys 28 Oct 2025
- The Short Sellers 21 Oct 2025
- Michael Lewis Interviews His Producer 18 Oct 2025
- Adam McKay is Still Angry About 2008 14 Oct 2025
- The Big Short is Big Back 7 Oct 2025
- Sen. Richard Blumenthal on the SAFE Bet Act 11 Feb 2025
- Dr. Laurie Santos on Group Psychology, the Teen Brain, and Happiness 4 Feb 2025
- Natasha Schüll on the Antisocial Lure of Gambling 28 Jan 2025
- Episode 10: “Anybody Can Win, but Everybody’s Gonna Lose” 21 Jan 2025
- Episode 9: Framing the Gambler 14 Jan 2025
- Episode 8: The Integrity Landscape 7 Jan 2025
- Michael Lewis on the Prof G Pod 24 Dec 2024
Link verified 25 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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