Hi friends,

Greetings from Austin!

I'm heading out to Texas' Hill Country this weekend. A friend rented a summer camp for kids and invited 150 adults. So fun. From shared bunk beds to group competitions to gargantuan cannon balls in the swimming pool, it'll be like going back to sleep away camp.

This week, I published a Twitter thread about how I improve my craft. I also shared a short video about a new hiring philosophy of mine: look for people who speak in specifics. They're much more likely to be legit.
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​On the theme of finding the right people, our team is currently building Write of Passage Liftoff, a writing program for high schoolers. We’re about to launch a three-week version of Liftoff in parallel to our current Write of Passage cohort, and we still have a few slots available. If you or someone you know is a curious, driven high schooler who wants to write online, click here, and we’ll reach out directly.
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Today's Finds

Brunello Cucinelli: The founder of an eponymously named Italian fashion brand that makes cashmere sweaters and earns more than $450 million per year in revenue. The interview is a trip through his philosophy of life and business, based on the pillars of dignity, beauty, and soul. If you’re eager for more, here are my favorite lessons from Cucinelli.

​Letters to a Young Poet: A collection of letters from Rainer Maria Rilke, published in 1929. They double as a manual about living as an artist and doing creative work. Two creative virtues stand out: solitude and patience. The book is short enough to read in one sitting, but the writing is so beautiful that you’ll want to stop, put the book down, and reflect on the wisdom within it. Though it’s about poetry, anybody who does creative work will enjoy it.

​Federer as Religious Experience: Most writers describe the world with the clarity of a flip-phone camera, but reading David Foster Wallace is like looking at a 16-megapixel photo. This essay is my favorite example. Wallace describes Roger Federer’s tennis game with a level of technicolor detail that almost makes it difficult to read. It’s actually hard for my mind to process such vivid descriptions because they’re so beyond what I’m normally capable of. Whether or not you're a tennis fan, if you appreciate good writing, you’ll enjoy this essay.

​Criterion Collection: My writing coach Ellen Fishbein is a movie fanatic, and says this platform is the best place to find and watch movies. The service is dedicated to promoting exceptional classic and contemporary films. Each film is presented in the way the directors would have wanted them to be seen. I can’t believe I didn’t know about this.

Roger Scruton: When one of the leading conservative thinkers died, and I knew almost nothing about him, I wanted to change that. As Nassim Taleb wrote: “Rest in Peace, Roger Scruton. Your memory and your work will be remembered. Ad vitam aeternam. Fiercely independent, he was one of the last thinkers who used their own head.” Of everything he’s published, I think he’s best while talking about beauty, and I recommend his documentary on the subject. BBC took it down because it didn’t stand with their values, so the only available version is pirated and has Portuguese subtitles. Of course, this is how you know it’s a great documentary. He also has a short book called Beauty. For an introduction, I recommend this 11-minute video on why modern culture is degenerating and this essay on the cultural significance of pop music.