Shane Parrish

Shane Parrish is a Canadian writer, podcaster and entrepreneur best known as the founder of Farnam Street (fs.blog), a website and newsletter about decision-making and mental models, and as the author of the bestselling book Clear Thinking. He turned a personal blog into a one-person-led media business funded by readers, members and books rather than advertising-driven content.

Parrish worked for years at the Communications Security Establishment, Canada's signals intelligence agency, as a cybersecurity specialist, starting in August 2001. While doing an MBA he started a blog named after Farnam Street in Omaha, home of Berkshire Hathaway's office, as a tribute to Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. He used it to summarise what he was learning from books, and noticed that a large share of his readers worked on Wall Street. A 2018 New York Times profile described how hedge fund managers and executives had become devoted readers; by then he had left the intelligence agency to run Farnam Street full-time.

Farnam Street makes money in several ways. Brain Food, the free weekly newsletter, had 190,000 subscribers in 2018 and now says it is read by more than 900,000 people. A paid FS Membership offers early and bonus podcast episodes and member-only material; in 2018 it cost $250 a year. The Knowledge Project, his interview podcast, is one of the most popular business podcasts. Farnam Street also co-created The Great Mental Models, a four-volume book series covering general thinking concepts, physics, chemistry and biology, systems and mathematics, and economics and art. His own book, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results, came out in 2023 and became an instant New York Times bestseller.

Parrish also started Syrus Partners, an investment company that buys and holds businesses. He lives in Ottawa, Ontario, and still writes the Sunday newsletter and hosts the podcast.

He matters to the creator economy as an early example of a curator-turned-publisher: someone who built a large, loyal audience by explaining other people's best ideas, then sold memberships and books on top of it.