#129 Jon Ronson on Writing, Hustle and the Psychopath Test

Jon Ronson is one of the most interesting people alive today — period. He’s the author of the Men Who Stare at Goats, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed and The Psychopath Test — which spent 10 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. His two Ted talks have been watched 20 million times, his books have been brought to life by George Clooney on the big screen, he has written screenplays for Netflix blah blah blah. Don’t believe me, listen to a pitch Jon wrote for ‘the Psychopath Test’. If you are not dying to hear what happens next — then, I don’t what to tell you…

0:00 Jon's pitch for the Psychopath Test

1:41 Jon's story

6:00 Strategies Jon used to bypass career gatekeepers

7:03 Would Jon Ronson be on Substack/podcasting

12:05 Does Jon Ronson pay attention to analytics? Post mortems

16:26 Startup philosophy applied to storytelling

19:08 Writing Advice from Tim Ferriss: Jon's opinion on doing interesting things to write better

24:59 Does Jon Ronson like being famous?

28:49 Analysis of 'The Psychopath Test' pitch to Ira Glass

37:30 Should you make decision based on what would be a good story

38:48 Jon Ronson's habits for creative success