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The Way of ExcellenceBook

by Brad Stulberg, 2026

Who uses, recommends or left The Way of Excellence, in their own words: each a verbatim quote with a link to where it was said.

1 person

Journalist and author of The Sports Gene (2013) and Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World (2019); writes the Range Widely newsletter; formerly a senior writer at Sports Illustrated.
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DE: As you know, I like to nerd out about writing, and I think you have some of your best writing here—really sharp turns of phrase.

Range Widely Q&A with Brad Stulberg on his book The Way of Excellence

2026-01-29·davidepstein.substack.com ↗

Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.

The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.

A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.

What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:

Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.