Brad Stulberg
American author and performance coach. Author of three books exploring how to build a rich, meaningful life: The Practice of Groundedness (2021), Master of Change (2023), and The Way of Excellence (2025). Regular contributor to New York magazine; wrote Robert Pirsig’s obituary for NYM.
Stulberg’s intellectual project is a unified theory of excellence — drawing on Robert Pirsig’s Quality philosophy, evolutionary biology (sensing-and-responding), positive psychology (flow, self-determination theory), and performance science. His core argument: alienation from one’s own life is the defining problem of modernity; the antidote is involved engagement — caring deeply about something worthwhile, removing the separation between actor and act. He is close friends with Cal Newport (Deep Work).
His personal philosophy: process mindset, compounding consistency, identity house (diversifying across life domains), fierce self-discipline combined with fierce self-kindness.
Appearances
- Brad Stulberg on the Way of Excellence, Involved Engagement, and Compounding Consistency (Richer, Wiser, Happier, January 2025)
Related
- Involved Engagement — the core concept he develops
- Compounding — skills compounding as parallel to capital compounding
- William Green — interviewer; William pre-ordered 28 copies of The Way of Excellence