Morgan Housel is the most compelling person writing about investing today.

Housel has been a professional writer for 16 years, including stints at the Wall Street Journal and the Motley Fool. Now, he writes for the Collaborative Fund blog and last year published The Psychology of Money, which sold 3 million copies.

Recently, he joined Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s Making Media podcast to talk about his craft.

If you expect growth hacks to go viral, you will be disappointed. Housel claims to have no formula. He says he doesn’t even know what each post will be about when he starts.

But if you want to understand how creators think and work, it’s terrific.

Some lessons from the interview:

–He says he has no original ideas. Many of his posts are about the value and importance of “compounding.” That makes it all the more important to write something clever.

–He writes to learn. He may start with an observation, but he doesn’t know where it’s going. It’s a process of discovery.

–Each post is about 1,000 word posts. You need to give the reader enough to chew on and cement the point. But not too much to overstay your welcome. He struggled with his first book until he realized it was just an accumulation of 1,000-word articles.

—His process is to write “one perfect sentence at a time,” frequently taking a break to take a walk or play with the dog. Slow and steady wins the race.

–Housel writes in the same chair at the same desk in his home office. It’s difficult to write in coffee shops or on the road.

–Housel has no editor, which sometimes results in typos that readers notice. But he prefers being a one-man band. That way it’s clear who gets the credit and blame.

–He writes in Google Docs, which allows him easy access and an ability to search his depository of ideas and previous columns.

–He has recently started using the app Readwise and has imported old notes into it. He periodically browses the reservoir for ideas.

–Once he settles on an idea, he bangs it out, lets it sit a day or so and then publishes.

–He largely ignores readership data because there is so much randomness in clicks. He argues that 90% of what makes a post go viral is luck. “It’s easy to mislead yourself if you dig too deep into the data.”

Despite his claim not to have a formula, there is an unmistakable Houselian cadence. (One phrase that appears a lot: “Many things are like that.”)

Housel often starts with an anecdote about the discovery of penicillin or Ernest Shackleton’s shipwreck or President James Garfield’s death that creates a bit of mystery.

He knows the reader is wondering – how does this relate to money? He says the hook has to be compelling, but fast because people won’t wait long.

Morgan’s work is relatable and accessible, yet deeply insightful. Practically everything he writes is something that I share with others.

Here’s Housel in his own words describing his process:

“When I start writing an article or a book, I have no idea where it’s going to go.” Moreover: “I don’t even know all of the insights or takeaways that’ll be in the article. The process of writing is how I learn.

Housel differs from most advice you get on social media these days which stresses rigid formats. He says:

“If you’re a storyteller or an artist, you just got to run free and go wherever it goes. I spend a lot of time reading, thinking, writing, talking to people, but it’s not formalized at all.

“The more you try to formalize and put a structure behind art, the worse it’s going to get.”