About Faster Than Normal
I'm Alex Brogan, and I built Faster Than Normal because I couldn't find what I was looking for anywhere else.
I kept noticing the same pattern: the most consequential founders in history were voracious students of other founders. They built personal libraries of pattern recognition over decades of reading biographies, case studies, and competitive analyses. I wanted to compress that into something more useful — something structured, searchable, and built for people who actually run things.
I spent years reading and distilling what I found into a weekly newsletter, now read by 70,000+ founders, operators, and investors. This platform is what happened when the material outgrew the format — hundreds of books' worth of research, organized not as summaries but as structured playbooks you can actually apply.
Today the library includes 350+ leadership playbooks, 380+ company analyses, and an interconnected collection of mental models, strategic frameworks, and decision tools — all cited to their source material and searchable across the full archive.
“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.”
That quote captures why I do this. The people and companies I research weren't born with some secret advantage. They studied what came before them, found the patterns, and applied them relentlessly. I want to make that process faster for you.
How I structure the research
Every person and company in the library follows a three-part Playbook format I developed — not chapter-by-chapter summaries, but synthesis across multiple sources into a structure built for operators:
Part I: The Story
A thematic narrative — not a chronological biography. Organized around strategic eras, inflection points, and the decisions that defined the subject.
Part II: The Playbook
8–12 named principles and mental models extracted from the subject's career. Each includes analysis, evidence, and an actionable tactic you can apply.
Part III: Quotes & Maxims (people) / Business Breakdown (companies)
For people: the defining quotes and distilled one-line maxims. For companies: revenue model, competitive position, moat analysis, flywheel, growth drivers, and key risks.
Beyond playbooks, I've also built four research collections:
Business Models
How the world's most successful companies make money. Each profile covers the core mechanics, example companies, and key dynamics of a distinct business model.
Strategic Frameworks
Proven strategic concepts for analyzing markets, competition, and growth. Each framework explains the concept, when to apply it, and how to put it into practice.
Mental Models
Thinking tools for better judgment and decision-making, drawn from the practices of great investors and operators. Each model includes its category, source, and depth-to-apply rating.
Decision Tools
Structured methods for making better decisions under uncertainty. Organized across categories like framing, evaluating options, stress-testing, and prioritization.
What I care about editorially
Synthesis, not summaries. I cross-reference dozens of sources per subject to surface the patterns, principles, and decisions that actually mattered — then structure them for practical use.
Every claim has a source. The search tool cites the original playbook material behind every answer. If it can't be traced back to researched content, it doesn't get said.
Built for operators. I structure every playbook, mental model, and decision tool around one question: how do you apply this? Theory matters when it changes what you do.
The whole picture in one place. People, companies, business models, frameworks, mental models, and decision tools — connected and searchable. Cross-domain knowledge that used to take years of reading.
How I built this
I built the library with human editorial control and AI-assisted research. Structure, taxonomy, source selection, and final approval are all mine. AI helps with fact extraction and drafting, but every playbook is reviewed and edited before it goes live.
What readers say
“I admire your work, Alex.”
“I really enjoy your newsletter, thought-provoking always stimulates my thinking.”
“Big fan of your writing. I’d love to interview you for my blog and get your perspectives and lessons.”
“Huge fan and supporter, reach out anytime I can be helpful to you (I’m a longtime CMO and CEO here in Silicon Valley)”
“Loved the Anna Wintour Newsletter — I ended up watching and reading most of the links — thank you for making my weekend super interesting!”
Start here
Pick a person or company you're curious about. Or ask the library a question and see what comes back.