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economics of the game kept poor teams from winning . . . while at the very same time this poor team
just down the road, the Oakland A’s, were winning lots of games. I wrote Moneyball—which I
originally conceived of as an article—to figure out what was going on.
Do you prefer writing books or articles?
I much prefer books because they give me the time to master my subject and test all my theories. I
have to be passionately involved with a subject to write a book, while I can write a magazine piece
about a topic I’m not particularly smitten with. But the agonies of actually writing a book are far
greater than anything I’ve ever experienced writing an article.
How many projects do you work on simultaneously?
Too many. At any given moment, I have at least four projects under way. I write short columns for
Bloomberg News or Slate. I’m usually working on a book. I write screenplays, none of which have
ever been produced (but which provides my family with health insurance by virtue of my membership
in the Screenwriters Guild). And I’m usually at some stage of one of the long articles I write for The
New York Times Magazine. I don’t know whether it is a character flaw, or just comes with the life of
a freelance writer.
Do you do most of your research before, during, or after your reporting?
I do most of my research while I’m reporting. For example, when I was reporting The New New
Thing, I spent three weeks at Stanford University reading their archive on every business and idea in
Silicon Valley since the early fifties. And when I was writing Liar’s Poker, I spent days in the
Princeton library reading all the business memoirs published in the last century in order to get a better
sense of the genre I was writing in. I didn’t actualy use any of the research in either case. But it gave
me a feeling of being grounded and confident. I don’t think any writer can write until he’s persuaded
himself— falsely or not—that he has an original view, that he has something worth saying.
Do you prefer to approach a subject as an outsider or an insider?
It’s always better if you can get an introduction, because I want them to think of me as something
other than “a reporter who wants a quote,” which is what most people assume when they’re
approached by a journalist.
How much do you tell a subject about your project?
The only way to develop these relationships of trust—especially since they are relationships of
trust that are partly unfounded, since I’m going to write anything I like—is to actually tell the person
what I’m thinking while I’m taking notes. I develop theories about their character or motives, which
are not always flattering. But I bounce the theories off them anyway. I’m not a cipher. I don’t make
myself a mystery to my subject.
For example, I wrote a profile of Harold Ickes, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, for The New York