A row of workshops through time, cut open with people at work: a flint knapper, a potter, a smithy, masons at a cathedral, a printing press, a machine shop, an aircraft factory, a laboratory, and Starship in its assembly building
The history of building as one landscape, from a standing stone and a campfire through a pyramid, a cathedral, a watermill, a steam train and a steel mill, to Starship lifting off beside a garden city
A future city on a coast: towers planted with gardens, a tram on a viaduct, terraced orchards, a harbour, and airships in the sky
About Explorist

Progress is not inevitable. It is built.

Explorist is a media studio that tells stories of people building a better future, working from the primary sources they left behind.

What we believe

We’re optimists. We show our work.

  1. Progress is built.

    In 1965 Berkshire Hathaway was a failing New England textile company, and a share cost about $18. At the end of 2024 one cost $680,920. None of that happened by itself.

  2. Optimism has to be earned.

    Falcon 1 failed three times in a row, and SpaceX had money for one more try. The fourth reached orbit in September 2008. We tell the failures too, because they make the rest believable.

  3. Societies build what they admire.

    Progress is limited by how much people want it. We tell stories of people who built the future so that more people will.

  4. The future can be far better.

    Extraordinary progress has happened before, much of it within living memory. We think the biggest part is still ahead, and that it is as much yours to build as anyone’s.

How we make things

We find the story first, then pick the medium.

A story might become a book, a chart, a poster, a podcast or a website, or several of those at once. Each one has to do something the others can’t. Here is how it went with Berkshire.

  1. 1

    Choose a story.

    We look for stories that are overlooked or scattered, and worth the trouble of telling properly.

    For BerkshireWarren Buffett’s letters to his shareholders: sixty years of one man’s thinking, written down as it happened.

  2. 2

    Decide what people should understand and feel.

    Both matter. Facts without feeling are homework.

    For BerkshireHow Buffett thought, in his own words, and what sixty years of compounding looks like.

  3. 3

    Choose the strongest medium, or a mix.

    Books go deep, charts show scale at a glance, audio carries a voice. Each format has to earn its place.

    For BerkshireA hardcover for depth, a chart for scale, and a free online archive at berkshireletters.com for anyone who wants to search it.

  4. 4

    Make something worth keeping.

    Something you reread, hang on a wall, or hand to someone else.

    For BerkshireAll sixty letters in one hardcover of 968 pages. Yes, it’s heavy.

Who makes it

Max Olson

Explorist is Max’s studio. He started it in 2013 to publish Warren Buffett’s letters, and Buffett’s letter for that year told shareholders he found the book’s index “particularly useful” (still our best review). He also writes about business, technology, design and investing at FutureBlind.