Dan Loeb and Ray Dalio swear by the Warren Buffett-obsessed blogger who's Wall Street's biggest influencer

Mikhail Goldenkov/Strelka Institute/Flickr

• Wall Street's biggest influencer, Shane Parrish, is a blogger from Canada with an affinity for Warren Buffett.
• Hedge fund billionaire Dan Loeb is a fan, as is Bridgewater's Ray Dalio.
• The blog focuses on personal betterment and emphasizes reading regularly and mindfulness.

From fitness models to mommy bloggers, social media is awash with influencers touting millions of followers and big brand connections.

But for financiers seeking an edge, a seemingly humble blog has become a mecca for the world's biggest money managers. Shane Parrish, a former intelligence official from Canada, is changing the landscape for how big financial players get ahead. An unashamed Warren Buffett devotee - his blog Farnham Street is named after Berkshire Hathaway's address in Omaha - Parrish, 39, has concluded that even as algorithmic trading and big data dominate finance, self-improvement remains important to Wall Street.

And billionaire investors agree.

Around 80% of Parrish's readers are financiers, with 190,000 people signed up to his weekly Brain Food newsletter. Third Point's Dan Loeb is a fan and Bridgewater's Ray Dalio recently did a podcast with him. In some instances, Parrish has been hired as a personal decision-making coach to financiers.

The blog focuses on personal betterment and emphasizes reading regularly and mindfulness. The tagline? "Upgrade yourself."

"These guys are driven to get that incremental edge - they are competitive, gladiatorial in that respect," Parrish said in an interview with the New York Times. "We are trying to get people to ask themselves better questions and reflect. If you can do that, you will be better able to handle the speed and variety of changing environments."

Wall Street's obsession with gaining a competitive edge has driven big data and machine learning to the forefront of the industry. But, as Parrish's success has demonstrated, sometimes the biggest change comes from within.

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