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Deep Dive with Ali AbdaalHow To Build A 1.5 Million Following Online As A Writer - The Cultural Tutor
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From law degree to anonymous Twitter phenomenon: what this conversation will cover
Ali frames the central question: how Sheehan Quirke went from financial desperation and a McDonald’s job to building a massive online audience as an anonymous writer. Sheehan sets the tone by describing the internet as both harsh and helpful, and the importance of standing by what you publish.
- •Ali introduces Sheehan’s anonymous persona, @TheCulturalTutor, and the scale of his following
- •Sheehan describes the internet as “beautiful” but quick to call out mistakes
- •Ali previews the focus: backstory, growth strategies, and writing process
- •Sheehan emphasizes publishing work you can genuinely stand by
Wanting to be a writer for 15 years: early ambition, law school, and relentless rejection
Sheehan explains that writing was a daily habit since childhood, even though he studied law and never wanted to become a lawyer. He recounts years of trying to get published and pitching ideas, receiving hundreds of rejections, and realizing he’d been waiting for someone else to “grant” him success.
- •Sheehan describes writing daily from around age 10 and keeping early stories
- •He explains choosing law for academic interest, not as a career goal
- •He recounts sending work to agents and publications and being repeatedly rejected
- •He reflects on feeling entitled to success and expecting someone to “discover” him
McDonald’s maintenance shifts and the “Mulan moment” that forced a life change
After graduating, Sheehan takes whatever work he can get to pay rent, landing a McDonald’s maintenance role with early mornings and physical labor. He describes the emotional low point—days feeling like something to “get through”—and the turning-point moment that made him quit and commit fully to making a living through writing.
- •Sheehan describes taking a McDonald’s job out of necessity and doing maintenance and cleaning work
- •He emphasizes dignity in honest work while admitting he wasn’t excited about life
- •A specific trigger: missing a friends’ reunion because of a shift
- •He quits with no financial safety net and decides to “throw everything at the wall”
Experimenting to survive: listicles, tutoring attempts, and discovering what people actually wanted
Sheehan details a scramble of different options—listicles, the army, film school, tutoring—driven by the need for flexibility and income. Cultural tutoring becomes the initial concept, but Twitter unexpectedly reveals that people were more interested in his writing than in buying tutoring services.
- •He tries multiple paths (listicles, army, film school) while seeking flexible income
- •He attempts law tutoring with little response, then pivots to “cultural tutoring”
- •He builds a simple website and looks for a way to drive traffic
- •Twitter starts as marketing, but the writing gains traction even when tutoring doesn’t
Creating an alter ego: why “The Cultural Tutor” worked (and how he handled credibility fears)
Ali asks why Sheehan used a pseudonym and whether imposter syndrome was a barrier. Sheehan explains the name was initially literal and “authoritative,” and that anonymity made it feel like adopting a symbol—while the real credibility test would be audience response and feedback.
- •Sheehan says the name was a straightforward description of “cultural tutoring,” not a planned anonymity strategy
- •He describes the persona as an alter ego that made the work feel more authoritative
- •He argues credibility should be tested by publishing and letting others respond
- •He describes using criticism as a fast feedback loop to research and improve
The early Twitter grind: daily threads, cold outreach, and manufacturing momentum
Sheehan breaks down how he got his first followers through deliberate, time-consuming outreach: asking friends, following relevant accounts, messaging creators, and even DMing individual engagers. He describes treating it like “do or die,” believing it had to work, and using intensity to push through exhaustion.
- •He commits to writing threads daily (initially even multiple per day) for a set trial period
- •He searches for niche-adjacent accounts, follows their communities, and reaches out for advice
- •He describes staying up late DMing people who engaged with prior posts to drive repeat attention
- •He stresses the mindset shift: acting like it must work changes how much effort you give
The breakout thread and “critical mass”: from thousands to ~100,000 followers in weeks
After a series of small wins and many misses, Sheehan hits a viral moment with a thread on minimalist design and detail. The resulting surge gives him enough distribution to be less dependent on the algorithm, and he continues posting daily while building a newsletter alongside the account.
- •He recounts early milestone threads (hundreds to thousands of likes) and emotional swings
- •A “modern architecture” thread tied to a disliked light switch becomes a major hit
- •A later thread on minimalist design and the “death of detail” goes massively viral
- •He describes the surge as creating “critical mass” and continues with one thread per day plus a newsletter
Being supported to keep writing: patronage, attention, and not monetizing too early
Sheehan explains how David Perell reached out during the growth spike and offered financial support with essentially one expectation: keep writing. He describes this as modern patronage, allowing him to stay focused on creating for a broad audience rather than immediately shifting into monetization mode.
- •Sheehan says he planned to monetize his newsletter but got a supportive outreach instead
- •He describes an arrangement where he’s financially supported with no promotional requirements
- •He argues writers don’t need much materially—just enough to live and keep working
- •He frames the support as generosity and belief rather than a transactional deal
Why his writing resonated: different inputs, apolitical beauty, and “timeline refresh” value
Sheehan offers reasons the account grew beyond sheer effort: he wasn’t reading what everyone else was reading, and his content offered a break from anger, politics, and empty scrolling. He positions culture, art, and history as meaningful, uplifting subject matter that felt rare in people’s feeds.
- •He says reading older works helps avoid thinking and writing like everyone else
- •He critiques common internet content as divisive or empty, optimized for attention and ads
- •He describes his topics as apolitical, meaningful, and “uplifting,” which audiences noticed
- •He points to audience reactions like “timeline refresh” as evidence of the niche value
Never running out of ideas: looking harder, reading books, and turning knowledge into understanding
Ali asks how Sheehan can write an “essay” every day across many topics without running dry. Sheehan says ideas are infinite if you open your eyes and interrogate what you notice, then deepen it through reading—especially books—until you can form connections that create stories, not just facts.
- •He argues you can’t run out of things to write about if you observe the world closely
- •He gives an example of writing sparked by noticing how trees changed a street’s feel
- •He emphasizes books as the main source of material, with the internet as a supplement
- •He distinguishes “knowledge” from “understanding,” where connections create richer writing
Hooks, clickbait, and the business–art tension: optimizing without killing the spark
Ali explores the push-pull between creativity and optimization—titles, hooks, and performance incentives. Sheehan admits he uses attention tactics sometimes, but says writing for engagement alone usually produces worse work and worse feelings, and warns that too much optimization can squeeze out the unpredictable spark.
- •Sheehan agrees great titles and openings can make the writing flow, but rejects outsourcing the core idea
- •He says he avoids rigid schedules and writes from daily inspiration to keep the work alive
- •He acknowledges “clickbait” is acceptable if the substance delivers real value
- •He warns over-optimization and overscheduling can “optimize the spark out of existence”
A day in the life of The Cultural Tutor: night work, solitude, uniforms, and chasing inspiration
Sheehan describes an unconventional routine: working late into the night, waking in the afternoon, and using walks to let ideas emerge before writing intensely in long bursts. He prefers solitude, treats formal clothing as a work “uniform,” and measures success by writing at least one truly good sentence.
- •He works at night for quiet and fewer messages, often sleeping very late
- •He describes a simple routine: cold shower, dress formally, walk until ideas form
- •He writes in intense bursts at home, revising repeatedly before posting and then disengaging
- •He describes the creative life as alternating misery and joy, aiming for “one good sentence” daily
Meaning, happiness, and relationships: success is fragile, life is the point, and the middle way
The conversation shifts from tactics to meaning: Sheehan says follower counts and success can vanish, so happiness can’t rest on them. They discuss trade-offs of creative obsession—health, friendships, relationships—and Sheehan lands on gratitude for being alive, while still wrestling with the cost of saying no.
- •Sheehan says the writing career isn’t the ultimate source of happiness; success can disappear quickly
- •He describes grounding happiness in gratitude for basic lived experience (seeing, walking, water, food, shelter)
- •Ali contrasts “base instincts” (work and security) with values-based choices (time with loved ones)
- •Sheehan emphasizes the “middle way,” balancing creation with life, while admitting the tension is real
What’s next: turning daily threads into a book (and why audiences change everything)
Sheehan shares that he’s working on a book proposal to distill and improve what he’s written online into a single, definitive work. He notes the irony that after years of rejection, interest in a book now comes because he has an audience—then he and Ali discuss deadlines, focus, and how there’s no single formula for creators.
- •Sheehan announces he’s working on a book proposal built from his cultural writing
- •He observes that publishers’ interest is driven by the existence of an audience and proven reach
- •Ali shares how long book writing can take, and they discuss deadlines and focus
- •Sheehan reiterates there’s no one “right” method—structure and chaos can both produce great work
Publisher timestamps
- 0:00Intro
- 1:20Sheehan’s backstory
- 17:17The power of writing onlineRead this chapter
- 30:36Building a following on TwitterRead this chapter
- 43:14Growing The Cultural Tutor page
- 58:39The research and writing processRead this chapter
- 1:08:49The tension between business and art
- 1:28:26Sheehan’s writing process
- 1:45:25Leading a meaningful lifeRead this chapter
