Art of Manliness is the GOAT

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I am not a read type of guy. I prefer to just watch YouTube all day. But when i wanted to know how to be a man, this website was shown to me, and the rest was history. This website’s name is Art of Manliness. I like the website name, straight to the point. As i scroll to the website, there are different types of content that points to being a man, like knowing how to dress, knowing how to chop wood, and knowing how to treat a lady. This website slowly begin to be part of my daily routine to traverse through and read insightful takes from the creator Brett and Kate Mckay. Their posts speaks to me heavily. This website should be explored by other men and see something that they can fix for themselves. They might change your life for good or atleast affirm their already formed lifestyle.

I highly suggest that you should look in to their website, and see for yourself what you are missing out on. In this post, i will give you what they are about and what i think of them. Hopefully they see this post someday and say that if you are reading this posts McKays, then thank you for making me a better person than before. Without further ado, Let’s get reading!


What is Art of Manliness?

Art of manliness is a website that provides manly articles that helps you too be manly, while also teaching you to be effective on your day to day task. They feature blog about being a man, positive manliness, being of service to the public, useful skills, and educational podcasts. They do not only post blogs, they also post Youtube videos(they used to do this, they now dont do it.), books, merchandise and podcasts.

They produce somewhere are 3 to 5 posts every week, and very structured mind you, since every week they post one for learning a skill, one for podcast, and one topic that they would like to tackle. And at the end of the week, the McKay’s will share their own discoveries or rather, the things that they been fond of this week and provide sources for them for us to discover.

They also did “Sunday Firesides” which is their own original works, an essay that gives nuggets of information to a variety of topic, like how to love, changing a bad mentality and be a vulnerable but secure human being.


Why i like Art of Manliness and why it is the GOAT website

Their message and belief is in congruence. Their posts and beliefs align, from the posts on being a good person and also them, being christians, is a good indicator that they are not to be swayed from their mission. They tackle a variety of topics, and they talk about vices too. But those vices are far and few between being a straight edge guy without any addiction abuse. The goal is to give a positive message for men that is barely seen since they have started AoM, and they still provide content up to this day. Also their advice is timeless and can be read even in the future and still hit you.

Lowkey teaches us about History. Brett signals a few times that he likes reading history, especially Theodore Roosevelt, and Jack London. He also posts about the history in ancient Greek and is heavily inspired from their works. And you know that books tend to have some anecdote sprinkled in every non fiction, Brett does this in his posts as well to deliver a story which relates to the topic at hand. Using history as a proof for a certain belief or hotspot of knowledge is certainly done before, and AoM uses History as an example, but also to teach us about the life before us.

Sends a Masculine message that is far better than the Self-Improvement niche are saying. I dont remember which came first, me discovering the self improvement youtube or me finding out Art of Manliness. But what sticked to me the most are the AoM posts. I am far more on youtube than AoM, so i am more prone to seeing general self improvement and some red pill contents. But Art of Manliness had captured my attention, my religious belief started to show again and my curiosity to create for myself and to own has come to my mind again. Compared to other contents out there, Brett digs deep to a topic that no to fee videos can. This literary form of medium can explain manliness harder and also, not belittling the other gender.

Useful website for all ages. Let’s say you are an adolescent, and wondering what you should do with your life. Art of Manliness can help you with that. An old man who wants to know about how cars work? They have a series on that. Do you want someone to lend you money? AoM cant lend you some, but they can teach you how to handle your bread. Since they have posts for learning a skill, you can read one post, and do it and tada! You know one. I highly advise you to read some posts there and maybe you can spot something that pique your interest to do, to learn, or just browse on instead of mindless content.

This website teaches you to become a Good Man. The main goal of AoM is to make us a better man. To be a good man is to be of service to others. To be useful to yourself and others. This website is going to teach you that, and others as well. Maybe your definition on being a good man is different, but maybe you need to look at other men and compare yourself on how they did their Manliness, and AoM can help you with that. A good man is good to his family, neighbours and his community. A good man is skilled as well. Art of Manliness will pretty much show you what you lack and will help you to it.

Awesome contents. If you haven’t realize it yet, im glazing AoM because they are the goat. Their content is good and you should read them! Here are a few favorite of mine:

Wide variety of manly topics. They produce a lot of blog posts every year, and ofcourse they will touch on different topics, whether it is manly or just being a human. Their topics range from working out, to being in control of your emotions, to the cultures of other ethnicities. They also write about the concrete, how to drive, how to tie your tie, and many more! Reading wide topics can boost your knowledge and start to be interested in other things as well. Maybe you thought of reading a book but you have no attention span for that. Reading their contents can start your journey to reading different topics altogether.

The Character posts are my favorite. Im just putting it here, i get the most bang for my buck when reading their “Character” category. Since im having more trouble on the mindset shift, like being calloused and resilient, having a undefeatable mindset, and learning to control your emotions. This category will explore how you think and maybe you can learn a thing or two here and maybe change you from being a stone hard guy who dont think of his emotion to, stone hard guy but understand his and others’ circumstances and feelings. Definitely check out the old posts since it’s mostly straight to the point content.

Great podcasts are here. Art of Manliness also incorporated podcasts to their website and it serves a book review of some sort. With their podcasts, there are various topics they have tackled and you might find something that will intrigue you. Like their posts, it talks about being a man, but most of the podcasts consist of mindset shifts, finance, and more on the character of oneself. Me personally, its alright. I listen to them once in a while if i have the time and if the title catched my attention. There are only few of the podcasts that i needed to hear.

May deliver itself as for Men only, but Others can use this too! Yes it is called “Art of MANliness” but ladies can read here too! If you have boyfriends and husbands, share them the website and maybe they can learn a thing or two from AoM. There was this passage that AoM wrote, something along the lines of “Manliness is not the opposite of Womanliness, it is the opposite of childliness”. And I agree. Men and Women are more alike than not. So if you are a woman who wants to read on it, you are welcome to do so! You are gonna learn a lot and maybe you can even teach something your man doesn’t know.


What i do not like about Art of Manliness

Dying Breed. This year, AoM started Dying Breed. A subscription based platform for written content i think. And they been pumping content in that site, also took Sunday Firesides there and that site focuses on non-manly topics. It’s like a general interest from them, since it cant be in AoM since it doesn’t fit in AoM, they made one for other topics. What i dont like from this move is it is in a pay wall… I dont like paying for content, or worse, subscription-based payments. In Dying Breed, readers can comment and interact with the McKays, since they paid and it is much smaller community and maybe easier to interact with everyone. For me, i just want them to post everything on Art of Manliness. But if they really have to, then i have no choice but to miss out on those sweet sweet contents.

Topics seem to be not as deep as before. Maybe I'm falling out of love. My life is busy, i barely open their site anymore, and it feels like i’ve read them all. With their new posts, personally, i feel like they are just putting content for the schedule’s sake. Maybe they have ran out of important topics to do, or it is just a human thing to have no great ideas from time to time and they have said all the things that need to be said. They have some interesting posts once in a while, but i dont know. Maybe it just takes time to craft a good posts and maybe the energy spent on making a good AoM blog is transferred to making Dying Breed.

Search engines are not as accurate. Searching something on Art of Manliness can be tricky. You have to remember the specific title and sometimes, a random post comes up. You have to bookmark the page you want to visit again since the search engine is not that good but it is workable. It’s a little complain for me, not that big deal but certainly need some upgrade.

Stopped posting on youtube and instagram. Maybe their youtube video “How to feel like a Man” introduced me to their website, but now, they dont post to their other social media, and the only thing active is their Facebook page, which i think is just a bot posting once a day. I like their content on youtube and instagram. Their youtube videos are a fun and quick videos while explaining straight to the point the message of their content and leave with you nuggets of information compared to the videos today that needs to be twenty minutes long and you have to skip through the part where they finished introducing their sponsor, and that’s where the solutions are. In their instagram, they post weekly Sunday Firesides and i like it to be updated since they could influence people there, but sadly they have stopped posting there too. The McKays did say that they do no like social media, and this could relate to their message that we should lower our screen time on mindless media. And i would be counterintuitive to be crunching content to please the youtube and instagram algorithm and be part of the cycle of stealing time from the consumers. It is a double edged sword for their part and clearly, they have chosen what their decision, but if i can have a say to it, i wish they atleast post their latest podcast on their youtube.

Not as consistent. I FEEL like they are not as consistent as before, and ofcourse, it is because of Dying Breed. In a week, they post somewhere around 3-5 posts. Every Sunday, they post Odds & Ends. but sometimes, they forgot to post it or maybe they have nothing to share that week. Sometimes in a few days, there are no new posts, or maybe it is hidden and not automatically updated on their front page. Sometimes they reupload the Skill of the Week. Maybe this is just because they have been doing this for a long time, but again, small nitpick,but you might notice it when you frequently visit the website.

Seems a bit more on western masculinity. Well, they are from North America so thats why. But most of their masculinity topics is more on Western and European type of masculinity, less on asian or other types, and maybe western philosophies have more to say on the matter, but still a few topics might be used.


Conclusion

Art of Manliness is a great website. It features a great amount of content that you will find interesting even if you don't consume men-related media. This post is just an appreciation for the work and the inspiration that Brett McKay gave me and other men to be a better person, a better man. And hopefully they still continue to inspire men and women, at least know that this website exist, and if they need to learn how to cook an egg or understand what masculinity is, this website got the answer.