Only the Weird Will Survive

Something is broken in the life of the modern man.

You probably already know this. You feel it in the friendships you don’t quite have, the leadership you haven’t quite stepped into, the creeping suspicion that the current is pulling your family somewhere you’d never choose to go.

Michael Perrone has a name for the problem: normal. In Only the Weird Will Survive, he argues that the part no election can do for you starts at home: the relationships, culture, and character a man builds with his family and the men around him. The men who will have real brotherhood, strong families, and something worth handing down are the ones willing to be weird: deliberately, visibly countercultural in how they live.

This book is a field guide, not a complaint. Its chapters are named for the roles men actually fill, and they show how to build brotherhood, family, and community on purpose, alongside other men. Personal. Urgent. Written for men who are done waiting.

Book details

About the Author

Michael Perrone

Writer. Latter-day Saint. Father of six. That’s how Michael Perrone describes himself on X. He writes Build The Village on Substack, about how men can build fraternity, community, and family, and he has talked about his work on a handful of podcasts.

He set out to write something, in his words, “different and helpful.” This revised edition is leaner and, as he puts it, denser, with “a lot more ideas and practical application.”

Paperback copies are ready to ship. You’ll receive a tracking number by email when your order is on its way.

Print Edition Specs

• Title: Only the Weird Will Survive
• Subtitle: A Field Guide for Men Seeking Identity and Purpose in the Twenty-First Century
• Author: Michael Perrone
• Edition: Revised October 2026
• Publisher: 40 North Press
• Published: October 15, 2026
• Format: Paperback
• Trim: 5.5″ × 8.125″
• ISBN-13: 979-8-9923010-2-1
• Language: English