Good morning, friends!

What I missed most about living in New York may come as a surprise: It was the random, tiny interactions I had with strangers on a daily basis.

Isn’t it weird that I missed … talking to strangers?

I had taken for granted the “weak ties” — the casual relationships with the people I encountered in the coffee shop, the bookstore, or in the elevator. When you live in the suburbs, you typically drive to an office and then back home. Random interactions with strangers become a rarity.

I was recently listening to a ‘Hidden Brain’ episode on this very topic, and I realized something profound: deep, meaningful relationships with friends and family are just as important as the weak, casual relationships with strangers. “Weak ties are what bring in surprise and unpredictability into your life,” says host Shankar Vedantam.

Psychologist Gillian Sandstrom told Vedantam that she’s visited new countries, learned new things, and joined a book club as a result of talking to strangers in her everyday life. “I’ve talked to freemasons, I’ve talked to someone who makes theatrical wigs, I’ve talked to children’s book authors,” she says. “I’ve just met all sorts really interesting people and had all sorts of interesting conversations.”

The pandemic plunged us into a deep drought of human contact, making us feel lonelier, more isolated, and emotionally drained. It tore apart the social fabric that made speaking to strangers a somewhat radical act.

But research supports that speaking to strangers has a subtle but significant effect on our happiness. It turns out that the seemingly trivial social encounters — chatting up a person in the elevator, making small talk with the Starbucks barista, or even just smiling at a passerby — can have profound positive changes in your mood

The weak social ties you develop also build community. The barista that knows your coffee order, the hair stylist who tells you about her summer plans, and the dentist you’ve known for 10 years — they’re all part of your own personal community.

People often talk about moving out of big cities to the suburbs in search of “community,” but ironically, it’s possible to accidentally isolate yourself by eliminating these micro-moments you have with strangers if you’re not intentional about seeking them out.

Weak ties bring surprise and novelty. You could learn something new or meet someone wildly fascinating. Remember, small talk doesn’t have to be empty talk. Those frequent opportunities for connection might actually be one of the most valuable parts of your day.

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THE PROFILE DOSSIER: On Wednesday, premium members received The Profile Dossier, a comprehensive deep-dive on a prominent individual. It featured Josh Waitzkin, the man who can master any craft. Read it below.

The Profile Dossier: Josh Waitzkin, the Man Who Can Master Any Craft Polina Pompliano · Sep 20 Read full story

PROFILES.

— The parents of Sam Bankman-Fried [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— Airbnb’s official party pooper
— The business owner accused of human trafficking
— The 20-year-old superstar leveling up
— The group that created a fake cricket league
— The grocery delivery startup that turned a profit

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The parents of Sam Bankman-Fried: Both parents of FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried have distinguished careers that long precede their son’s alleged fraud. They met in the 1980s at Stanford University, where they taught at the law school for more than three decades, living on campus and raising two sons. His father, Joseph Bankman, an expert on taxes, is renowned for his work making the US tax code friendlier to lower-income citizens. His mother, Barbara Fried, an authority on legal ethics, was prominent in progressive political circles. Just how much did they enable the crypto empire? (Bloomberg; Complimentary link provided but reply to this email if you can’t access the article)

“I think Joe wanted to help his son, and he got caught in the quandary of what was happening. You want to think the absolute best of your kids.”

Airbnb’s official party pooper: Naba Banerjee is a proud party pooper. As the person in charge of Airbnb's worldwide ban on parties, she's spent more than three years figuring out how to battle party "collusion" by users, flag "repeat party houses" and, most of all, design an anti-party AI system with enough training data to halt high-risk reservations before the offender even gets to the checkout page. As a result, there was a global 55% drop in parties reported on Airbnb between August 2020 and August 2022. Meet the killer of the classic Airbnb rowdy party. (CNBC)

"Being a mother of teenagers and seeing teenage friends of my kids, your antenna is especially sharp and you have a radar for, 'Oh my God, okay, this is a party about to happen.'"

The business owner accused of human trafficking: Marie Eiffel, a bawdy Frenchwoman who owns Marie Eiffel Market located in Shelter Island in New York, is a peculiar character. Regular customers couldn’t help notice her habit of screaming at young employees and making sexual remarks to customers, but they were nearly all surprised when she was sued for human trafficking. (New York Magazine)

“I like to see people crying because that means they’re having a breakthrough.”

The 20-year-old superstar leveling up: Olivia Rodrigo, the artist who captured America’s attention by singing “I’m so sick of 17/Where’s my fucking teenage dream?” is now a fully-fledged adult. She recently became a New Yorker, buying an apartment in Greenwich Village). In February, she’ll turn 21. “The thought of being able to sit down in a bar and talk to people you’ve never met sounds like the best time,” she says. And she now has a new album all about those moments of newfound freedom. (Rolling Stone)

The group that created a fake cricket league: With an audacious sense of ambition, an Indian villager created—and broadcast!—a rigged cricket league to rip off online bettors. It looked small-time, but something bigger was going on. What a crazy story. (Sports Illustrated)

“I have the feeling I’ve been cheated. Duped.”

COMPANIES TO WATCH.

The grocery delivery startup that turned a profit: As Instacart prepared to make its debut on the public markets, one thing was clear: it is a markedly different company today than when it was founded. Envisioned in 2012 as a service that matched people at home with contract workers who would shop for them and deliver groceries, it has increasingly focused on advertising and software products as its delivery business has slowed. Last month, Instacart revealed that the ads and software sales had allowed it to do what skeptics considered impossible — turn a profit. Instacart shows that one way for a historically unprofitable gig business to get to the public markets is to diversify into more lucrative areas and move away from its gig-economy roots. (NYT; Complimentary link above, but reply to this email if you can’t access the article)

“The belief was if we reached enough scale, there would be an interesting advertising business to be built.”

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