Good morning, friends!
Do you ever read something you’ve written years ago and think back to the person you used to be then? The interests you had? The beliefs you held? The ideas you toyed with?
I just had a moment like that when I recently stumbled upon a whole bunch of old papers I wrote in my college criminology class.
One essay focused on Jeffrey Reiman’s “Pyrrhic Defeat Theory,” which suggests that the criminal justice system is intentionally designed to fail in the fight against crime while making it appear as though the poor are the real danger to society. Another tracks all the major changes that the United States correctional system has undergone in the last 50 years. A third argues that the death row system is designed to dehumanize a prisoner in such a way that it causes him to compliantly walk to his own death.
As I re-read the decade-old essays, I thought to myself, “Damn, college sophomore Polina had some good ideas.” It’s not that I don’t have good ideas anymore, but I can tell you that I haven’t thought about my views on Reiman’s “Pyrrhic Defeat Theory” in quite some time.
This brings me to another theory that I recently read about in David Brooks’s column called, A Commencement Address Too Honest to Deliver in Person. In something he calls the “theory of maximum taste,” Brooks says that each person’s mind is defined by its upper limit — the best content that it habitually consumes and is capable of consuming.
“This theory is based on the idea that exposure to genius has the power to expand your consciousness,” he writes. “If you spend a lot of time with genius, your mind will end up bigger and broader than if you spend your time only with run-of-the-mill stuff.”
In college, you’re forced into putting quality ideas into your brain. You get tough assignments, and you have to write essays in which you argue a point you may or may not agree with. After we leave college, however, many of us simply stop learning. We stop reading. We stop generating ideas. (Frankly, this is why the Profile Dossier exists.)
“We get caught up in stuff, settle for consuming Twitter and, frankly, journalism,” Brooks writes. “Our maximum taste shrinks. Have you ever noticed that 70 percent of the people you know are more boring at 30 than they were at 20?”
Think about this question for a second: Is the upper limit of your mind lower than it used to be in college? If you do an honest audit of your content consumption, you’ll find the answer. I tend to agree with Charlie Munger who says, “You have a moral duty to make yourself as un-ignorant and un-stupid as you can.”
Look around at the stuff you can’t ignore. Protests are raging across the country. The world is reeling from a global pandemic. Loved ones are losing their jobs and shuttering their businesses.
The college graduates of 2020 aren’t going to graduation ceremonies — they’re attending protests in their caps and gowns. Decades into the future, the 2020 graduating class will look back on this time and see chaos, uncertainty, and disorder.
But they might also see something really amazing, too: meaningful change. There’s no going back to what once was … there’s only forward. So right now is the time to stop reading garbage that further divides and polarizes us. Read the hard stuff that you haven’t wanted to face and the stuff that will make you confront some difficult truths.
Ideas are the lifeblood of human progress — and right now, we’re in desperate need of new ones.
—
THE PROFILE DOSSIER: On Wednesday, paying members received The Profile Dossier, a comprehensive deep-dive on a prominent individual. It featured Charlie Munger, the master of mental models and clear thinking. Become a Profile member to read Munger’s feature, and receive all future dossiers here.
*A WORD FROM OUR PARTNER*: Business Casual is the business podcast by Morning Brew that aims to make you smarter while making you laugh. Host Kinsey Grant interviews the biggest names in business about everything from how technology is changing the fitness industry to the economics of influencer marketing. Check it out here.
PROFILES.
— The 9-year-old chess prodigy [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The woman who has survived it all
— The master of personal reinvention
— Hollywood’s most beloved misfit
— The fake billionaire caught in a web of lies
— The podcaster taking over mainstream media
— The woman tasked with saving the subway
— The WeWork of weed
— The coffee chain that deceived the world
👉 If you enjoy reading The Profile, feel free to share it with friends!
PEOPLE TO KNOW.
The 9-year-old chess prodigy: Tani Adewumi and his family fled Nigeria and Boko Haram before settling in a homeless shelter in New York City. When Tani began second-grade, he learned the rules of chess for the first time and fell in love with the game. What his family didn’t know at the time is that Tani’s 8-year-old brain and its ability to think 20 moves ahead on an 8-by-8 chessboard was about to change the entire trajectory of their lives. (The New York Times)
"In chess, it doesn't matter if you're black or white; if you attack and defend well, you have an equal chance of winning -- and that's what's so beautiful about it."
The woman who has survived it all:When she was a teen, Marga Griesbach was sent to Stutthof concentration camp. There, she saw and endured unspeakable things. Out of her family — mother, father, and younger brother — only she and her mom Therese made it. Today, Marga is 92 years old. And in February, she left Washington State to take a cruise around the world. This is a story about resilience and the impossible strength of the human spirit. (New York Magazine)
“Normal is something elusive. It doesn’t exist.”
The master of personal reinvention:If you’re familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk, you know he’s all about hustling and grinding and crushing it. But he’s starting to change his tune and seek more balance. “I think that message got taken too far,” he says. The COVID-19 lockdown has given him time to reflect and re-prioritize his life. When he comes out of this, he wants to travel less and spend more time with his kids. He’s also working out and eating better. The point of it all, he says, isn’t success alone. It’s happiness. (Men’s Health)
“I still to this day believe hard work is foundational…but I’m empathetic to it. I could have done a better job to create more clarity about balance.
Hollywood’s most beloved misfit: At 62, Peter Buscemi has spent his career playing lunatics, weirdos, outcasts, and oddballs. The actor’s real life has also been quite intense — he’s been hit by a bus, hit by a car, and stabbed by a stranger in a bar. The biggest tragedy of his life, though, had nothing to do with those near-death experiences. He was crushed when his wife died last year. In this superb profile, Buscemi opens up about anxiety, loss, and what it takes to get through it all. (GQ)
“One of the things that I think a disaster brings out is that people really support each other and help each other.”
The fake billionaire caught in a web of lies: People lost their minds when Forbes put Kylie Jenner on the cover claiming she was set to be “the youngest-ever self-made billionaire.” Earlier this year, Jenner sold half of her cosmetics company to Coty for $600 million, which was said to value Kylie Cosmetics at $1.2 billion. But a new investigation reveals that Jenner has been inflating the size and success of her business for years and even creating tax returns that were likely forged. (Forbes)
“It’s fair to say that everything the Kardashian-Jenner family does is oversized. To stay on-brand, it needs to be bigger than it is.”
The podcaster taking over mainstream media: Joe Rogan just inked a $100 million licensing deal with Spotify. The former host of Fear Factor has built his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, into a media behemoth. How? By saying what he wants and not shying away from topics and perspectives that the mainstream press wouldn’t dare touch. “Podcasting is all freeballing,” he says. “It’s the opposite of polished. And because of that, it resonates.” (The New York Times)
“When you have something that can’t get canceled, you can be free.”
The woman tasked with saving the subway: New York City Transit interim president Sarah Feinberg is in charge of digging out New York City’s transit out of a disaster worse than anything anyone has seen before. There’s a saying in transit that you’re only as good as your last rush hour. But what does that mean when the very prospect of peak crowding is terrifying? Meet the woman doing damage control. (New York Magazine)
COMPANIES TO WATCH.
The WeWork of weed: In June 2018, MedMen was poised to become the Apple of pot. It was supposed to be the first mainstream, nationwide consumer brand for marijuana. But just a few months after its Abbot Kinney opening, it all began to unravel. The founders were accused of misdeeds ranging from manipulating MedMen’s stock price, to bank fraud, to seeking private intelligence groups to get dirt on their enemies. This one’s a doozy. (Politico)
“MedMen stands as a cautionary tale of American Wild West capitalism.”
The coffee chain that deceived the world: China’s Luckin Coffee was supposed to take on Starbucks. It opened stores at a blazing fast pace, doubled its valuation to $12 billion eight months after going public, and pleased its big-name U.S. investors. And then, it reported that many of its sales had been fabricated. This is a deep dive on the rise and fall of the once-promising coffee brand. (WSJ; reply to this email if you can’t access the story.)
“My style may have been too aggressive and the company may have grown too fast, which has led to many problems. But I by no means set out to deceive investors.”
This installment of The Profile is free for everyone. If you would like to get full access to all of the recommendations, including today’s audio and video sections, sign up below.
AUDIO TO HEAR.
Shishir Mehrotra on the most powerful idea in business: This is a masterclass on how to think about the bundling of products and why this is an idea more entrepreneurs should consider. Shishir Mehrotra, the founder of Coda, explains his “four myths of bundling,” and gives examples of some of the most interesting bundles he’s seen in business. This is a really clear and sharp conversation. (Link available to paying subscribers.)
Lori Gottlieb on developing emotional resilience: “How do we manage uncertainty gracefully?” That’s the question psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb answers in this podcast episode. When there’s uncertainty, she says, we try to fill in the blanks so we feel like we have more control. “Unfortunately, we don’t fill in the blanks with something positive,” Gottlieb adds. “We tend to fill in the blanks with something terrifying.” Here’s her prescription for living a less anxious life by writing more objective and accurate stories about reality. (Link available to paying subscribers.)
Cathy Engelbert’s career of firsts: The coronavirus pandemic has put professional sports on pause for the foreseeable future. Cathy Engelbert, the commissioner of the WNBA, just held the first-ever virtual draft. The league is putting in more effort to engage fans digitally during this time. “I do see some opportunity, but there are enormous challenges as well,” she says. (Link available to paying subscribers.)
VIDEOS TO SEE.
Travis Kling on Bitcoin’s role in a changing world: Travis Kling, the founder and chief investment officer at Ikigai Asset Management, talks about what’s going on with quantitative easing in the United States, the ramifications of increasing inflation, and what the future of Bitcoin holds. It’s a nuanced conversation in which Kling breaks down the trajectory of the American economy. (Link available to paying subscribers.)
Gary Vaynerchuk’s formula for happiness: This video pairs well with the Gary Vaynerchuk profile above. He discusses a mental framework for how to lead a happier life even in a time of so much chaos. A large factor for our misery, Vaynerchuk says, is that we make choices based on other people’s opinions and validation. “Living your life predicated on the judgement of somebody else is the greatest weakness of the human being,” he says. Watch this if you want to get pumped up about living life on your own terms. (Link available to paying subscribers.)
Denise Shull on playing (and winning) mental games: Denise Shull has a thesis she’s backed up by research: Every decision that you make is based on how you feel. Shull is a performance coach who uses neuroeconomics and modern psychoanalysis in her work with hedge funds and professional athletes. In this talk, Shull shatters the notion that you should keep emotion out of investing. (Link available to paying subscribers.)
Jeffrey Epstein’s world of deception: Jeffrey Epstein was accused of having a sexual abuse pyramid scheme that recruited underage girls to come to his mansion in Palm Beach, Fla. This documentary delves into Epstein’s mysterious world and explains how he used his power and charisma to manipulate women, business partners, and the American legal system. (Link available to paying subscribers.)
Members receive the best longform article, audio, and video recommendations every Sunday. Join the club by signing up below:
