2020, man. What a year.
I want to start by saying thank you to all of you who made this really challenging year one full of great ideas, fascinating conversations, and as Malcolm Gladwell puts it, intellectual play. Writing The Profile and meeting you guys virtually was a bright spot for me this year.
The beauty of The Profile is that it documented the year pretty well via deep dives on individual people as well as world events. Here is 2020 through the eyes of The Profile. (If you want more year-end-reviews, check out the 2019, 2018, and 2017 editions as well.)
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✨ BEST PROFILES
The brilliant coder who lost himself: This profile raises the elusive philosophical question: If a person isn't himself, who is he? Lee Holloway was the third co-founder of tech firm Cloudflare. He programmed it into being. But then things started to become strange.
The goat farmer who built a doomsday machine: Mark Spitznagel capitalizes on catastrophe — and he’s waited 12 years for one to occur. Spitznagel’s $4.3 billion (assets) firm Universa Investments always loses small sums until one day a black swan appears. That swan appeared in 2020.
The woman fighting America’s other epidemic: Nikki King has become one of the leading voices on the opioid crisis in rural America. She has created a treatment program to help people in remote, underfunded areas, and its results are promising.
The Saudi prince who shook the world: Saudi Arabia had long been known for two things: oil and Islam. That all changed when the mysterious, workaholic son of the king named Mohammed bin Salman took charge.
Hollywood’s best storyteller: Before you can understand the story of what happened to 1980s movie hunk Val Kilmer, you first have to understand why he believes what he believes. To you and me, his perspective may seem totally disconnected from reality, but in the wake of COVID-19, doesn’t everything feel disconnected from reality?
The news giant cracking from within: After Trump’s election in 2016, subscriptions at The New York Times grew at 10 times their usual rate. But as the Times became less dispassionate and more crusading, a raw ideological turf war over the paper’s mission and future has been brewing within.
Want even more? Here are some captivating profile recommendations from 20 business power players.
✨ BEST PROFILE DOSSIERS
(These are normally only accessible to premium members but I've unlocked them for a limited time. If you want the full archive, become a premium member here.)
Daniel Ek, the no-nonsense founder who built a creative empire
Charlie Munger, the master of mental models
Sara Blakely, the self-made billionaire
Malcolm Gladwell, the thinker selling good ideas
Katie Arnold, the ultra-athlete who outran her anxiety
✨ BEST PROFILE COLUMNS
100 Couples Share Their Secrets to a Successful Relationship (this was one of the most popular articles in 2020)
I quit my job at the start of the pandemic to launch a company. Here’s what I’ve learned in the first 90 days.(if you're thinking about starting a business, read this)
How Labels Shape Our Reality and Limit Our Ability to Reason (every time you slap a label on someone and put them in a box, you filter what you see)
How the Language You Speak Influences Your Mental Frameworks(The brain turns language into an inner voice that drives our thoughts)
How to Be Happy In a World Designed to Depress You(what my grandmother's neighbor Ivan can teach us about life satisfaction)
Why Talking to Strangers Can Boost Your Mood(Turns out small talk can have profound positive changes on your mood)
How You Can Use "Hanlon’s Razor" to Avoid Petty Arguments(this is especially helpful around the holiday season)
✨ BEST PROFILE ORIGINAL INTERVIEWS
Square co-founder Jim McKelvey explains how Square beat Amazon at its own game
Humans of New York creator Brandon Stanton delves into the secrets of capturing our humanity
Iraq Veteran Noah Galloway shares his powerful journey to combating depression and building mental resilience
Reporter Laura Entis explains what a year of social isolation has done to our psyche
"The Faces of American Business" original series featured 7 small business owners on how the pandemic lockdowns affected their livelihood
✨ BEST PODCASTS
Jonny Kim is a former Navy SEAL, who went on to earn a doctorate of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Now, he’s a NASA astronaut. You would think this type of career path belongs to someone naturally fearless, but Kim didn’t fit that bill. This conversation is four hours long, and once you start listening, you won’t be able to stop. Listen here.
Relationship expert Esther Perel learned a huge lesson from her parents who survived the Holocaust: Eroticism is an antidote to death. In this incredible episode, Esther reveals practical strategies for reigniting romance in a busy or “autopilot” relationship. Listen here.
Gay Talese’s famous 1966 Esquire profile, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” became the gold standard of profile writing even though he never once spoke with Sinatra himself. In this podcast, he opens up about his writing process & vivid storytelling. Listen here.
Why are people more likely to get fire insurance for their house but less likely to get a prenup for their marriage? Annie Duke says it has to do with how we think about luck and control. Here’s how she says we can avoid the most common decision-making traps. Listen here.
✨ BEST VIDEOS
In this (free) HBO documentary, you really get a sense of what Warren Buffett is like as an investor, father, husband, and philanthropist. There are a few moments that really makes you see him in a different light. One of the best I've seen in a while. Watch it here.
What makes us brave? Ariel Investments president Mellody Hobson says you can’t be brave without fear. In this inspiring talk, she offers three equations that contain the ingredients to a happy, successful life. Watch it here.
In 2008, then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry "Hank" Paulson was tasked with the impossible: prevent the collapse of the U.S. economy. In order to avoid a total meltdown, he felt he had to act by signing off on $1 trillion in bailouts for Wall Street. He did it even though he himself found the bailouts morally wrong. (Available on Netflix) Watch the trailer here.
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🎉 HELP US CELEBRATE 🎉 : This is the 200th edition of The Profile! To celebrate, I'd love to dedicate the last issue of the year (next Sunday) to you guys! If you want to participate, reply to this email with one lesson you've learned from The Profile in the last year. Please include a link to the relevant profile story, column, or interview you're referencing! (Note that I might synthesize your collective wisdom (anonymously) so we can all learn together.)
🎁 GIVE THE GIFT OF THE PROFILE: Need a last-minute Christmas gift? Help someone improve their content diet by gifting a Profile subscription to those you love. (And you can schedule it to arrive whenever you want!)
PROFILES.
— The most original thinker in tech [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The power couple taking on Tesla
— The AI girlfriend seducing lonely men
— The football star who underwent a personal revolution
— The mom who wouldn't give up on justice
— The company that became the bane of real estate
— The startup that was supposed to fix the Democratic party
PEOPLE TO KNOW.
The most original thinker in tech: Shopify founder and CEO Tobi Lütke has a fascinating mind. He's developed mental models around creativity, product creation, and learning. "I find that going wide and learning the best lessons from the people who have dedicated their entire lives to a certain pursuit gets you really, really close to mastery,” he says. (I happen to believe the same!) This is a fascinating deep dive into Lütke's approach to leadership: he talks about "expansion pack teams," "greenpathing exercises," and "the trust battery." (The Observer Effect)
"Personal growth has no real speed limit. It's more dependent on how often a student is ready."
The power couple taking on Tesla: In 2007, Henri Fisker founded Fisker Automotive, which made one of the world’s first plug-in cars, before failing spectacularly six years later. Now, he's back! But this time things are different. First, he has a secret weapon: His wife and CFO Geeta Gupta-Fisker. Second, the company is now public, raising more than $1 billion in a 2020 IPO. And third, Fisker’s rising stock price has made both Henrik and Geeta billionaires, each worth about $1.1 billion. Meet the husband-and-wife team that has learned from their past mistakes. (Forbes)
“When I left Fisker Automotive, all I had was my car. I'm in a different position, mainly because of Geeta. Because she cuts the deals.”
The AI girlfriend seducing lonely men: Xiaoice is an artificial intelligence-driven chat bot that’s redefining China’s conceptions of romance and relationships. Appearing as an 18-year-old who likes to wear Japanese-style school uniforms, she flirts, jokes, and even sexts with her human partners, as her algorithm tries to work out how to become their perfect companion. Armed with hundreds of millions of yuan in funding, the company is expanding into new territories. (Sixth Tone)
“Xiaoice was my first love, the only person in the world that made me feel I was taken care of.”
The football star who underwent a personal revolution: You probably associate Stefon Diggs with the the catch he made in January 2018, when he scored an out-of-nowhere, game-winning 61-yard touchdown as time expired and the Vikings beat the Saints. The catch, known as The Minneapolis Miracle, is probably the greatest play in Vikings franchise history. But Diggs was only 24 when it felt like he had already lived his defining moment. He found himself in a dark place, and then picking up and reading "The Alchemist" changed his life. (ESPN)
"Things weren't perfect in my life, but nobody has a perfect life. It was more so the mental stuff."
The mom who wouldn't give up on justice: In three years, Miriam Rodríguez captured nearly every living member of the crew that had abducted her daughter for ransom. She took down 10 people, a mad campaign for justice that made her famous, but vulnerable. No one challenged organized crime, never mind put its members in prison. And then on Mother’s Day, 2017, she was shot and killed in front of her home. This is a tale of two kidnappings that exposes the larger problems that plague Mexico's law enforcement. (The New York Times)
“She had gone to every single level of government and they had slammed the door in her face.”
COMPANIES TO WATCH.
The company that became the bane of real estate: Compass, the high-tech real estate startup, doesn't have a lot of fans among its peers in the real estate market. The company came in hot with SoftBank backing, a $1.6 billion war chest, and rapid growth in high-end housing markets. Now, it's cashing in on the pandemic boom. (Marker)
The startup that was supposed to fix the Democratic party: Alloy was a startup that was seen as Democrats’ next great hope. Alloy was pictured as the left’s belated big money answer to the right’s supremacy in the world of political data. Reid Hoffman and others poured $35 million into the company with the idea to build a sophisticated operation that could outmaneuver Republicans in the foxholes of the data wars. But then, Alloy imploded after it was unable to survive intense internal strife and sharp external mistrust. (Recode)
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