My dad was 24 years old when I was born.

He told me that he remembers looking at me as a newborn wondering, "You are so little. What will you go on to do in this world?" (I'm sure that writing a weekly email newsletter wasn't exactly on his radar in 1991, but here we are.)

Over the years, he's taught me a lesson that I only recently internalized: Recognize the difference between well-meaning but inadequate actions and straight up malicious intent.

When he was teaching me to ride a bike, he would hold my seat. When he saw I was getting the hang of it, he let go, so I panicked and crashed it into a parked truck. I got mad at him because I assumed it was his fault that I crashed.

When he was teaching me to drive a car, he sat in the passenger seat telling me about the importance of being an alert driver when I saw a massive bee on the windshield. I got distracted, panicked, pressed the gas going downhill, and crashed his car straight into a tree. He didn't get mad at me because he knew that even though it was my fault we crashed, I (obviously) didn't do it on purpose.

My dad probably wasn't aware of it at the time, but he was teaching me a mental model known as “Hanlon’s Razor.” It goes like this: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by neglect or ignorance.” In other words, when someone makes a mistake, it’s possible they’re simply clumsy, careless, inarticulate, or, well, they happened to see an abnormally large bee on the windshield. "Malicious intent," on the other hand, implies the person willfully or intentionally wanted to inflict harm. (Read more about Hanlon's Razor here.)

I used to take things very personally, over-think, over-analyze, and get upset over the tiniest of comments that I could interpret as offensive. As I've gotten older, I've learned that many of us see the world through a distorted lens of insecurity. If you're worried about losing your job, every offhand remark your co-worker makes in front of your boss will make you think he's trying to get you fired. Is he actually an evil person with a hidden agenda or have you written him that way into your personal narrative?

If you assume people around you are acting out of malice, it can shut down all possible communication. "People are quick to accuse corporations, politicians, their bosses, employees, coffee shop workers and even family of trying to derail them," writes Shane Parrish. "When someone messes up around us, we forget how many times we, too, have done the same." In other words, you obsess over the time your dad let go of the bike seat, but forget about the time you crashed his car because you weren't paying attention.

The best advice my dad has ever given me is to approach my life, my work, and my relationships with good intent. It's changed my life in that I've shifted my mindset from blaming others to focusing on my own actions. Malicious or not, I no longer internalize other people's actions nor do I judge how they choose to lead their lives.

In honor of Father's Day, I wanted to thank my dad for never telling me what to think, but instead, teaching me how to think. Whenever I asked him a question, he didn't give me a solution, but asked me questions to help sharpen and clarify my thinking. Thanks to him, I'm able to trust myself and have confidence in my own decision-making, and that's one of the most important things that a parent can do for their child.

Cheers to all the dads, step-dads, uncles, grandfathers, and father figures who, for better or worse, have made us into the people we are today.

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PROFILES.

— The founder unlocking the secrets of your mind [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— Twitter's power broker
— The king of trading cards
— Netflix's most magnetic star
— The greatest gymnast in history
— The app that monetized doing nothing
— The investment bank that broke down

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The founder unlocking the secrets of your mind: Over the next few weeks, a company called Kernel will begin sending dozens of customers across the U.S. a $50,000 helmet that can, crudely speaking, read their mind. Excited researchers anticipate using the helmets to gain insight into brain aging, mental disorders, concussions, strokes, and the mechanics behind previously metaphysical experiences such as meditation and psychedelic trips. Meet Bryan Johnson, the founder who's spent more than five years and raised about $110 million—half of it his own money—to develop the helmets. (Bloomberg; reply to this email if you can't access this article)

“When you start quantifying the mind, you make thought and emotion an engineering discipline."

Twitter's power broker: Yashar Ali is part investigative journalist, part gossip columnist, and part trusted confidante. He is a uniquely 21st century media personality—an openly gay Iranian American convert to Catholicism. He sends out an average of 60 tweets a day to his one million followers. He's a political-operative-turned-social-media-muckraker who took down Sharon Osbourne, hobbled the cabinet chances of L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti, canceled food writer Alison Roman, and helped crush Harvey Weinstein. Here's how he became one of the most feared and powerful voices on the web. (L.A. Magazine)

"I am not scared of anyone and no one can do anything to me.”

The king of trading cards: Ken Goldin, who’s 55, has been buying and selling sports trading cards since 1978, when he traded some electric racetrack cars for his friend’s collection of 5,000 baseball cards. He started his auction house in 2012, and today he streams live on Instagram at least once a week, opening packs from a full box of cards, while taking questions with his son, Paul, who’s 7. In May, Goldin surpassed $50 million in sales, putting the company at $200 million for the year and on pace for $500 million. It keeps 20%. Here's how he cashed in on priceless pieces of cardboard. (Bloomberg)

“I’m getting all my deals ’cause I’m Ken Goldin. It’s so freaking weird.”

Netflix's most magnetic star: In January, Netflix released “Lupin,” a French-language heist thriller starring actor Omar Sy as Assane Diop, a high-minded lowlife whose crimes might be understood as acts of reclamation. The show has become an enormous international hit, and catapulted Sy to a new level of success. Still, for much of his career, Sy had felt like a fraud. “The notion of being an actor was complicated for me,” he said. “I came into this by chance. So I would think, Well, it’s all a bit of a scam.” Here's how the star of “Lupin” pulled off his greatest confidence trick. (The New Yorker)

“Somehow, the experience of being rejected, of trying out and never hearing back, gave me the legitimacy that I needed. It diminished my feeling of imposture.”

The greatest gymnast in history: Simone Biles is the greatest gymnast in history. At 24 years old, she's broken just about every record there is to break. She boasts 25 World Championship medals, four never-before-done moves named after her, and jaw-dropping performances time and time again. But there's always room for perfecting a new skill. As she prepares for the Olympics this summer, Biles is doing something she's never quite done in the past — approaching her sport with a newfound joy she's never had before.

“Before I would only focus on the gym. But me being happy outside the gym is just as important as me being happy and doing well in the gym. Now it’s like everything’s coming together.”

COMPANIES TO WATCH.

The app that monetized doing nothing: Calm is the most popular mindfulness app and one of the most popular apps in existence. More than 100 million people now have Calm on their smartphone, after downloads surged by a third in the coronavirus pandemic’s early days last spring. Flush with venture capital and a $2 billion valuation, Calm is in the midst of becoming a full-fledged wellness empire. (The Atlantic)

“We believe what Nike did 50 years ago with physical fitness, we can do with mental fitness.”

The investment bank that broke down: The fallout from the Archegos collapse shows that Credit Suisse's creaky risk-management systems didn’t do their job, leaving the Swiss bank vulnerable with out-of-date trading data and big exposure to single stocks. Now Credit Suisse is picking over what went so badly wrong. The central questions include, why did it give the money back to Archegos? And more broadly, why did it back risky bets to a level that went wildly beyond all its stated norms and projections? (WSJ; reply to this email if you can't access this article)

"Credit Suisse amassed more than $20 billion of exposure to investments related to Archegos."

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.

Simone Biles on personal gratification: What makes Simone Biles the greatest of all time? In this podcast, the hosts look back on her historic national performance and interview her about what continues to fuel her love for gymnastics. "The first time around, I felt pressure to make other people happy," she says. "But this time around, I can do it just for myself so I feel a little bit happier. I don't have anything to prove to anybody." (Link available to premium members.)

Harvey Karp on activating the calming reflex: Babies are mostly built on reflexes. Pediatrician and SNOO inventor Harvey Karp says, "There's this idea that babies have an off switch for crying, and an on switch for sleep. It's not really a switch, but it'll ease them into sleep or calm them in seconds." Here are tips on how to help a baby sleep through the night, sleep training, and how to get a child to sleep in their own bed. (Link available to premium members.)

Michael Saylor on Bitcoin's adoption: Michael Saylor, the CEO of Microstrategy, has become one of the most prominent proponents of Bitcoin. In this podcast, he explains why Bitcoin is valuable, what happens as currency gets devalued, and what the future of digital assets holds. (Link available to premium members.)

VIDEOS TO SEE.

Rick Steves on developing a traveler's mindset: There are three kinds of travelers, according to travel guru Rick Steves. There are tourists, travelers, and pilgrims. A tourist is likely to point out how many countries they've been to and what famous landmarks they've visited. A traveler is interested in learning, broadening their perspective, and trying new things. A pilgrim travels to gain a better understanding of themselves through their travel experiences. Here's how Steves recommends you can develop a mindset necessary to explore with fresh eyes. (Link available to premium members.)

Bryan Johnson on overcoming depression: Bryan Johnson had chronic depression for 10 years. "The reality of being human is brutal," he says. When a person is in a depressive states, he adds, their brain is in a biochemical state. "It's not you," Johnson emphasizes. In this video, he explains how our brains can create false realities, how we can deal with depressive biochemical states, and the future of brain-computer interfaces. (Link available to premium members.)

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