Good morning, friends!

I spent my Saturday night watching videos about the metaverse and trying to wrap my head around the future of our digital lives. In a way, many of us kind of already "live" on the internet.

I have made friends in the digital world that I've never met in real life, and real-life friends that I interact with largely in the digital world.

Think about this for a second: How many of your interactions with family and friends exist primarily in a digital form? When’s the last time you actually saw a friend in person or heard their real voice? Could you tell the difference between Polina the human and Polina the bot in a text conversation?

You may have noticed more and more profiles of people who are building and participating in these digital worlds. I've featured profiles on the dancers working at virtual strip clubs, the pastor building a virtual church, and the filmmaker constructing a virtual tour of the world's most extreme places.

Writing this newsletter has allowed me to peer into the minds of some of the most innovative people on this planet. But it's also fun to speculate a little bit about where we're headed.

Will Mark Zuckerberg build a metaverse? Will Elon Musk send a human to Mars? Will Sara Blakely build another billion-dollar company?

So let's have some fun.

I want you to give me a two or three-sentence answer to this question:

🔮 "What will 2022 bring, and who will lead the charge?" 🔮

Reply to this email, and give me your thoughts on everything from the broad (Who will be the first metaverse celebrity?) to the super-specific (Who will be the first Bitcoin trillionaire and when?) to everything in-between. I also welcome the outrageous (but still somewhat plausible).

I will include highlights of your answers in an upcoming edition of The Profile. (Note: These are submissions for inclusion in an article. Unless you indicate otherwise, I will assume that you’re OK with attributing the prediction to your first and last name.)

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CAMEO TIME 🎉: I've joined Cameo, so you can book me for a personalized video for wishes around birthdays, bachelorette parties, weddings, and ya know, the occasional trolling of your friends (in the nicest way, of course 😉) (All proceeds will be donated to the nonprofit Children of Bulgaria.) Book a Cameo here.

THE PROFILE DOSSIER: On Wednesday, premium members received The Profile Dossier, a comprehensive deep-dive on a prominent individual. It featured Tobi Lütke, the founder who believes in arming the rebels. Become a premium member and read it below.

The Profile

The Profile Dossier: Tobi Lütke, the Founder Who Believes In Arming the Rebels

You may be surprised to learn that e-commerce platform Shopify would never exist if founder Tobi Lütke didn't have an obsession with snowboarding. In 2004, he was working as a programmer, but he wanted to make some extra cash. He decided to team up with a friend and start his own business: an online snowboard store called Snowdevil. They thought the process would be simple: Create an online store and start selling snowboards…

Read more

4 days ago · 2 likes · Polina Pompliano

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PROFILES.

— The driver revolutionizing Formula 1 [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The internet's most popular sperm donor
— The most powerful woman in book publishing
— The FTC chair fighting Big Tech
— The professor who built an empire of emotion
— Hollywood's reluctant celebrity
— The brand monetizing erectile dysfunction

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The driver revolutionizing Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton is the most successful driver in the history of Formula 1. He started his F1 career as a 22-year-old in 2007, before moving to the Mercedes F1 team in 2013. His seventh world title last season tied the all-time great Michael Schumacher. At 36, in one of the highest-performing cars the sport has ever seen, Hamilton has at least a few more seasons to break that record before retirement. In this profile, he explains the pressures and stresses that come with being a trailblazer in his sport. (WSJ) [Pairs well with this Profile Dossier on Toto Wolff]

“I’m 36 years old; I’ve been wondering, Why me? Why am I the only Black driver that’s got through to Formula 1, and not only that—I’m at the front?"

The internet's most popular sperm donor: Supply at sperm banks is at a historic low, in part because average sperm counts have steadily declined for more than 40 years. As an alternative, many people are turning to social media for direct-to-consumer sperm via Facebook groups. Their members include potential donors like Ari Nagel, also known as "The Sperminator," the man who has become somewhat of a sperm donor celebrity on the internet and is responsible for helping produce more than 100 children. (Esquire)

"She could tell that some of the men were envious of Ari's fame—and his productivity."

The most powerful woman in book publishing: When M. Richard Robinson Jr., the chairman and CEO of Scholastic passed away, control of the $1.2 billion publishing company fell into the hands of Iole Lucchese. It made Lucchese one of the most powerful women in book publishing, and the stock provides her — the daughter of a construction worker and a homemaker — with significant wealth. But it also put Scholastic in an extremely unusual position for a public company: adapting to a succession plan many key players did not know was coming. (The New York Times)

“You can see how this is offensive, how the allegations implied that she has not gotten to her position because of merit.”

The FTC chair fighting Big Tech: Lina Khan was an associate professor at Columbia Law when she found out that President Joe Biden wanted her on the Federal Trade Commission. She was 32, just a handful of years out of law school, and the prospect of being one of five commissioners on the panel was a coup. At some point after her confirmation hearing, Khan says, she was “pretty startled” to learn that the administration would tap her to chair the commission. Meet the FTC chair who is not worried about going too far. (New York Magazine)

"I think it’s fair to say that my tenure here represents change in a whole host of dimensions."

The professor who built an empire of emotion: Brené Brown rose to fame in 2011, after a TEDx talk that she gave in Houston, “The Power of Vulnerability,” went viral. With books, consulting gigs, and a popular podcast, she's built an entire business on top of vulnerability and emotions. Here's how she fused the tangible (data) with the intangible (emotion) and convinced Fortune 500 companies they need both to crystallize a healthy corporate culture. (The New Yorker)

“When perfectionism is driving us, shame is always riding shotgun.”

Hollywood's reluctant celebrity: Actor Ben Affleck has had a complicated relationship with being a celebrity. The ups and downs of his life, the high-profile relationships, the family, the divorce, and the struggles with alcoholism have been chronicled in vivid, excruciating detail by the press. Here's why it feels like Affleck’s greatest role to date has been as himself, the reluctant celebrity. (New York Magazine)

"In a year when Affleck appears in three films, more people can name whom he’s dating than what he’s starring in."

COMPANIES TO WATCH.

The brand monetizing erectile dysfunction: Erectile dysfunction in young men might be more common now than 10 years ago. Why? Here's how one urologist put it: “I mean, it’s antidepressants, recreational drugs, pandemics, anxiety, increasing stress, poor sleep, obesity, western diet, on and on and on,” he said. This trend has allowed brands like Hims, a company that offers generic prescription drugs to treat erectile dysfunction and hair loss, to flourish. Fascinating article about how technology & pharmaceuticals are altering every aspect of our psychological and social lives. (New York Magazine)

“These markets that people thought didn’t exist were freaking massive."

✨ 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.

Jack Dorsey on the future of artificial intelligence: Jack Dorsey is mostly associated with Twitter, but he also runs a wildly successful payments company called Square. In this wide-ranging interview, Dorsey discusses his views on artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and why he’s talking with Elon Musk about bots. This is a super technical conversation, so you get a genuine look at Dorsey’s thought process and how he sees the world. (Link available to premium members.)

Brené Brown on finding hope in times of despair: Brené Brown studies conditions like empathy, vulnerability, and shame. But in this conversation from 2019, she talks about something we’re all yearning for right now: hope. “Before my research, I thought that hope was an emotion, but it’s not,” she says. “It’s actually a cognitive behavioral process.” Here’s how Brown says hope can be taught as a skill. (Link available to premium members.)

Robert Cialdini on becoming a more persuasive person: Social psychologist Robert Cialdini has been called "The Godfather of Influence." In this podcast, he explains the practical ways each of us can pull various levers of influence to increase our social capital and likability. (Link available to premium members.)

VIDEOS TO SEE.

Garry Kasparov on the danger of dictatorships: Garry Kasparov became a world chess champion when he was only 22 years old. As he began traveling abroad for competitions, he began questioning communism and becoming increasingly vocal about the importance of human rights and limited government. In this video interview, Kasparov reflects on the broken system that produced him. (Link available to premium members.)

Naval Ravikant on re-prioritizing your life: How much time do you spend thinking? By that, I mean not reading, watching, listening, or talking? In other words, when's the last time you felt genuinely bored? In this conversation, Naval Ravikant discusses his decision to step away from his day-to-day role as CEO and fund manager, and he highlights the idea that productivity runs counter to creativity. (Link available to premium members.)