Hey Reader,
We are in time of disruption. With that comes winners and losers.
While everything is costing more, one thing is becoming less valuable: status.
People love technology but the hate the status deflation that results. The people that are ranting or screaming at others? Trust they are on the downside of status.
Most people think they’re still playing the same old status game — climb the ladder, collect credentials, work hard, and cash in.
But the table has changed.
The cards are different. The rules are rewritten mid-hand. AI, biotech, and decentralized media have turned what used to be a stable game into a volatile, high-stakes version of poker.
The winners will be those who master nonlinear leverage (AI, media, networks) + intellectual courage (original frameworks, cultural navigation, personal narrative).
The losers will be those who cling to linear games in a nonlinear world.
Better to play exponential or even infinite games.
So let’s discuss winners and losers in the new world order in a X’s and O’s version of the Tomorrow List.
Leverage is the New Black
Traditional markers of prestige used to be degrees (MBA), job titles (Doctor), or income. They had massive signaling power.
In an era of AI, that is no longer the case (well, income will always matter).
Now the Harvard’s of the world will do fine, though they are facing their own reckoning of a different sort. But all other schools, certifications or institutions will massively drop in status.
Status will be determined by influence, narrative control, and audience, not institutional affiliation.
Status deflation occurs by three mechanisms:
- Democratize outcomes (level playing fields)
- Bypass traditional signals (status shortcuts)
- Commodify formerly scarce attributes (making rare things common)
🥇Winners
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Narrative Builders
- People who can craft and own compelling stories will rule attention, culture, and capital.
- Think “personal media empires” like GOOP or More Plates More Dates​
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Synthetic Leverage Operators
- AI agents, media machines, and other post-capital leverage will outperform.
- You don’t need armies; you need code, content, & bots.
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Networked Insiders
- Those embedded in tight, high-status, future-forward networks (DAOs, niche investor circles, intellectual salons, builder communities).
- In a fragmented world, small networks act like sovereign states.
- Want a world class entrepreneurial network for doctors? Check out the immersion I co-created: the Physician Entrepreneurial Exchange.
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Longevity Elite
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Curators
- Those who can filter signal from noise in an overwhelming information ecosystem (aka me!)
- Trusted curators will replace some traditional educators, media outlets, and CEOs.
❌ Losers
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Institutional Loyalists
- Professionals relying solely on degrees, titles, or credentialism without building personal intellectual property (ideas, audience, frameworks).
- Universities, consulting firms, traditional media will still exist but confer less status.
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Linear Careerists
- Those who follow the old corporate ladder without diversifying into media, networked leverage, or entrepreneurial skillsets.
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Middle-Tier Knowledge Workers
- Especially in law, consulting, finance, and academia where AI and synthetic agents will automate mid-skill, mid-status tasks.
- The top will adapt; the middle will hollow out.
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Mass Influencers Without Depth
- Content creators who built reach without substance will get replaced by AI-generated media
- Influence without trust will be easy to manufacture, easy to ignore.
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Status Rent-Seekers
- People who gate keep based on past achievements instead of current value.
- AI will compress the timeline from “accomplishment” to “irrelevant” much faster.
The Leverage v Narrative Matrix
The great themes of the Tomorrow List have been leverage and narrative. These are the two skills of the future no matter what your industry.
Without both, you’re exposed.
The Future of Status: A New Maslow’s Pyramid
Maslow described his hierarchy of needs. It was a theory of motivation for human behavior from base needs of safety and security to self actualization at the top.
There is analogous new pyramid for the modern knowledge worker based on status + leverage.
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Tumbling like a Jenga Tower
There are other status losers, especially with non AI technology and innovations. Let the hits keep going…
- Fitness Influencers –> Fitness as a marker of discipline is ending. Ozempic and G1P agents are making being fit much more available to the masses. And for those who claim this is cheating, listen to this compelling and concise counter-response by exercise PhD and competitive bodybuilder Mike Israetel :
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- Hollywood/Creators – Polished content is for everyone with Canva, Substack, Notion, CapCut, and TikTok templates. Expect Hollywood level technology for pennies on the dollar in the near future as AI ramps up A/V capacities. Only the quality of the story telling matters, not its production value.
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- Self Aware – Can you achieve enlightenment quickly with psychedelics? People who posture on Stoicism precepts and Buddhist mantras may have done deep work or maybe they just did Ketamine?
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- The Young , Healthy & Beautiful – Juvederm, TRT, longevity tech and other interventions (eg peptide therapy (if RFK Jr has his way) among others are now more accessible than ever. More and more of us will be young and beautiful for longer. It’s no longer a matter of genetics, healthy living or elite discipline – you just need the right stack.
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Beauty. Status. Education. Awareness. Fitness. That’s quite a list.
Status deflation is coming for everyone.
The Back Page
As long as we have people, some will be in, some will be out. The deck will always be reshuffled.
It’s a game of status poker.
The cards are partly random, but winning isn’t.
Why? Just ask James Bond:
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- Play the odds (leverage and network)
- Read the room (cultural intuition)
- And fold when necessary (knowing when to switch strategies) – mid game if necessary
In short: the future will reward the provocateurs, entrepreneurs and raconteurs.
Game on.
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Tomorrow Can’t Wait,
