High Signal Podcasts Evidence ledger
Method
Browse
How the evidence works

Public evidence record

Tobi Lütke

Published podcast speaker

Claims
38
Episodes
2
Shows
2
Named items
1

Books, apps, and tools

The evidenced stack.

Browse the grouped index →

book / uses

A Conflict of Visions

“I think the best book I’ve read recently was A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell.”

Conversations with Tyler · 18 Sept 2024

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

Claim ledger

What Tobi said.

38 transcript-backed records

01 / evaluation

Actually, there's a really... So I watched The Last Dance, the Netflix special of Michael Jordan a while ago, of course, but there was one scene where he just, I'm sure this is a super famous story and he just made up an insight that someone told him so that he would then go and just want to destroy them afterwards, which he then of course proceeded to do because it's hard to imagine anyone more exothermic than him.

“Actually, there's a really... So I watched The Last Dance, the Netflix special of Michael Jordan a while ago, of course, but there was one scene where he just, I'm sure this is a super famous story and he just made up an insight that someone told him so that he would then go and just want to destroy them afterwards, which he then of course proceeded to do because it's hard to imagine anyone more exothermic than him.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

03 / belief

Let's go." And because we realized that the temporal shelter in place would cause a series of events that would make that for optimal best set of trade-offs for the company.

“Let's go." And because we realized that the temporal shelter in place would cause a series of events that would make that for optimal best set of trade-offs for the company.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

04 / belief

I think the founders create finite, winnable games for people, that are very much serving the infinite game of developing, that the mission implies, the quality of position on the board.

“I think the founders create finite, winnable games for people, that are very much serving the infinite game of developing, that the mission implies, the quality of position on the board.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

05 / belief

A Tobi tornado, I would say, is a whole lot of change management or a conversation or conflict or real talk compressed into a very short timeframe.

“A Tobi tornado, I would say, is a whole lot of change management or a conversation or conflict or real talk compressed into a very short timeframe.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

06 / uncertainty

I don't know if it works for its intended purpose, but I think there's more value in what he actually accomplished.

“I don't know if it works for its intended purpose, but I think there's more value in what he actually accomplished.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

07 / belief

I've actually never gotten around to read it, but I think he would be very good at interpreting this if that's what he did.

“I've actually never gotten around to read it, but I think he would be very good at interpreting this if that's what he did.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

08 / belief

Do not engage in product work on product that you don't care about because you cannot produce the thing that the person will give you a task is looking for. And I think again, so much goes into this unquantifiable conversation which we already had, but boy is that important because it just isn't about the brief document, it isn't about the aligning stakeholders.

“Do not engage in product work on product that you don't care about because you cannot produce the thing that the person will give you a task is looking for. And I think again, so much goes into this unquantifiable conversation which we already had, but boy is that important because it just isn't about the brief document, it isn't about the aligning stakeholders.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

09 / evaluation

Because I think while a lot of decisions are made independently, we are a product company, we are on a mission, and we want our product to feel like something that a single person made, in the same way how any author tries to write a book that clearly reads that it came from one mind.

“Because I think while a lot of decisions are made independently, we are a product company, we are on a mission, and we want our product to feel like something that a single person made, in the same way how any author tries to write a book that clearly reads that it came from one mind.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

10 / preference

Because I think we do best if we are on the same side of a table of our customers and we had them become entrepreneurs, which is a mission, and we want to support them to be more successful, which is the business model we are in.

“Because I think we do best if we are on the same side of a table of our customers and we had them become entrepreneurs, which is a mission, and we want to support them to be more successful, which is the business model we are in.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

11 / recommendation

These things unfurl into incredible amounts of value if you really pursue them and come at them from first principles rather than how can I do the things I want to do anyway slightly better because of insight.

“These things unfurl into incredible amounts of value if you really pursue them and come at them from first principles rather than how can I do the things I want to do anyway slightly better because of insight.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

12 / evaluation

Literally, there's a foundation model of a child, and you fine-tune it at school, and it just loses the neurons of curiosity because it's actually discouraged to meander into other topics and explore them just because they're interesting.

“Literally, there's a foundation model of a child, and you fine-tune it at school, and it just loses the neurons of curiosity because it's actually discouraged to meander into other topics and explore them just because they're interesting.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

13 / preference

If you want to hold the unquantifiable as things that are stable and exist ... That people actually do really defer to them and really actually learn to be okay with someone just saying, "Hey, this is actually just really great and they're shipping this" then you need to make certain edits to a business that don't remind everyone too much of the companies they might have come from which the only way to get promoted is by driving the metric up.

“If you want to hold the unquantifiable as things that are stable and exist ... That people actually do really defer to them and really actually learn to be okay with someone just saying, "Hey, this is actually just really great and they're shipping this" then you need to make certain edits to a business that don't remind everyone too much of the companies they might have come from which the only way to get promoted is by driving the metric up.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

14 / preference

I also think you can make a case that a good number exists because of Shopify, because what we've observed is that this was actually, it's my favorite thing in the entire Shopify journey that we sort of rigorously determined, which is that because I really, really, really prioritize good UX, legible interfaces.

“I also think you can make a case that a good number exists because of Shopify, because what we've observed is that this was actually, it's my favorite thing in the entire Shopify journey that we sort of rigorously determined, which is that because I really, really, really prioritize good UX, legible interfaces.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

15 / preference

ere would be if you could hire people everywhere. And so once that decision flipped, you can see how this is actually now super easy to say, "We are going to remote," because there is no turning back.

“ere would be if you could hire people everywhere. And so once that decision flipped, you can see how this is actually now super easy to say, "We are going to remote," because there is no turning back.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

16 / evaluation

You would be amazed how many business plans are actually failing Archimedean logic in this way like, "Let's do a good version of this thing that we've already been doing and we will capture 1% of the market," and just like this stuff.

“You would be amazed how many business plans are actually failing Archimedean logic in this way like, "Let's do a good version of this thing that we've already been doing and we will capture 1% of the market," and just like this stuff.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

17 / preference

I probably don't conform to the traditional view of what the most of public companies should be like or even should spend their time, but I think I'm successful because I don't try to conform to anything other than what I've learned works.

“I probably don't conform to the traditional view of what the most of public companies should be like or even should spend their time, but I think I'm successful because I don't try to conform to anything other than what I've learned works.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

18 / preference

So clearly the better input there would be if you could hire people everywhere. And so once that decision flipped, you can see how this is actually now super easy to say, "We are going to remote," because there is no turning back.

“So clearly the better input there would be if you could hire people everywhere. And so once that decision flipped, you can see how this is actually now super easy to say, "We are going to remote," because there is no turning back.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

24 / commitment

I think literally everyone, me and my contemporaries, myself especially — we are going to be terribly embarrassed by the companies we ran in the early 2020s.

“I think literally everyone, me and my contemporaries, myself especially — we are going to be terribly embarrassed by the companies we ran in the early 2020s.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

28 / uncertainty

I don’t know if it’s causally related or correlation with the same thing, but it’s just pretty clear to me that if the ratio of referees to builders or critics to builders is going out of whack, things grind to a halt.

“I don’t know if it’s causally related or correlation with the same thing, but it’s just pretty clear to me that if the ratio of referees to builders or critics to builders is going out of whack, things grind to a halt.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

29 / evaluation

Because every single time we’ve made Shopify more approachable, or things that were previously complex and gating for people’s success, every single time we made something significantly simpler, it actually caused more success.

“Because every single time we’ve made Shopify more approachable, or things that were previously complex and gating for people’s success, every single time we made something significantly simpler, it actually caused more success.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

30 / evaluation

I think to systematize it and make it stick — changing a culture is very, very difficult, but instances of just giving everyone permission to go for it have also been super successful.

“I think to systematize it and make it stick — changing a culture is very, very difficult, but instances of just giving everyone permission to go for it have also been super successful.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

32 / evaluation

I don’t know if you want to talk about company building, but companies are complex adaptive systems, much more than being industry-applied versions of military or slightly more complex organizations of military service.

“I don’t know if you want to talk about company building, but companies are complex adaptive systems, much more than being industry-applied versions of military or slightly more complex organizations of military service.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

33 / observation

The issue I think we’ve seen, especially at the beginning of this decade, is people ported their venting online and then got their one take retweeted forever because it just captured the imagination.

“The issue I think we’ve seen, especially at the beginning of this decade, is people ported their venting online and then got their one take retweeted forever because it just captured the imagination.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

34 / preference

You want to be able to add something. This is also why ignorance is usually useful because you should be ignorant to the low odds in the beginning, one of the reasons why at least some founders often are young.

“You want to be able to add something. This is also why ignorance is usually useful because you should be ignorant to the low odds in the beginning, one of the reasons why at least some founders often are young.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

35 / evaluation

I don’t quite understand why this is not possible to do in so many places in Germany because, again, Germany does have this wonderful appreciation of craftsmanship, which I think is actually underrepresented in software.

“I don’t quite understand why this is not possible to do in so many places in Germany because, again, Germany does have this wonderful appreciation of craftsmanship, which I think is actually underrepresented in software.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

36 / evaluation

I think because German school at that time was in love with serializing out answers and trying to fill you up with as many answers as possible and hope that you would be able to apply them to problems you encounter later.

“I think because German school at that time was in love with serializing out answers and trying to fill you up with as many answers as possible and hope that you would be able to apply them to problems you encounter later.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

37 / preference

I’m actually a fan of rewriting books every — I don’t know — 25, 50 years for two generations down the line because they just get hard to access.

“I’m actually a fan of rewriting books every — I don’t know — 25, 50 years for two generations down the line because they just get hard to access.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

38 / evaluation

” I don’t know if it’s a good idea, but I love that someone is trying this because that seems like a social license to actually talk about stuff that otherwise can’t be talked about and seeing where it leads.

“” I don’t know if it’s a good idea, but I love that someone is trying this because that seems like a social license to actually talk about stuff that otherwise can’t be talked about and seeing where it leads.”
Speaker
Tobi Lütke
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler
Search evidence