Tobi Lütke: Empowering a World of Rebels | Knowledge Project Podcast

Celebrated entrepreneur and Shopify co-founder and CEO Tobi Lütke discusses how Shopify endured through the COVID-19 pandemic, why he’s so optimistic about the future, the differences between founders and CEOs, how his job has changed as Shopify has grown over the years, how to fight bureaucracy, how he thinks about innovation in a large company, and how he manages to keep his head when everyone else is losing theirs, among other topics.

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00:00 - Intro
01:04 - How to lead through troubles
03:05 - Maintaining focus through chaos
09:33 - CEO vs. founders
18:28 - Taking risks
24:50 - On hiring vs. promoting talent
31:13 - How to fight bureaucracy in a company
40:36 - How Tobi thinks about compensation
46:03 - What businesses can learn from programming
01:01:42 - Why Tobi loves technology
01:04:37 - On leveraging technology
01:08:17 - Does tech make us more productive?
01:13:50 - On accurate vs. useful ideas
01:16:30 - On identity and status
01:22:56 - How to stay calm through the chaos
01:27:33 - How Tobi thinks about second and third-order effects of decisions
01:38:22 - Rapid grants
01:41:07 - “Future-forecasting” decisions in a company
01:47:36 - Tobi’s thoughts on conformity
01:54:06 - Tobi’s thoughts on the Infinite Game
02:06:46 - How Tobi fixed his sleep
02:18:03 - What Tobi used to spend time on that’s now wasteful
02:25:45 - What technology Tobi is most excited about

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ABOUT THE KNOWLEDGE PROJECT
Like the mentor you’ve always dreamed of having, The Knowledge Project shares timely yet timeless lessons for work and life. Past guests include Naval Ravikant, Daniel Kahneman, Jim Collins, Angela Duckworth, Seth Godin, Melanie Mitchell, & Esther Perel.

[zgidwitz]

It’s so wonderful to finally hear such a wide-ranging interview of this brilliant man.

[foundational]

This man is a fascinating thinker… there’re some excellent germs here I’m gonna have to take notes and research deeper concepts like applied computation thinking

[RangaprabhuParthasarathy]

This is a terrific wide ranging chat with a visionary thinker. Loved every minute.

[buckerine]

Awesome. Always wanted to hear more from Tobi. Super insightful guy.

[funfactsnature]

I still don't understand how I never bumped into Tobi in Ottawa streets, I guess probability is doing its thing 😀. Great interview with a great mind!

[prondubuisi]

Great Interview, thoroughly enjoyed this.

[mgmgmgmg-sz]

Love Tobi’s thoughts on Infinite Games.

[IQSayed]

Super insightful guy and interview. But one thesis / assertion here seems quite wrong: that founder CEOs (as opposed to professional CEOs) are good at subtraction. In fact they are not; they may have legitimacy to do subtraction or say no to things, but they tend to only add and have a hard time saying no. Professional CEOs on the other hand, have legitimacy (when they're new) and don't have the legacy burden. They aren't emotionally attached some product that's not working out and should be cut, and aren't in love with the teams carefully put together over the life of the company. They easily can and do often cut things, while founding CEOs struggle to do so (and struggle to move on from things they started).

[NuRhodesia]

What's that book he commends to his executives again ?
help !!

[AhmedManni-tddh]

Companies and stock has nothing to do with each other?!?! Are you kidding me?

[dagdiyapiyush]

He needs to work on his speaking skills😂…couldn’t understand in 1.5x without subtitles