Uncapped with Jack Altman
· Jack Altman, Tobi Lutke
[00:00:00] S0: So you’ve had 100x in the public markets. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah, and that’s cool. Therefore I find lots of people who tell me that was a good investment for them. It gave us legitimacy. We never wanted to go upmarket, but we always wanted to have a product that can work well for people at all parts of the scale. That just sounds like words. It’s about 100x harder from building a product. Building a product that actually scales across the entire thing is insanely difficult to do and has been one of our most fun challenges to pursue. Bigger customers were just like, “Yeah, you’re a public company. That’s cool.” That’s different. Then frankly, there’s really, really good people who would only work for a public company, so that’s also helpful. [00:00:00] S0: Makes sense. My last question. I know you have at least been a big reader. Do you still have time to read a lot? You got any books I should read? [00:00:00] S1: There’s so many books I love. I’m a huge fan of short, incredible books like Parkinson’s Law and Lessons of History. When people distill all of their knowledge into under 100 pages, I think that’s great. I recently read a really good book called What Is Intelligence? It re-explains basically all of biology from a perspective of how important prediction is and how it probably emerged just in a sequence. It felt existentially profound in a way that I don’t quite know if that was… Because it felt like all this part was just to support an argument later that wasn’t actually that important to make, I think. So this is interesting.
· Tobi Lutke, Jack Altman
[00:00:00] S1: There’s so many books I love. I’m a huge fan of short, incredible books like Parkinson’s Law and Lessons of History. When people distill all of their knowledge into under 100 pages, I think that’s great. I recently read a really good book called What Is Intelligence? It re-explains basically all of biology from a perspective of how important prediction is and how it probably emerged just in a sequence. It felt existentially profound in a way that I don’t quite know if that was… Because it felt like all this part was just to support an argument later that wasn’t actually that important to make, I think. So this is interesting. [00:00:00] S0: I think others have felt this too, but I’ve been struggling more to read. Partially it’s a stage of life thing, but partially I think the internet is making my brain loops too short, and partially I think I am in a head space where I want every minute to be productive. So it’s hard for me to read a book for joy, and I need to figure out how to get through that. But you seem to have figured out how to—
· Jack Altman, Tobi Lutke
[00:00:00] S0: I think others have felt this too, but I’ve been struggling more to read. Partially it’s a stage of life thing, but partially I think the internet is making my brain loops too short, and partially I think I am in a head space where I want every minute to be productive. So it’s hard for me to read a book for joy, and I need to figure out how to get through that. But you seem to have figured out how to— [00:00:00] S1: It’s the job of an author to make you keep reading. This is an important mental switch. If you read a book and it just doesn’t capture you, that’s not because you’re broken. It’s because the author didn’t manage to do the thing that they set out to do. I have an advantage—disadvantage? I guess advantage at this point—of being out of cycle with my wife, who is also a light sleeper. I just go to bed when she wants, which is way too early. Usually like at 10:00 or something crazy. I’m a night owl. I don’t need a lot of sleep, luckily. So I have hours of reading time, and the Kindle is not that bright, doesn’t wake her up. Therefore I have a couple hours of reading time. [00:00:00] S0: You’re not doom scrolling on Twitter like the rest of us. [00:00:00] S1: I really am a huge fan of the Kindle, not because it’s great, but because it isn’t. It’s such a limited but actually single-purpose device. I find that wonderful. I find books just to be so remarkable. [00:00:00] S0: They’re like going to the gym. When you read a book, I’m like, “I got to be reading more books.” Life just pulls us all.
· Jack Altman, Tobi Lutke
[00:00:00] S0: They’re like going to the gym. When you read a book, I’m like, “I got to be reading more books.” Life just pulls us all. [00:00:00] S1: It’s best to have some ritual or some dedicated time for it. If you can pull it off, that’s just great and it is books for me. [00:00:00] S0: Tobi, this was an absolute pleasure. Thank you for making time for this. [00:00:00] S1: This was really fun. Thanks so much for having me.