The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 66 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 1 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Nejatian: 'The Lean Startup' did more damage to software than any book
“I think the book lean startup may have done more damage unintentionally to software than any other book.”
Kaz Nejatian: Opendoor will be the most aggressive in-office public tech company
“Opendoor will be the most aggressive in-office public tech company.”
Nejatian: Remote work is an exceptionally bad idea for most companies
“I think being remote is an exceptionally bad idea for most companies.”
Nejatian: Excel has done more damage than any other software
“I'm pretty sure Excel has done more damage to the world than any other software.”
Nejatian: Most growth tech companies only pretend to value learning
“But let's be honest, most even growth companies just cosplay as learners. They have a whole bunch of things you're not allowed to say. A whole bunch of companies have like these religious things they believe that you're not allowed to question.”
Nejatian: Mark Zuckerberg's risk tolerance is unparalleled in business history
“Mark's ability to understand risk adequately is just probably unparalleled in business history.”
Nejatian: Enterprise software is terrible because companies build directly for compliance
“What most people end up doing Is doing this the wrong way, right? They go to SOC II saying, what can I build? And then they build the thing SOC II says you shall build. Which is why all enterprise software ends up being shit.”
Nejatian: Opendoor customers will eventually be able to return purchased homes
“We will get to a point where you will buy a home from Opendoor, and if you don't like it, you'll be able to return.”
Nejatian: AI has solved automated home pricing without physical inspections
“I think three years ago, this was an incredibly difficult problem that required human beings to visit homes and look around and look at the shape of the cart. Like, that's the real thing. If you're one side of the street that has a slope, the other side doesn'…”
Nejatian: Opendoor will not remain a solely asset-heavy company
“We will not choose to stay in a solely asset heavy world.”
Nejatian: Expecting 20% margins buying homes below market is naive
“And if you think for a very long time, you're going to have 20% margin buying homes cheaper than someone else, you're just straight up dumb.”
Nejatian: Shopify requires marketers to use GitHub and salespeople to write SQL
“We don't have that at Shopify. At Shopify, if a marketer wants to create a new landing page, they have to go into GitHub. They have to know how to write some code. They have, like, this is a real thing, and our, so our marketers learn how to write some code. L…”
Kaz Nejatian: Meta's worst mistake was neglecting external public relations
“The worst decision Meta probably made was Not being more publicly celebratory of Mark personally and Meta generally. I think Meta allowed, because the company was so focused on execution internally, it didn't spend that much time worrying about its reputation …”
Nejatian: Tech teams overestimate product 'what' and underestimate 'how'
“Because, like people overestimate the importance of what, and then massively underestimate the importance of how. Like, people just massively underestimate the importance of how in ways that are just, like, shocking still.”
Nejatian: Written company decisions provide superior LLM training data over meetings
“I'm very sure that the outcome will be more favorable to us. Like if you think about how LLMs work, you need something to train the machine on. And the fact that we are, we had this discussion in paper, we wrote our thoughts down and they made an outcome. It's…”
Nejatian: Shopify's remote work transition failed for its first six to twelve months
“Going remote was incredibly difficult for Shopify. It took us a very long time to get right. I can honestly tell you for the first six to 12 months, it just straight up wasn't working.”
Nejatian: Shopify might not have gone remote if leadership foresaw the difficulty
“So if, I think if we knew how painful it would be, I don't know if we would have done it.”
Nejatian: Shopify contains no custom 'if enterprise' code for large clients
“We don't build bespoke software. There's no if enterprise line anywhere in Shopify's code base.”
Nejatian: Stripe-Shopify relationship is the most value-creating in software history
“And this Stripe-Shopify relationship Is likely the most value creating relationship in the history of software. It would have been Intel, Microsoft before Intel and Microsoft had had divorce is too hard a word, but had like the thing they did.”
Nejatian: Internet commerce is weirder than if Yahoo Stores had won
“Commerce on the internet is slightly more weird than it would be if Yahoo had won. Yahoo Stores had won, which is like the Paul Graham product. I like Paul Graham a lot, but I'm very glad that his software at Yahoo did not win.”
Kaz Nejatian: Forcing information through org charts causes major failures
“The biggest mistakes I have made in my career have all been of the same shape, unfortunately. And it's just, it's very, I'll tell you the shape. And I like, and it's a lesson I will perpetually learn. I need to relearn every single time. I have a limited the i…”
Nejatian: Corporate values are only valid if someone can take the opposite side
“Values need to be things that a reasonable person can take both the other side of.”
Nejatian: Sequenced education, work, and marriage predict male success best
“The data behind this is undeniable for men, specifically for men, graduating from high school, getting some job experience and getting married in that order as soon as possible. Is more indicative is more indicative of success, including health, wealth, and ha…”
Nejatian: Opendoor executives are compensated solely in stock options
“We only get paid in options.”
Nejatian: Opendoor will launch a long-term ecosystem of free and paid real estate products
“We will create a network for buyers and sellers, homeowners, home buyers, and home sellers, where they will have a long-term relationship with us over a series of products we will launch. Some of them will be free, just because they're good. Some of them will …”
Nejatian: Would not have taken Opendoor CEO role without Rabois and Wu
“Wouldn't have taken a job, would not have taken a job without them. Like a strip wouldn't have done it. In fact, I said I won't do it without them.”
Nejatian: Every product manager must understand how code is written
“I'm not saying all PMs need to write code, but all PMs need to understand how code is written.”
Nejatian: Most software shipped today is unusable because it is incomplete
“Much of what software is being shipped today cannot be used or enjoyed because it is so incomplete.”
Nejatian: V1 products must be constrained visions, not visionless experiments
“It is totally okay to ship a V one of something which is constrained version of your final vision, right? That's totally okay. In fact, everyone should do that. But what a lot of people do is have zero vision. They just ship something to see what happens next.…”
Nejatian: Shopify's three priorities are products, money, and more products
“We say at Shopify we only have three priorities. Build great products, make money, Use money to build more great products and never reverse one and two, right? Priority one is build products. Priority two is make money. Priority three is never reverse one and …”
Nejatian: Overbuilding software is effective only on a 100-year horizon
“If you're thinking about a year, hell no. It's a really bad idea if you're optimizing for one year to spend so much of your time overbuilding. If you're thinking the thing you're building will be around for a hundred years, then for sure it was effective use o…”
Nejatian: There is no such thing as opinion-free software
“There is no such a thing as opinion-free software. The fact that Google Sheets is built the way it is changes how you write, how you think, how you, like, imagine the world.”
Nejatian: Shopify built continuous internal planning software to replace Excel
“At Shopify, we've built software that imagines a company and runs continuously. Based on our prioritization stack, based on what we're working on, based on the APIs we have built ourselves into our data systems. So we don't have to have people building these l…”
Kaz Nejatian: Making key business decisions in spreadsheets is a bad approach
“So everyone's decisions, regardless of how big you are as a company, ends up being made in an Excel sheet. And like, we're incredibly opinionated about this. We think this is a bad way to run a company.”
Nejatian: Requiring ten years of experience argues against a learner mindset
“Every job posting that says you require 10 years of experience Is arguing against a learner's mindset”
Kaz Nejatian: Growth software companies fail if they value experience over learning
“Now, I think if you're a growth company and a software company, that's your death. I think it is totally your death if you go that way.”
Nejatian: Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are incredibly underappreciated
“Meta and Mark are both underappreciated. Like, incredibly underappreciated.”
Nejatian: Critics are realizing they were wrong to mock Meta's AR/VR bet
“The incredible bet they're taking on AR VR which I think people mocked and are starting to realize they were wrong about mocking.”
Kaz Nejatian: Meta Ray-Ban glasses are almost an iPhone moment
“If you have used the new Ray-Ban glasses, you have seen what the future will look like. It is very clearly how it's going. Like, it's just very clear that, like, this is, like, I think Ray-Ban glasses are just, like, not quite the iPhone moment, but they're, l…”
Nejatian: Most companies only care about building the right thing
“If the user is not better off, it's because we say the job of PM at Shopify is to build the right thing the right way at the right time. Most companies don't actually care about the right way part, or the right time part, they care about the right thing part, …”
Nejatian: Shopify calculates and displays the cost of every meeting
“We have this thing in Shopify where we calculate the cost of every meeting and put it in the meeting invite.”
Nejatian: Shopify functions like a venture capital firm backing merchant cohorts
“Cause what Shopify is essentially is like, we invest in cohorts of startups.”
Nejatian: Shopify previously turned away a top-10 global retailer
“Like, one of the top 10 retailers in the world asked us to use Shopify. A few years ago, and I said, no, you may not.”
Kaz Nejatian: Companies should default to sharing all internal information publicly
“The default should be that all information should be shared publicly such that people in the company never think, oh, these people are just bullshitting me when things are going well.”
Kaz Nejatian: Data proves married men are richer and have more sex
“Married men have more sex than single men do. Married men are richer than single men are. Married men, like, it is very, like, there's all the things that you think I should optimize for by being single, data proves you are wrong.”
Nejatian: Hiring leaders from Meta works out exceptionally well
“I have found that hiring people from Meta Generally has worked out very well for most people because just as a training program is just exceptionally good.”
Nejatian: Hiring non-software leaders into tech generally fails
“Industry switching is very difficult. Like hiring marketers who are not from software into software generally doesn't work out. Hiring finance people who are not in software and software generally doesn't work out.”
Kaz Nejatian: Figma survived its failed acquisition by acting like it never happened
“Companies that usually, like, usually mergers that fall apart or acquisitions that fall apart end up with in a really bad place because companies just typically have checked out by the time the acquisition happens. Figma is thriving. And I think they're thrivi…”