Lütke: Companies serve as social permission for obsessive 14-hour workdays
Tobi Lütke · Tobi Lütke: 21 Years of Building Shopify · Jan 18, 2026 · at 0:57
Shopify founder and CEO Tobi Lütke explains his first-principles view on why the institution of the modern company exists as a social technology.
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“A lot of, like, companies are social technology in, in the sense that they allow us to go all in. Like, the only time you're really allowed to spend, I don't know, eight, I'm gonna say eight because that's the right number to say, really, like, fucking 14 hours a day, right? Just singularly pursuing a thing is like I mean, we want kids to spend this time in school, and that's okay, and then university, you know, dedicate yourself. Other than that, like you can't just like not have a job, but just be like really, really into things. It's socially not acceptable. So like company building turns out to be the perfect excuse.”
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