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 18 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 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
Collison: Discrete organizational decision-making is overrated compared to continuous systems
“I'm inclined to say, I don't know if I actually believe this, but I'm inclined to say in response to that question that decision making in organizations is slightly overrated in that organizations are not like investment entities or funds or managers in that o…”
Collison: Making twice as many decisions at half precision is often better
“If you can make, like, if you can make twice as many decisions at half the, kind of half the precision, that's actually often better. And then given the fact that sort of the rate of improvement of decision making with additional time almost necessarily tends …”
Collison: Sequoia is the only VC firm in top three for four decades
“And Sequoia has been, you know, the top firm or in the top three firms, obviously it's a subjective ranking, but call it, you know, a top, unquestionably a top three firm for essentially its entire existence. And there was no other VC firm that has been a top …”
Collison: Making twice as many decisions at half precision is often better
“If you can make, like, if you can make twice as many decisions at half the, kind of half the precision, that's actually often better. And then given the fact that sort of the rate of improvement of decision making with additional time almost necessarily tends …”
Collison: A CEO being forced to decide indicates broken organizational architecture
“There are some decisions where if I'm making it or if I have to make it, that probably suggests that something else organizationally or institutionally has broken. And I think the need for a decision from anyone, not just from me is often like only a sort of a…”
Collison: 60% of Atlas Companies Say They Wouldn't Exist Otherwise
“When we survey companies started with Atlas, 60% of them tell us they would not exist if not for Atlas.”
Collison: Many organizations prioritize cohesion over intellectual correctness
“I think so many organizations prize sort of Smoothness and smoothness of sort of interactions and trying to reduce, minimize the number of sort of ruffled feathers. And they kind of at least sort of inadvertently, if not deliberately prefer cohesion over corre…”
Collison: Latent disagreement on optimization targets causes persistent organizational friction
“I think disagreement over sort of instrumental efficacy, you know, well, that's rarely that problematic a disagreement because, well, if you're right, then we'll soon learn that. If you're wrong, reality will probably sort of make that pretty clear in short or…”
Ovitz: Stripe's Collison brothers are among the smartest executives in tech
“And I think the Collinson brothers are two of the smartest guys in the business.”
Doshi: Written culture enables permissionless organizational communication
“When you have a writing culture, it becomes more of a permissionless environment. You know, say non-writing culture where perhaps the way big decisions are made or proposals are shared, it's usually in some meeting where perhaps you know, we have a discussion …”
Collison: Stripe invests roughly 70-80% on core optimization and 20% on speculative bets
“Roughly speaking, we invest most of our effort, we don't have a precise number on it, but let's just say 70 or 80% in optimizing that which we already have, that which we already know is producing, which Turns that which there's a sort of roughly clear line of…”
Collison: Rigorous thinking requires enjoying finding where one's beliefs fail
“I think that sort of getting that kind of rigor and clarity of thought requires sort of a joy of discovery at like, ah, this thing I believe, this rule that I thought existed, like it's actually not good in this place. And having that be an enjoyable discovery…”
Collison: Organizations should optimize feedback loops over binary decisions
“I think the things to optimize are the incentive structures and the,
Mindsets, and the definitions of the goals, and the feedback mechanisms from the outcomes to the inputs, and the work, and the operations themselves, and all of those things, and less the bin…”
Gil: Invested in Airbnb, Stripe at 8 employees, Coinbase at $1B+
“I invested in Airbnb when it was probably around eight people. Stripe was probably around the same size. And then Coinbase only got involved with much later when it was a billion dollar plus company.”
Doshi: Stripe B2B features used qualitative feedback to track long-term impact
“And I did this a lot at Stripe, for instance, when we were working on B to B products, that, you know, in some cases, they took a year or year plus to show direct revenue impact or volume impact, is I would call out some very big customers that we were able to…”
Doshi: Stripe co-founders regularly conducted user research with frontline staff
“Patrick and John, until a very, very long time, as the company was scaling, and to a point where you wouldn't expect the founder to do so they were talking to customers. They were talking to users, and not only that, in many cases, they would kind of, you know…”
Collison: Stripe prioritizes rigor, determination, and warmth when hiring
“I think the three that kind of really stand out to me are this kind of rigor and clarity of thought, this sort of hunger, appetite, willfulness, determination and this, again, Warmth and desire to make people around them better off.”