Ellen Fishbein
@EllenRhymes
Director of Writing at @Owner. Poet & technophile. Supporter & student of great leaders. Co-owner of http://Writing.coach.
Announcement 🤯😁 For years, I had been helping @owner's CEO @adamguild do impossible things. But I still felt surprised when he did 1 thing I had thought impossible: he recruited me. It was surreal when he called to welcome me to the team. I said: “You’re basically the only…
In July 1969 NASA invited Ayn Rand to attend the launching of Apollo 11. She wrote about the experience in her essay ‘Apollo 11’. Here is the first page:
I turn 30 today. Here’s what I’d tell my 20-year-old self: 1. External validation is a hell of a drug. The sooner you stop chasing approval and start trusting yourself (while staying humble enough to be open to feedback), the further you’ll go. 2. Find what gives you energy.…
“A freedom of motion, to maneuver at will, can masquerade as an imitation of power.” 📖 The Technological Republic by Alex Karp. Full review forthcoming :)
Anthropic was at $1B in annualized revenue at the beginning of the year and is $4B now in mid-2025. OpenAI is at $10B. This kind of revenue growth has never been seen before by any company in human history.
CRA demanded 6 years of Canadian merchant data from us. This felt like blatant overreach We took them to court and last Friday Justice Régimbald agreed with us. The court dismissed the request and called it “… unintelligible, incoherent, or otherwise beyond its understanding”
I don't particularly want a fight with the CRA (Canada's tax authority)- but we got asked to backchannel them 6 years of records for all Canadian Shopify stores. This feels like low-key overreach to me. We will fight this.
If your vacation home gives you a paragraphs-long list of instructions at check-in and chores at checkout it’s not a “vacation”.
“Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” ― Franz Kafka, born on this day in 1883
Just read Nearly Perfect by @thomasdrach. It's one of the clearest takes I’ve seen on why some products just work while others flop. Highly recommend for anyone building anything. nearlyperfectbook.com
Massive shout out to @EllenRhymes. Without her, this book wouldn’t exist. Thank you for you work, support and leadership on this. I hope many other books are printed because of you!
just had the most wonderful interaction with a local business owner. i said, “thank you so much for solving all the problems.” and he said, “thank you so much for bringing me problems.” 😄
Some notes on Negotiations 1/ When you finish any complex deal you will feel fatigued and worn out. It sometimes feels hard to celebrate. The best deals feel this way. Complex negotiations require compromises. When both (or all) parties make concessions nobody feels great.…
I've been teasing this in a few places but now it's official. My first book "Nearly Perfect" is launching June 16th. Nearly Perfect is a focused, illustrated, hardcover that talks about the best products in the world, and how they got there. We'll also go through some failure…