Acquired

Hosted by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal · 78 korrents · 4 episodes · 5 guests · www.acquired.fm ↗

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal did not write this page.

Each episode below lists what its guest said, quoted word for word from the transcript the show publishes and linked to the second it was said, so you can hear it rather than take our word for it. The sentence on each line is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Nothing the host ASKED is here, on any line: a question is not a belief, however confidently it is phrased. Where Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal assert something in their own voice it is on their own page, never counted against a guest.

5 guests

Tobias Lütke 21 Jamie Dimon 19 Michael Lewis 16 Bret Taylor 12 Clay Bavor 10

Everything they said, in one feed →

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About Everything management 10 innovation 7 writing 7 AI agents 6 journalism 5 investing 4 LLMs 4 ambition 3 coding agents 3 AGI 2 AI and jobs 2 developer tools 2 SaaS 2 software quality 2 startups 2 taste 2

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Michael LewisAmerican author of Liar's Poker, Moneyball, The Big Short and The Undoing Project, and host of the podcast Against the Rules.15 Dec 2025 · 2h 47m · 16 korrentsOn writing, journalism and taste

10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)

Michael Lewis

Our page for this episode →Watch on youtube.com ↗

Our reading — their words are on the recording

0:07:26
Our reading
The job of a writer is to get the reader into a state of mind where they will follow you anywhere, including into subjects they never knew they wanted.
Their wordsyou grab the listener like I try to grab a reader and get them to the state of mind where they'll let you take them anywhere uh and teach them about stuff that they don't even know they want to learn about.
writing
0:18:21
Our reading
Starting from what worked rather than from what failed is a different starting point from almost all journalism, and a journalist who did it would be accused of hagiography.
Their wordsIn fact, if most journalists started there, they'd be accused of heography
journalism
0:24:35
Our reading
Hollywood will woo you with its enthusiasm and then take you down a rabbit hole where you spend years of your life and have nothing to show for it.
Their wordsThat's a really intelligent way place to land because what they will do is woo you with their enthusiasm and then take you down a rabbit hole where you will spend years of your life and have nothing to show.
0:26:19
Our reading
A writer's audience does not carry from one book to the next: every book is another startup you have to make happen from scratch.
Their wordsI see no evidence that I'm dragging people along with me. I feel like each each book feels like another startup and that I've got to go out and make it happen almost as if I've not written one.
startups
0:27:39
Our reading
An audience is not buying the subject you cover; it is buying your interest in the subject.
Their wordsThey learn to trust you that if you're interested, they'll be interested. That what in fact what they're buying into is not the subject, but your interest in the subject.
journalism
0:32:50
Our reading
The best sign that a subject is worth writing about is that you are interested in it and nobody else is.
Their wordsAnd I've learned just to not even talk about it cuz it kills my interest to watch it kill their interest. But I know why I'm interested and why it's important and I'm not I'm not relying on the world telling me it's important.
writing

All 16 from this episode, along the running time →

Tobias LütkeCo-founder and CEO of Shopify; long-time Linux user and Omarchy contributor.18 Sept 2025 · 1h 48m · 21 korrentsOn management and innovation

ACQ2: How to Live in Everyone Else's Future (with Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke)

Tobias Lütke

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Our reading — their words are on the recording

0:07:20
Our reading
You do not need to predict the future; you only need to live in everyone else's relative future, which is a few high-conviction beta updates away.
Their wordsYou don't even need to predict the future that well. If you just live in everyone else's relative future, which really is just a couple of um high conviction high courage uh update to beta clicks. It's not that hard to live in the future.
innovation
0:11:11
Our reading
An abstraction chosen wrongly at the start means a team can never make its software great, however good that team is.
Their wordsJust imagine you use very bad software and um the team that started the project decided early to use Xamarin and then they never had a chance of making this as good as all the other things you really appreciate on your phone due to this decision no matter how good they are.
ideas vs execution software quality
0:13:06
Our reading
A good tool raises the floor of what people can build without lowering the ceiling, and almost every tool quietly lowers the ceiling.
Their wordswhat you are try like trying to do as a tool maker, as an infrastructure builder, um as a product maker is you want to make a uh tool that brings the floor up significantly, but doesn't constrain the ceiling. And that is extremely hard.
developer tools design
0:20:12
Our reading
The one thing no science-fiction writer dared predict is that the Turing test would be passed and nobody would notice.
Their wordsAnd you know what no sci-fi author dared to predict is that the Turing tests just passes by.
measuring intelligence AGI
0:24:54
Our reading
This is the golden age of humanity and the end of its beginning; in a thousand years these decades will be studied the way we study the end of the Roman Republic.
Their wordsI I think this is golden age of humanity right now. It's the I think it's the end of the beginning. And and so I think we will um I think people in 1,000 years will um study these times uh the way we are studying um Cicero's times of the end of the Roman Republic
0:29:07
Our reading
We have not stopped building great works; ours are operating-system kernels, browsers and silicon lithography rather than bridges and steel mills.
Their wordsHowever, we are actually absolutely doing this. It's just the great works are kernels of operating systems, the browser, the um lots of the software platforms, the phones, the um the incredible advances in uh silicon lithography
semiconductors innovation

All 21 from this episode, along the running time →

Bret Taylor, Clay Bavor18 Aug 2025 · 1h 13m · 22 korrentsOn AI agents, innovation and coding agents

How is AI Different Than Other Technology Waves? (With Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor) [ACQ2]

Bret Taylor Clay Bavor

Our page for this episode →Watch on youtube.com ↗

Our reading — their words are on the recording

0:07:17
Our reading
Each new technology is adopted faster than the last only because it rides on the infrastructure the previous wave built.
Bret Taylor’s wordsSo when you make something like chat GPT, you can go from to zero to 100 million users faster than any technology in history because of the other technologies though. like you couldn't have gotten there if not for the build out of the internet, if not for the smartphone.
infrastructure
0:10:14
Our reading
Almost all of the dot-com era's exuberance turned out to be warranted; we remember the failures and forget the value that era created.
Bret Taylor’s wordsIf you look at the S&P 500 now and you look at the amount of value from companies created in that, one could argue that actually almost all of the exuberance and hype was totally warranted and it in fact did change commerce in fundamental ways.
0:15:41
Our reading
Most conversations with a company's agent will eventually be with the customer's own personal agent -- agents talking to agents.
Clay Bavor’s wordsBrett and I like betting and one of the bets we have is the year in which greater than 50% of conversations with agents built on Sierra are with people's personal agents. So agents talking to agents.
AI agents
0:16:11
Our reading
AI agents can already resolve more than eighty per cent of a company's incoming customer issues.
Clay Bavor’s wordsOne of the first was we had a bet as to what percent of kind of all incoming customer issues one of our agents could resolve. And Brett was maybe the pessimist and realist favorably charitably. And I bet we'd exceed 80% by the end of the year and we did.
AI agents
0:21:43
Our reading
Software engineering is the job most exposed to automation by this generation of technology, and the people building it are disrupting their own profession.
Bret Taylor’s wordsif you tell what what jobs are most likely to be automated with the current generation of technology, you would probably put software engineering right at the top. The people building this technology or building the technology that is disrupting their own profession.
AI and jobs
0:22:40
Our reading
Turning expertise into a commodity is democratising, because access to medical, legal and mental-health advice has always tracked wealth.
Bret Taylor’s wordsI just think about like really simple things like access to mental health care, access to education, access to medical advice, access to legal advice. We're essentially taking expertise and making it a commodity. And I think that will is generally democratizing.

All 22 from this episode, along the running time →

Jamie DimonChairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, which he has led since 2005 after turning around Bank One.16 Jul 2025 · 1h 06m · 19 korrentsOn investing and management

The Jamie Dimon Interview: How JP Morgan Became an $800 Billion Bank

Jamie Dimon

Our page for this episode →Watch on youtube.com ↗

Our reading — their words are on the recording

0:17:28
Our reading
Being risk-conscious does not mean getting rid of risk; it means pricing it properly and understanding the range of outcomes.
Their wordsI've always been very risk-conscious. And risk-conscious does not mean getting rid of risk. It means properly pricing it and understanding the potential outcomes.
investing
0:20:51
Our reading
Financial history rhymes because every crisis has the same cause: too much leverage, too much risk, and everybody believing it will stay good.
Their words1929, and man, history does rhyme. Too much leverage, too much risk. Everyone thinks it's going to be great. No one thinks it's going to go down a lot.
investing
0:22:06
Our reading
A bank should be managed against the fat tails it can imagine, not against the stress test its regulator hands it.
Their wordsAnd so, I always look what I call the fat tails and manage that we can handle all the all the fat tails. And not the stress test the Fed gives us, but all the fat tails.
0:22:21
Our reading
In financial services what kills you is leverage and aggressive accounting, not bad luck.
Their wordsAnd and the thing about financial services, leverage kills you. Aggressive accounting can kill you, which a lot of companies do do.
0:23:16
Our reading
The banks earning the highest returns on equity before 2007 mostly went bankrupt, and earning less in the good years is what let JP Morgan survive.
Their wordsif you look at the history of banks from up until 2007, a lot of banks were earning 30% equity. Most of them went bankrupt. We never did that much. Okay, but in '08 and '09, we were fine, and they weren't.
0:24:15
Our reading
A fortress balance sheet is a way of operating rather than a capital ratio: good margins, liquidity, capital, and the most conservative accounting you can find.
Their wordsthe fortress balance sheet is that you run a company serving clients well, you have good margins, good liquidity, good capital. I'm as conservative in accounting as you can find. I don't up-front profits when I can spread them over time.

All 19 from this episode, along the running time →