
Co-founder and former CEO of @Mailchimp. Father, husband, designerd, mountain biker and student of Objectivism 🇺🇸
Atlanta
Joined December 2008
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
The irony of America leftists siding with the protests in France is that French economic policies closely approximate the very economic policies that American leftists want.
From the high schools of France to the streets of Madrid to the universities of Tirana, young people are telling their governments the same thing: in an age of massive wealth inequality, they want a future they can believe in.
In France, students and teachers are asking for safe schools, enough teachers and smaller classes.
In Spain, for affordable rent and housing.
In Albania, for good jobs and an end to corruption.
@JDVance says this is what happens when a nation lets in too many immigrants from the global south.
He is not just morally wrong, but misreading the moment.
The is what happens when nations let wealth and power accumulate in the hands of a few.
This is what happens when young people lose hope in their future.
In America, let us listen to our young.
We need an economic and political transformation.
America's Next New Deal.
Ben Chestnut retweeted
Look, if you’re having a bad day, read the replies, I’ve been laughing for five minutes 😂😂😂
We did the same for many years at Mailchimp. When it was time to announce the payout in December, our CFO would come out dressed as a giant pizza slice (long story).
Since we started offering employee profit sharing in 2020, we've paid out over $24,000,000 to employees.
We've never offered stock options. Not a fan of future maybe money. We pay real cash to real people so they can spend it on real things right now.
When you choose to be our customer, you're making this possible. You're supporting an independent, fully customer-funded business that shares its success with the people who make it happen.
You don't need investors, stock options, or complicated cap tables to share your success. You can just share the profits. It really can be that simple.
If you're curious, this is how the profit sharing plan works:
basecamp.com/handbook/benefi…
Ben Chestnut retweeted
Replying to @apostraphi
lol this was a serious piece of design feedback from @benchestnut in 2009 when I made our first iteration of the mascot where you can see his back
“Do you think maybe he has a butt?” Ben asked
“Yes. Yes I do”
Exactly. Their biggest crime seems to be that the Israelis are quite effective (at defending themselves)! “How *dare* they be good!?!?”
This is a Left-Populist coalition-building tactic that Laclau and Mouffes referred to as “chain of equivalences.” They encourage any and all grievance groups to band together to increase their numbers. thepointmag.com/politics/we-…
“they witnessed…the inability of existing left politics to channel their energy…the best hope for the left was to create a “chain of equivalences” among distinct demands (economic equality, racial justice, an end to gender discrimination, etc.) under the aegis of what they dubbed the “empty signifier” of the “people.”
Ben Chestnut retweeted
Time magazine's doomer covers:
1954 nuclear war
1960 population explosion
1970 ecological collapse
1982 nuclear war
1989 endangered Earth
1992 ozone
1999 Y2K
2001/2006/2007 climate
2005 pandemic
2009 extinction
2013 bees
2019 climate
2020 pandemic
2023 AI extinction
2026 AI tipping point
Ben Chestnut retweeted
One day AI is going to kill us
The next day you are at a Salesforce conference
Ben Chestnut retweeted
"We missed our numbers" -> unfortunate, disappointing, bearish
"We were pacing the frontier" -> noble, strategic, humanity-saving
Ben Chestnut retweeted
What that should tell you is two things:
1. Trump is nothing close to a consistent capitalist. Handing out politically targeted government money is central planning with a different sales pitch.
2. Giving government the power to centrally plan the economy doesn’t guarantee your preferred central planning. Socialists demand the power, then act shocked when someone they despise gets elected and uses the same machinery for purposes they despise.
If you give the state the power to pick winners and losers, you don’t get to guarantee who does the picking, or who gets picked.
Trump: “Government giving people free stuff is communism! “
Also Trump: “Vote for my side and the government will give you $5000”
Ben Chestnut retweeted
Trump Pledges That If Voters Defeat Socialism In November, They Will Each Get An Equal Redistribution Of Wealth From The Government buff.ly/kRXF5x9
Waffle House would win. Trained to fight 24/7. Likely to form a coalition with Chicfila, which would bring on the conservative Christians (and extremely friendly operational efficiency) to scatter, dice and smother the others. Alliance with truck drivers also brings logistical dominance. Unstoppable.

































