Co-founder and former CEO of @Mailchimp. Father, husband, designerd, mountain biker and student of Objectivism 🇺🇸

Atlanta
Joined December 2008
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.
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Marxism is rationalized envy.
It’s always seize the means of production and never create the means of production.
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Their target market will buy both.
That demo was insane. Mindblowing. But there is not a real car guy on the planet that would pick that over the Mission S
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
Look, if you’re having a bad day, read the replies, I’ve been laughing for five minutes 😂😂😂
Mission S. Authentic. Consistent. Timeless. A glimpse into the future - shaped by our heritage. Mid-engine architecture. A focus on the driver and the driving experience. Call it a love letter.
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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…
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Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there
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He feels that “warmth of collectivism” now.
Mamdani is stone-faced as the protesters call him a traitor and sellout.
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
That's one way to get a foreword.
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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”
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Exactly. Their biggest crime seems to be that the Israelis are quite effective (at defending themselves)! “How *dare* they be good!?!?”
Worth watching: "It is not a genocide; it is a counterattack in a war."
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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-…
An anti-AI protest outside Google’s offices today. Note the presence of a Palestinian flag. Can someone please explain the alignment between the Palestinian and anti-AI protestors?
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“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.”
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
The same politicians flailing about speculative AI mass-poverty doomerism haven’t done a thing about the mass poverty the national debt is already causing.
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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
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
One day AI is going to kill us The next day you are at a Salesforce conference
Welcome Dario to Dreamforce!
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Ben Chestnut retweeted
"We missed our numbers" -> unfortunate, disappointing, bearish "We were pacing the frontier" -> noble, strategic, humanity-saving
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They really do need better Comms people 😂
EXCLUSIVE: Anthropic S-1 cover page leaked
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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”
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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.
The United States of America has collapsed. Rival fast food chains have taken over. Who are you pledging your allegiance to?
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