# Tobi LΓΌtke flags Anthropic's employment research; Lenny's Podcast guest recommends Ted Chiang *By Recommended Reading from Tech Founders β€’ October 19, 2026* Tobi LΓΌtke compares Anthropic's research on its own workforce with data from Shopify. On Lenny's Podcast, Emmanuel Ameisen gives his go-to books, and Patrick O'Shaughnessy points to a new Colossus profile. ## Tobi LΓΌtke: Anthropic's research on employment at Anthropic Tobi called Anthropic's [employment-at-Anthropic research piece](https://www.anthropic.com/research/employment-at-anthropic) an "interesting read." He then posted what he says is "the same viz but from inside Shopify's River," which puts Shopify's internal data next to Anthropic's chart. [^1] He gives no takeaway of his own. The comparison is the point: a founder checks a frontier lab's look at its own workforce against what his company shows. ## Emmanuel Ameisen (Anthropic) on Lenny's Podcast: two books and a film In the lightning round of [Lenny's Podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHo-aiePjoM), Anthropic interpretability researcher Emmanuel Ameisen named the books he recommends most: - ***A Brief History of Intelligence*** follows the history of brains through "five key moments" in evolution, each building new brain systems on top of the last. He calls it "super accessible," with no neuroscience background needed. [^2] - ***Story of Your Life and Others*** by Ted Chiang is "maybe my favorite sci-fi book of all time." These short stories are "the high art version of sci-fi": take "one weird idea" and imagine "what would the world look like if that happened." [^2] Host Lenny Rachitsky has described himself as an investor in startups [^2]. He said he thinks the book is on his own shelf and that he "also highly recommend[s]" it. [^2] - ***Obsession*** was his favorite movie of the year. It's a horror film that "takes a lot of romcom tropes and... subverts them," which he says makes it feel "so fresh." [^2] ## Patrick O'Shaughnessy: Colossus profile by Blake Harris O'Shaughnessy called a profile coming soon from Colossus "an amazing profile about someone unwilling to compromise." [^3] The [Colossus teaser](https://x.com/colossusmag/status/2111851548884275490) credits Blake Harris as author and gives the release as "Tomorrow." [^4] Neither post names the subject in its text. O'Shaughnessy is linked to Colossus, so read this partly as promotion of his own outlet. ## Shorter mentions - **Paul Graham** quoted [OpenCode's @thdxr](https://x.com/thdxr/status/2111790511409258796) and wrote, "This is how things will be for the foreseeable future." [^5] The quoted post says attackers had been hitting OpenCode's systems nonstop for 48 hours, and "we basically need agents going 24/7 because that's what they have." [^6] - **David Sacks** quoted [Andrew Curran's post](https://x.com/andrewcurran_/status/2111837963214794940) on the same incident. It says frontier models OpenCode was using for defense began refusing to help, because analyzing the attacks triggered safety guardrails. [^7] Sacks's takeaway is that "the guardrails backfired." He calls for a decentralized approach: make powerful models available so defenders "can build and run their own cyber defenses." [^8] - **Tobi** replied "Killed it" to [a clip](https://x.com/technovitytech/status/2111698796145213663) billed as "the best intro ever made by Apple," from Apple's October (Unleashed) event. [^9][^10] - **Alexandr Wang** quoted a post calling an FT article on him "really good." His only comment was that the piece "leaned a little too hard" into one angle, so this is a reaction, not an endorsement. [^11][^12] - **Jason Lemkin** promoted his own [SaaStr takes on this week's 20VC](https://www.saastr.com/jasons-takes-on-this-weeks-20vc-x-saastr-pro-rata-fights-the-first-real-ai-price-drop-and-why-500m-arr-isnt-safe-anymore/), so this is self-promotion. His headline advice: if you're cut out of a round, "say it once, then drop it," because "pro rata was priced into your seed round." [^13] --- ### Sources [^1]: [𝕏 post by @tobi](https://x.com/tobi/status/2111999594414665895) [^2]: [A mind-expanding conversation on how models actually work | Emmanuel Ameisen \(Anthropic\)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHo-aiePjoM) [^3]: [𝕏 post by @patrick_oshag](https://x.com/patrick_oshag/status/2111856013599195245) [^4]: [𝕏 post by @colossusmag](https://x.com/colossusmag/status/2111851548884275490) [^5]: [𝕏 post by @paulg](https://x.com/paulg/status/2111823339953991832) [^6]: [𝕏 post by @thdxr](https://x.com/thdxr/status/2111790511409258796) [^7]: [𝕏 post by @AndrewCurran_](https://x.com/AndrewCurran_/status/2111837963214794940) [^8]: [𝕏 post by @DavidSacks](https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/2111867605388493282) [^9]: [𝕏 post by @tobi](https://x.com/tobi/status/2111801591221383655) [^10]: [𝕏 post by @TechnovityTech](https://x.com/TechnovityTech/status/2111698796145213663) [^11]: [𝕏 post by @bubbleboi](https://x.com/bubbleboi/status/2111634648564670970) [^12]: [𝕏 post by @alexandr_wang](https://x.com/alexandr_wang/status/2111835255787106637) [^13]: [𝕏 post by @jasonlk](https://x.com/jasonlk/status/2111992828154830860)