How Eiichiro Oda Works
Founders Podcast host profiles One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, drawing on decades of interviews to show how his extreme work ethic, refusal to delegate, and focus on pleasing his 15-year-old self built the bestselling comic series ever.
The gist
-
Oda says he draws the manga he wanted to read as a kid, judging every idea by whether his 15-year-old self would find it awesome.
-
Oda keeps the fewest people possible on the work, personally drawing every moving element like smoke, clouds, and waves while assistants handle backgrounds.
-
For about 15 years Oda slept from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m., saying an extra hour of sleep meant an hour lost from working.
-
Oda insisted Netflix not release the live-action One Piece until he approved it, and the host highly recommends the show himself.
-
The host sees Oda's tolerance for repetition in Bezos, who reprinted his first 1997 shareholder letter at the end of every later one.
Founders Podcast recommends it
"There's this great show on Netflix I actually started watching as I started researching Oda. It's a live-action adaptation of One Piece that I actually highly recommend. I thought originally I would just watch it with my son. I watch it way more by myself and I find it very en..."
▶ Play at 16:42
Founders Podcast recommends it
"Go and read all of Jeff Bezos's shareholder letters. The very first one he writes in 1997 where he talks about it's day one. He repeated that it's day one for Amazon for two decades."
▶ Play at 25:48What they recommend · 2 picks
"There's this great show on Netflix I actually started watching as I started researching Oda. It's a live-action adaptation of One Piece that I actually highly recommend. I thoug..."
"Go and read all of Jeff Bezos's shareholder letters. The very first one he writes in 1997 where he talks about it's day one. He repeated that it's day one for Amazon for two dec..."
Also mentioned
Ads in this episode
Vanta, Ramp, AppLovin. They're paid, so we keep them out of the picks above.
See what Founders Podcast recommends without being paid →Related episodes
Episodes covering similar topics
More from Founders Podcast