Introducing the Privy Council
Steady at the helm, gentlemen
Changes
There have been a lot of changes in the Tortuga Society since May.
Early Tortuga
To understand why, you need to look back to what Walt Bismarck was doing two years ago:
The Tortuga Society is a professional fraternity of relentlessly agentic and chronically disagreeable young men who refuse to play by the stultifying and undignified rules of woke anti-white corporatism. We vigorously reject the notion of submitting to a decadent and corrupt system that openly hates us, and have instead decided to cheat, lie, and ruthlessly job stack our way to outsized money and power.
Tortuga has grown into a resounding success, in large part due to the efforts of Theon Ultima and Rajeev Ram, who ran the day-to-day operations.
Tortuga has over 150 members, many of whom are now job stacking. But some members never wanted additional jobs, and a few new Tortugans don’t even know who Walt Bismarck is. What attracted them to Tortuga was either the people who were already there or something more intangible.
What started as a job-stacking club has grown into a fraternal order. We have half a dozen members with published novels, a growing staffing initiative to provide all our members with jobs, and, most importantly, a curated group of high-quality men and women. It is, by the candid admission of nearly everyone in it, the best group room any of them have been in.
The Transition
For over a year now, Theon Ultima has been the captain of the Tortuga Society. Under his stewardship, Walt’s original vision has grown immensely, but so too have his personal obligations. Theon job stacks and has a young family. In May, Theon and Rajeev withdrew from Tortuga, passing its control to a privy council.
The Privy Council
A pirate coalition never has one point of failure. Tortuga is now run by:
Professor Axelrod, Captain and CEO
Represents the Tortuga Society to the public
Develops overall strategy and outreach
Directs the Tortuga Privy Council
Chief executive and final decision maker
Krug, Quartermaster
Onboards new members
Sets priorities and assigns owners across workstreams
Executes the council’s mandate
Fosters productive discussion
Daniel M. Bensen, Bosun
Editor of Tortuga Media
Runs standup calls (members only)
The 13th Grade, Bosun’s Mate
Archivist of standup calls
Assistant to the Editor of Tortuga Media (podcast audio production, etc)
Administers the Tortuga Writers’ Group (members only)
Bingo Bobbins, Prime Mentor
Brand ambassadorship, coaching, and mentoring
Runs the Fitness Challenge (members only)
Portavoz Pirata, Marketing Lead
Owns Tortuga's marketing strategy end-to-end: positioning, brand voice, and the org narrative across all pillars
Runs marketing operations (campaigns, channels, and the join funnel that turns interest into dues-paying crew)
Guards the colors: brand identity, aesthetic, and message consistency
Drives recruitment and growth; owns the top of the funnel through to conversion
Steward of Tortuga's public-facing marketing assets, including the website and recruitment surfaces
Tom Swift, Tech Lead
Theon Ultima, Commodore
Currently on paternity leave (congratulations)
Walt Bismarck, Founder and Captain Emeritus
Currently on medical leave (on behalf of his family)
The Three Pillars
This new iteration of the Tortuga Society will preserve all of the resources that the original one had, in three main pillars:
The Crew — A curated brotherhood of competent and trustworthy men. Weekly calls, private community, a brain trust with reach across industries and regions, and a roadmap toward in-person gatherings. We are men who do things, and it’s far easier to get things done when you’re part of a gang of like-minded people.
The Plunder — The Buccaneer Bootcamp, the Tortuga Network staffing arm, the Technical Institute, and the job-stacking playbook are all available to members. The original purpose of the ship, still going strong, still getting men paid, only bigger and better.
Seaworthiness — The Tortuga Fitness Challenge, and for mental health, Tortuga Media, Tortuga Publishing, and Radio Tortuga form a working institution for the ideas, books, and conversations that the respectable outlets won’t host.
News
Membership is open again: $500 to join, $50 per year after that.
Ports of Tortuga, a members-only network, allows Tortugans to meet each other in real life.
The Tortuga Fitness Challenge: squat, bench, deadlift, biggest Wilks-score gain wins, through August 31.
Tortuga Media got new tags — Job Hacking, Society, Life, Podcast — and an independent site is coming.
The Tortuga Library Podcast is five episodes in, hosted by writers Daniel M. Bensen and The 13th Grade — a new book every time.
The Writers’ Group is up. Nonmembers can get a glimpse of it in this voice chat about building an AI editor.
Tortugans can tell you about the job-stacking metagame , the metaphysics of promises, and a sensitive young man in a Balinese brothel. We have a founders’ debrief with the man behind Rhodes, the right-wing AI model, as well as a coaching call behind the Fitness Challenge.
First, we were but a small ship with a captain and a crew. But now the Tortuga Society has grown into something akin to the Isle de Tortuga, the real island in the Caribbean that was the base of operations for pirates in the 17th century.
Tortuga is the place where modern you can come to learn, network, and plot plunder together.