This seems the most nuanced explanation. Most Big Companies™ I've worked with (AOL, CNET when it was a public co) have a lot of layers, which without proper obj

This seems the most nuanced explanation. Most Big Companies™ I've worked with (AOL, CNET when it was a public co) have a lot of layers, which without proper objective alignment, creates a natural 'broken-ness' feeling. Contrast that with startups where the lack of resources and increasing growth makes it feel broken. Also if you're growing headcount very quickly, culture doesn't always get transmitted and you can end up with factions fighting against each other. "Life is pain. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something." You do, however, get to pick your pain. Pain from growing too quickly feels much different from organizational disfunction. In Amazon's case they might have both (!) because of how fast they grow and how big they are.