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Asshole managers who copy Jeff Bezos are just this tech generation's version of asshole managers who copied Steve Jobs that we had to deal with 20 years ago.

asveikau 7y ago
Was it cool to copy Jobs 20 years ago, after NeXT but before OS X, iPod, and iPhone? I don't think so. Was it cool to copy his asshole traits before he was kicked out the first time? I would have been too young to know. I am not sure how widely they were publicized. Anyway, I am not the biggest Amazon fan, but if what they are imitating are things like "customer focus" as claimed in the article and it's not a euphemism or lip service then that sounds good. Seems like they could do that without being jerks too.
- jerkstate 7y ago
  I would say if there was any lull in Jobs' popularity it would have been between when he was fired in '85 to the early '90s, by '96 Pixar had released Toy Story and Jobs had been Acqui-hired back by Apple. OS X, iPod, and iPhone are far from his first successes. Through this time he worked with thousands of people and was an asshole the whole time, so when people saw his trajectory in the 90s after his fall in the 80s they were even more convinced that Scully was wrong and Jobs had been right all along. One of the things they mention in the article is the "bar raiser" concept and I've seen that concept used politically at Amazon offshoots. They don't mention in the article the morale-crushing public blame games in the name of "accountability" that Bezos acolytes can't resist doing, that's well documented in many other Amazon introspectives. Same shit, different decade.
  - asveikau 7y ago
    I think some of this view of Jobs needs to be anchored to the subsequent successes. Imagine if he had rejoined in '96 [when Apple seemed doomed] but then didn't churn out a bunch of successful projects ... In 1999 the outcome wasn't clear yet. I totally believe you on terms like "bar raiser" and "accountability". (Never worked at Amazon but did have a stint in Seattle). These are tingling my "corporate bullshit" senses strongly. But I'll still say a term like "customer focus", if it's correctly applied, is very important.
draw_down 7y ago
Ugh. I guess it’s another point of due diligence to look into before applying to/accepting a job.

asveikau 7y ago

Was it cool to copy Jobs 20 years ago, after NeXT but before OS X, iPod, and iPhone? I don't think so. Was it cool to copy his asshole traits before he was kicked out the first time? I would have been too young to know. I am not sure how widely they were publicized. Anyway, I am not the biggest Amazon fan, but if what they are imitating are things like "customer focus" as claimed in the article and it's not a euphemism or lip service then that sounds good. Seems like they could do that without being jerks too.

jerkstate 7y ago
I would say if there was any lull in Jobs' popularity it would have been between when he was fired in '85 to the early '90s, by '96 Pixar had released Toy Story and Jobs had been Acqui-hired back by Apple. OS X, iPod, and iPhone are far from his first successes. Through this time he worked with thousands of people and was an asshole the whole time, so when people saw his trajectory in the 90s after his fall in the 80s they were even more convinced that Scully was wrong and Jobs had been right all along. One of the things they mention in the article is the "bar raiser" concept and I've seen that concept used politically at Amazon offshoots. They don't mention in the article the morale-crushing public blame games in the name of "accountability" that Bezos acolytes can't resist doing, that's well documented in many other Amazon introspectives. Same shit, different decade.
- asveikau 7y ago
  I think some of this view of Jobs needs to be anchored to the subsequent successes. Imagine if he had rejoined in '96 [when Apple seemed doomed] but then didn't churn out a bunch of successful projects ... In 1999 the outcome wasn't clear yet. I totally believe you on terms like "bar raiser" and "accountability". (Never worked at Amazon but did have a stint in Seattle). These are tingling my "corporate bullshit" senses strongly. But I'll still say a term like "customer focus", if it's correctly applied, is very important.

draw_down 7y ago

Ugh. I guess it’s another point of due diligence to look into before applying to/accepting a job.