6 ms·
What is ironic is that there is an annual Award given to an AWS employee called the Cliff Stoll Award: For those individuals who see something suspicious, not w
by helixfelix 5y ago
What is ironic is that there is an annual Award given to an AWS employee called the Cliff Stoll Award: For those individuals who see something suspicious, not working as expected, show ownership and drive it to resolution. As Cliff did to find a KGB spy, and documented in "The Cuckoo's Egg".
I wonder what would happen if someone at Amazon pulled on this thread and not only solved Cliff's problem but also the root cause that enables this kind of product hijacking.
- danparsonson 5y agoPlot twist: the root cause is greed
- mentos 5y agoThe root cause is oxygen. Anyone expecting any other behavior from utility maximizing entities is naive?
- danparsonson 5y agoI would counter that by saying anyone ascribing that mindset automatically to all humans is cynical ;-)
- hrdwdmrbl 5y agoDisagree. It’s possible to start with that assumption and then design systems with that in mind.
- danparsonson 5y agoAgreed, but I guess we're talking about slightly different things (and perhaps I missed the point of the 'oxygen' remark) - I was saying, Amazon's system is designed that way because Amazon are greedy (that's the root cause), and that it's cynical to say that it's just because they're human (and therefore implicitly greedy). Vaguely worded statements on my part though, I should've been clearer.
- swalsh 5y agoAllowing trusted sellers to be hijacked is not greedy behavior. Keeping 3rd sellers happy will result in less returns, happier resellers, and greater platform usage. The root cause here is organizational failure from disempowered employees. At one point Amazon had great customer service with empowered represenatives. That's not Amazon today.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Aeolun 5y ago> Allowing trusted sellers to be hijacked is not greedy behavior Depends entirely on how much the sellers are selling. It’s entirely possible they like the idea of making a ton of sales for a bit. It’s not their reputation that gets destroyed.
- anigbrowl 5y agoIt is if you make more money from the hijackers, and/or from marginalizing your 'difficult' employees.
- danparsonson 5y ago> Allowing trusted sellers to be hijacked is not greedy behavior It can be if that's the side effect of a system designed to make selling as frictionless (and therefore lucrative) as possible. Thence, greed could be the root cause, if not the proximate cause.
- reaperducer 5y agoI posit that it's not greed. It's laziness. Why do a great job, when "good enough" is good enough for 90% of the people? That's how business works today.
- danparsonson 5y agoYou could be right, Occam's razor and all that, but I think 'good enough' is a carefully chosen strategy tuned to maximise a bottom line rather than an accident.
- CliffStoll 5y agoIf there really is a Cliff Stoll award, I'd be happy to contribute a Klein bottle for its continuation. (seriously!)
- nextaccountic 5y agoApparently this individual works on AWS and won a Amazon's Cliff Stoll Award: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srwilliams https://www.linkedin.com/in/srwilliams
- scoot 5y agoAmazon can afford to buy one from your listing... although the recipient might be in for a nasty surprise!
- CliffStoll 5y agoHa!
- richbradshaw 5y agoUnless they have a real blackhead problem I guess!
- dlgeek 5y agoI've won one in the past. It's no longer being awarded to the best of my knowledge. But the recipients did get copies of your book (it was my second copy!).