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Debilitating to a few men's fortunes perhaps, but richly rewarding to the thousands of people with a broader outlook to life. Bezos holds fair amount of respec

Debilitating to a few men's fortunes perhaps, but richly rewarding to the thousands of people with a broader outlook to life. Bezos holds fair amount of respect for his accomplishments, but statements like these make him sound more like Mr. Burns than anyone. Just trying to extract maximum output out of his labourers. I for one am fairly surprised by the shamelessness demonstrated by some of these excess haves. Reminds me of another billionaire egging on people for 60 hour weeks at a time when his company was raking in record profits due to the covid IT boom - https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/indians-should-work-60-hours-week-next-2-3-yrs-revive-economy-narayana-murthy-123661 https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/indians-should-work-60...

belter 5y ago
I see a pattern here...:-) "Alibaba’s Jack Ma calls the ‘996’ — China’s 72-hour workweek — a ‘huge blessing’" https://www.marketwatch.com/story/alibabas-jack-ma-calls-the-996-chinas-72-hour-work-week-a-huge-blessing-2019-04-15 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/alibabas-jack-ma-calls-the...
- roger4534 5y ago
  Jack Ma is a business dude. But Bezos was a programmer and that makes my heart sink low
  - agency 5y ago
    Was Bezos a programmer? I don’t think so. He has a degree in electrical engineering & computer science but he immediately went into the business world via Wall Street (D.E. Shaw). He seems like as much of a “business dude” as anyone.
  - toomuchtodo 5y ago
    Bezos was an investment banker who knew how to code. Not a sleight, just an observation. There are many paths to wealth.
bko 5y ago
A lot of people get satisfaction out of their work. I know I do. I don't see it as an exploitive relationship with my employer, although I'm fortunate enough to have a job that requires cooperation and creativity. Maybe I'd feel different if I were an Uber driver, though, but maybe not. Even when I had menial jobs (e.g. lifeguard, pizza delivery driver), I got satisfaction from providing some kind of value (e.g. watching over children, delivering pizza). My least happy time was when I had a meaningless desk job doing essentially make work (e.g. creating reports that no one will read, tying out numbers that no one cares about, entering in data that one one notices). People like Bezos similarly work long hours so its not like they're idle while expecting others to work on his behalf. I imagine Bezos continues to work because he gets great satisfaction from work. He would never be able to consume all his wealth in goods or services in his lifetime or the even his children's or grandchildren's lifetimes. But look at people who don't work. Even if they have a safety net, their overall satisfaction is much lower than those that work. Mental health goes down as well as substance abuse and other destructive practices. Of course the poor mental health and substance abuse may lead to unemployment, but I think there's something deeply unnatural about not engaging in meaningful work. Most people don't have outside creative outlets that give them meaning. Without a traditional work relationship, these people are adrift. This may be out of fashion, but I would encourage my children to find work early on rather than waste away their time playing video games or watching TV.
- humbleMouse 5y ago
  This isn’t about people getting satisfaction out of work or not. This is about insanely rich monopolists making tone deaf statements.
- ipaddr 5y ago
  He could consume all of his wealth quite easily but purchasing one too many companies or too many properties. Money isn't endless even at his level. Work is good for the soul. Over working means a shorter lifespan for you. Employers will accept that trade-off. Bozo keeps working because he doesn't know how to stop and live. Steve Wozniak, Mark Cuban, Paul Allen, even Musk could teach Bozo a few things.
ThrowawayR2 5y ago
One pretty much has to be as abnormally driven as that to reach any significant business success. All of the FAANG founders and nearly all startup founders are like him; Bezos is an outlier in his level of success, not his level of drive. [EDIT] I'm not endorsing it; I'm just describing it. If someone has counterexamples, I'd love to hear them.

belter 5y ago

I see a pattern here...:-) "Alibaba’s Jack Ma calls the ‘996’ — China’s 72-hour workweek — a ‘huge blessing’" https://www.marketwatch.com/story/alibabas-jack-ma-calls-the-996-chinas-72-hour-work-week-a-huge-blessing-2019-04-15 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/alibabas-jack-ma-calls-the...

roger4534 5y ago
Jack Ma is a business dude. But Bezos was a programmer and that makes my heart sink low
- agency 5y ago
  Was Bezos a programmer? I don’t think so. He has a degree in electrical engineering & computer science but he immediately went into the business world via Wall Street (D.E. Shaw). He seems like as much of a “business dude” as anyone.
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  Bezos was an investment banker who knew how to code. Not a sleight, just an observation. There are many paths to wealth.

bko 5y ago

A lot of people get satisfaction out of their work. I know I do. I don't see it as an exploitive relationship with my employer, although I'm fortunate enough to have a job that requires cooperation and creativity. Maybe I'd feel different if I were an Uber driver, though, but maybe not. Even when I had menial jobs (e.g. lifeguard, pizza delivery driver), I got satisfaction from providing some kind of value (e.g. watching over children, delivering pizza). My least happy time was when I had a meaningless desk job doing essentially make work (e.g. creating reports that no one will read, tying out numbers that no one cares about, entering in data that one one notices). People like Bezos similarly work long hours so its not like they're idle while expecting others to work on his behalf. I imagine Bezos continues to work because he gets great satisfaction from work. He would never be able to consume all his wealth in goods or services in his lifetime or the even his children's or grandchildren's lifetimes. But look at people who don't work. Even if they have a safety net, their overall satisfaction is much lower than those that work. Mental health goes down as well as substance abuse and other destructive practices. Of course the poor mental health and substance abuse may lead to unemployment, but I think there's something deeply unnatural about not engaging in meaningful work. Most people don't have outside creative outlets that give them meaning. Without a traditional work relationship, these people are adrift. This may be out of fashion, but I would encourage my children to find work early on rather than waste away their time playing video games or watching TV.

humbleMouse 5y ago
This isn’t about people getting satisfaction out of work or not. This is about insanely rich monopolists making tone deaf statements.
ipaddr 5y ago
He could consume all of his wealth quite easily but purchasing one too many companies or too many properties. Money isn't endless even at his level. Work is good for the soul. Over working means a shorter lifespan for you. Employers will accept that trade-off. Bozo keeps working because he doesn't know how to stop and live. Steve Wozniak, Mark Cuban, Paul Allen, even Musk could teach Bozo a few things.

ThrowawayR2 5y ago

One pretty much has to be as abnormally driven as that to reach any significant business success. All of the FAANG founders and nearly all startup founders are like him; Bezos is an outlier in his level of success, not his level of drive. [EDIT] I'm not endorsing it; I'm just describing it. If someone has counterexamples, I'd love to hear them.