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For years I though Bezos was crazy and that Amazon could never, ever repay all the billions it had raised/spent. I was so, so wrong... I wouldn't bet against Be

For years I though Bezos was crazy and that Amazon could never, ever repay all the billions it had raised/spent. I was so, so wrong... I wouldn't bet against Bezos.

wisty 15y ago
From all I've heard, Bezos is more "crazy like a fox" than Jobs was. There's a lot to hate about Amazon. Apparently, it's a totally caustic work environment, that's only making money because Bezos is such a brilliant strategist. Like A/B testing everything, before it was popular. Like telling everyone they need web APIs for everything they do, and will be fired if they use non-web APIs to other team's apps. Way to shove SOA down people's throats! The pay-off is modular systems. EC2. Margins will drop, but he'll make money on up-selling special Amazon services.
- srdev 15y ago
  As with most big companies, whether its a caustic environment or not really depends on which team you're working for. The culture instilled by your manager or manager's manager is more powerful than the corporate culture as a whole.
  - gruseom 15y ago
    more powerful than the corporate culture as a whole My experience has been the opposite, that a deviant subculture can't survive for long and is eventually rejected by the host.
    - gujk 15y ago
      You really think JeffB is walking around interviewing thousands of individual contributors and line managers, and firing the ones who are nice to each other? Senior management creates a culture for middle management. Middle management decides how to transmute that into the lower management community.
      - grandinj 15y ago
        You just said it - senior managmenent creates a culture for middle management, and that culture creates the culture for the techies. If it's corrosive at the top, it tends to end up corrosive at the bottom.
      - gruseom 15y ago
        If "culture" means anything, it refers to something self-sustaining. Initial conditions, which come from the founders, have a large influence. So do the values and behavior of leaders. Any development which is too deviant within an organization is eventually rejected the way an immune system rejects a foreign body. Culture is the agent in that process. That the rejection is executed by middle managers doesn't mean that they invented the culture any more than I personally manage my antibodies.

For years I though Bezos was crazy and that Amazon could never, ever repay all the billions it had raised/spent. I was so, so wrong... I wouldn't bet against Bezos.

wisty 15y ago

From all I've heard, Bezos is more "crazy like a fox" than Jobs was. There's a lot to hate about Amazon. Apparently, it's a totally caustic work environment, that's only making money because Bezos is such a brilliant strategist. Like A/B testing everything, before it was popular. Like telling everyone they need web APIs for everything they do, and will be fired if they use non-web APIs to other team's apps. Way to shove SOA down people's throats! The pay-off is modular systems. EC2. Margins will drop, but he'll make money on up-selling special Amazon services.

srdev 15y ago
As with most big companies, whether its a caustic environment or not really depends on which team you're working for. The culture instilled by your manager or manager's manager is more powerful than the corporate culture as a whole.
- gruseom 15y ago
  more powerful than the corporate culture as a whole My experience has been the opposite, that a deviant subculture can't survive for long and is eventually rejected by the host.
  - gujk 15y ago
    You really think JeffB is walking around interviewing thousands of individual contributors and line managers, and firing the ones who are nice to each other? Senior management creates a culture for middle management. Middle management decides how to transmute that into the lower management community.
    - grandinj 15y ago
      You just said it - senior managmenent creates a culture for middle management, and that culture creates the culture for the techies. If it's corrosive at the top, it tends to end up corrosive at the bottom.
    - gruseom 15y ago
      If "culture" means anything, it refers to something self-sustaining. Initial conditions, which come from the founders, have a large influence. So do the values and behavior of leaders. Any development which is too deviant within an organization is eventually rejected the way an immune system rejects a foreign body. Culture is the agent in that process. That the rejection is executed by middle managers doesn't mean that they invented the culture any more than I personally manage my antibodies.