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"Don't let your mind speak louder than your heart". In tech we value data and being right so much, we may be too often missing the important part of being a dec
by przem8k 3y ago
"Don't let your mind speak louder than your heart". In tech we value data and being right so much, we may be too often missing the important part of being a decent human being.
- fumar 3y agoThis could help balance Amazon’s leadership principles.
- aprdm 3y agoYet Jeff Bezos in his podcast appearance yesterday which was a 2h talk said that when data and anecdote disagree to trust the anecdote and gut feeling
- bear141 3y agoIt’s easy to focus on philanthropy and feelings after your monolithic megacorp has ground your competition into dust.
- aprdm 3y agoIsn’t that a definition of success in our current society ?
- carlosjobim 3y agoAs a thought experiment, is there anything Bezos could do or say that wouldn't merit a hostile and snide comment in response? Is he unforgivable?
- bear141 3y agoHim acting altruistically now with his vast resources is the best we can hope for I suppose.
- oddevan 3y agoIf he actually changed Amazon's behavior so that it wasn't a horrible place to work for? If he donated an actual, significant portion of his wealth that required real sacrifice on his part? Basically, if he did something that had a positive effect on the world that also had real consequences for him. Something that actually shows he _means_ it, actually _wants_ the world to be better even if it hurts himself. If Bezos or Musk or Zuckerberg or Gates(1) did any of that, I'd be thinking differently. (1) The Gates foundation has done a LOT. Bill Gates is still worth ~$135,000,000,000. A quick search says ending homelessness in the USA would take less than a quarter of that.
- inemesitaffia 3y agoYou do realize there's people who want to be homeless?
- bear141 3y agoI don’t know why you got downvoted. “Smoke your rent, live in a tent” is their motto in Portland.
- Geisterde 3y agoHi, hello, I work here, google is down the street, as is microsoft. I can assure you they are not dust. All amazon has done is build more data centers, they havent taken some kind of hostile action towards the competition. The money was on the table, those companies didnt want to spend the time or take the risk, so amazon will gladly hoover it up.
- oddevan 3y agoGlad you have a job and stable employment! When I think of who Amazon has "ground into dust," it's not Microsoft and Google. It's Barnes & Noble, Borders, Waldenbooks, hundreds of thousands of small independent bookstores, small businesses that once worried about Walmart moving into the neighborhood now contending with the omnipresence of Amazon. Some of them adapt, yes. Some were going to close anyway, of course. But you can't deny that retail looks a lot different now than it did ten years ago, and most of that is because of Amazon.
- senderista 3y agoThe nostalgia for Borders, B&N etc. is amusing considering they were blamed for the demise of independent bookstores before Amazon showed up.
- Geisterde 3y agoBooks are an interesting topic. The cost of publishing through amazon is far more accessible for authors, and the cost of the books themselves has decreased. I dont have enough time in my day to keep up with how many credits I receive from my audible subscription. Digital distribution has made both writing and reading more accessible, its the middle man that got cut out. That is in the nature of innovation, it frees the average person up from more menial tasks and allows them to create higher orders of value using a greater bredth of their creative inputs. That process can also be seen in the wide variety of goods offered on the amazon store, many of which are from those small businesses, the creative and productive factors remain without needing to take up physical real estate.
- 3y ago
- sanderjd 3y agoThen why ever gather the data? The truth table of this is: data | gut | out 0 | 0 | 0 0 | 1 | 1 1 | 0 | 0 1 | 1 | 1 The data variable is irrelevant here, so you might as well not waste all the resources it takes to collect and analyze it, right?
- funcDropShadow 3y agoGathering the data might change the gut feeling.
- sanderjd 3y agoYeah, interesting, good answer! I think that is the answer, and it actually does make sense to me. Often while gathering data I develop a better intuition for what I'm unable to gather data on, which definitely impacts my gut feel for things. The available data might point in one direction, intuition about the unavailable data might point the other way.
- fallingknife 3y agoCompletely disagree. The tech industry is much more tolerant of mistakes and failure than any other industry. And that is a huge advantage given that such things are inevitable.
- cjaybo 3y agoThese aren’t mutually exclusive though. The tech industry can over-index on data driven decision making while also being reasonable about accepting failures.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- riku_iki 3y ago> we may be too often missing the important part of being a decent human being. "decent human being" is too vague and easily manipulated term, so it could be better to follow hard metrics and data.
- louthy 3y agoShowing unselfish concern for the welfare of others. Will that do as a definition? Be altruistic.
- riku_iki 3y agoI would add: self accountability and willingness to work hard for self improvement. Some stereotypical American who is nice to others, visits church, serves Thanks Giving food to homeless can be considered as decent human being by local community. But at the same time, material damage on others lives from say driving V8 truck and blindly voting for local politician can be significant, but he is not interested in learning about this. And self improvement and self accountability are not considered critical by most of sociaties.
- kian 3y agoSo voting for the 'correct' local politician and driving an eco-friendly car are more important than being nice and helping others less fortunate? How very blue.
- riku_iki 3y ago> So voting for the 'correct' local politician and driving an eco-friendly car are more important than being nice and helping others less fortunate? if you do some calculations before jumping to your prejudgment, you may find that it is more important, and people are less fortunate because someone burns too much gasoline and votes for 'wrong' politicians. But it was simplified example, privileged people utilize more complicated schemes.
- 3y ago
- peebeebee 3y agoI think the heart vs mind is not really a good metaphor. Hate is something of the heart too. It’s not something of the (logical) mind. If everyone was very logical, I doubt Hitler would have gotten this big. He literally spoke to the heart of the people, with passion, not reason.