Darwin regarded sympathy as the most important human adaptation
1–10 of 25 posts
Re: Darwin regarded sympathy as the most important human adaptation
#2Did Bezos ever actually compare Amazon's work culture to Darwinism? The Times article quotes a former HR executive as saying that, not Bezos.
I've often seen newspaper articles that report XYZ, and then follow-up articles that comment on or extrapolate from XYZ without ever considering whether the original journalist got it right. I think that's what's happening here. The Times says that a former Amazon HR executive compares the company's work culture to Darwinism, and the author of this piece assumes that because the HR executive used that phrase, Bezos himself 'equate[s] “Darwinism” with “ruthless competition”' and then argues that Bezos is wrong. But the commentator has not considered whether his original assumption about Bezos' beliefs reflects reality.
Re: Darwin regarded sympathy as the most important human adaptation
#3Did Bezos ever actually compare Amazon's work culture to Darwinism? The Times article quotes a former HR executive as saying that, not Bezos. I've often seen newspaper articles that report XYZ, and then follow-up articles that comment on or extrapolate from XYZ without ever considering whether the original journalist got it right. I think that's what's happening here. The Times says that a former Amazon HR executive…
I think that, while it's important not to put words in Bezos' mouth, altering that line in the article doesn't hurt the overall message, which is Bezos prefers harsh competition in the workplace, and that's counterproductive.
Re: Darwin regarded sympathy as the most important human adaptation
#4Did Bezos ever actually compare Amazon's work culture to Darwinism? The Times article quotes a former HR executive as saying that, not Bezos. I've often seen newspaper articles that report XYZ, and then follow-up articles that comment on or extrapolate from XYZ without ever considering whether the original journalist got it right. I think that's what's happening here. The Times says that a former Amazon HR executive…
I think that, while it's important not to put words in Bezos' mouth, altering that line in the article doesn't hurt the overall message, which is Bezos prefers harsh competition in the workplace, and that's counterproductive.
High performing people often prefer environments with high stakes and high risk/reward. Being harsh is awful for people who can't stand it, but empowering for those who thrive that way.
Re: Darwin regarded sympathy as the most important human adaptation
#5True. But there are a lot of reports from Amazon employees that they have a policy of culling the herd. Even Nick Hanauer, an original investor of Amazon, tells us that Bezos is pretty ruthless https://youtu.be/uIGeKMU9izo?t=10m56s
Re: Darwin regarded sympathy as the most important human adaptation
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that, while it's important not to put words in Bezos' mouth, altering that line in the article doesn't hurt the overall message, which is Bezos prefers harsh competition in the workplace, and that's counterproductive.
High performing people often prefer environments with high stakes and high risk/reward. Being harsh is awful for people who can't stand it, but empowering for those who thrive that way.
> High performing people often prefer environments with high stakes and high risk/reward.
Is there any research to support that statement? Genuinely curious. Seems like it could be true, but also not.
Re: Darwin regarded sympathy as the most important human adaptation
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that, while it's important not to put words in Bezos' mouth, altering that line in the article doesn't hurt the overall message, which is Bezos prefers harsh competition in the workplace, and that's counterproductive.
High performing people often prefer environments with high stakes and high risk/reward. Being harsh is awful for people who can't stand it, but empowering for those who thrive that way.
Perhaps, but the author is reflecting on the productivity of the entire group rather than on the individual. I cannot say whether the chicken story really is pertinent to corporate culture, but at a glance this analogy feels relevant.
Re: Darwin regarded sympathy as the most important human adaptation
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that, while it's important not to put words in Bezos' mouth, altering that line in the article doesn't hurt the overall message, which is Bezos prefers harsh competition in the workplace, and that's counterproductive.
High performing people often prefer environments with high stakes and high risk/reward. Being harsh is awful for people who can't stand it, but empowering for those who thrive that way.
Enjoying harshness for it's own sake is masochistic stupidity. What's the upside for the amazon opportunity? As far as I can read from what's reported, below market compensation for the reward of watching your fucking back every microsecond and possibility of...? Where do I sign up to get books and trinkets delivered to your door a day faster? Beats the shit, mission wise, out of trying to cure cancer...
Re: Darwin regarded sympathy as the most important human adaptation
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
High performing people often prefer environments with high stakes and high risk/reward. Being harsh is awful for people who can't stand it, but empowering for those who thrive that way.
> High performing people often prefer environments with high stakes and high risk/reward. Is there any research to support that statement? Genuinely curious. Seems like it could be true, but also not.
Imagine a situation where your job is CRUD development. You write PHP and CSS and JavaScript for a series of ad campaigns (say, every marvel movie for the next 10 years). It's repetitive drone work.
Then compare that to a situation where you have to send a rocket to space in the next 6 months or the company is out of business and you'll be homeless.
Which situation motivates you to do better work?
Re: Darwin regarded sympathy as the most important human adaptation
#10Whether or not the title is false, it's certainly clickbait, so we changed it to a representative sentence from the article, in accordance with the HN guidelines.