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Employee #1: Amazon

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Re: Employee #1: Amazon

#21

Post by protomyth »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #11
protomyth wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that the Peter Principle? It sounds like he was shunted into a ceremonial position rather than any incompetence on his part in the position.

He failed to gain greater power in the organization and accomplish greater tasks after being promoted out of the role in which he was very competent. This implies that he wasn't very good at being a CTO. If he was, he would have had a bigger role in the projects and a larger team with which to accomplish his desired tasks. This may have been intentional as a courtesy rather than accidental due to the Peter Principle,…

> He failed to gain greater power in the organization and accomplish greater tasks after being promoted out of the role in which he was very competent.

He didn't fail, as he was put in a role with no actual power. The Peter Principle is being promoted into a role you are incompetent at. He was shunted away into a ceremonial position with no power. He didn't even have staff.

> This may have been intentional as a courtesy rather than accidental due to the Peter Principle, but the result is the same.

I'm not talking about the ultimate result, I am talking about the definition of the Peter Principle.

Re: Employee #1: Amazon

#23

Post by jsprogrammer »

cookiecaper wrote: post #10
mywittyname wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this was more honorary than anything. It sounds like he didn't necessarily have the skills necessary to be a true executive, but putting him on a team where he's managed by someone else would seem like a slap in the face. This was a decent way to keep him compensated fairly for his past contributions. I've seen at other companies where people like this are moved into "R&D" so they can keep working on cool pro…

Personally I actually wish more liberal use would be made of this strategy. I've worked at a lot of companies where obstructionist employees are kept in their slots due to management's concern over the personal fallout (both for their relationship with the employee and for the employee's relationships with others). It's none of my business whether they stay on payroll or not, and I don't mind at all if they do if tha…

I believe Amazon compensates with equity, so, if you were a co-worker of his, it would be your business if he stayed on payroll.

Re: Employee #1: Amazon

#24

Post by towndrunk »

afarrell wrote: post #16
danielvf wrote: post #3

On modern technology: "You walk down the streets, you have to weave around people standing there in random orientations in the middle of the sidewalk looking at their cellphones. Then you see people speaking robotically so that their speech recognizer can understand them. Now they are running around in mobs in parks with their phones in front of them trying to catch imaginary animals. I don’t necessarily see all that…

People, or at least children, have been running around in parks trying to catch invisible animals for decades. As adults, it has definitely been a positive development for my wife and I.

"it has definitely been a positive development for my wife and I."

Seriously? Just curious... what age range are you in?

Re: Employee #1: Amazon

#25

Post by 0xmohit »

mikeleeorg wrote: post #17

Craig : How did you troubleshoot? Today I use Stack Overflow constantly. What would you do when you ran into a bug that you couldn’t figure out? Shel : Stay up late. Hahaha. I remember building an online art gallery back in 1996. It was for an internship. I got it because I bluffed and said I knew HTML. After I was hired, I purchased a book on HTML. Turns out, the company's "CTO" did the same thing. We both learned o…

http://imgur.com/gallery/SZPjHwz

https://twitter.com/thepracticaldev/status/71639058321702912...

Re: Employee #1: Amazon

#26

Post by dasmoth »

mywittyname wrote: post #7
AstralStorm wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beautiful example of Peter principle and how to promote someone into uselessness and inefficacy.

I think this was more honorary than anything. It sounds like he didn't necessarily have the skills necessary to be a true executive, but putting him on a team where he's managed by someone else would seem like a slap in the face. This was a decent way to keep him compensated fairly for his past contributions. I've seen at other companies where people like this are moved into "R&D" so they can keep working on cool pro…

From the quote, it rather sounds like the R&D post would have been more welcome in this case.

Re: Employee #1: Amazon

#27

Post by BatFastard »

abc_lisper wrote: post #12

The most important question left unasked : Did he make enough money to retire after it?

Unquestionably! Lets say he had a typical 5%, no conservatively lets guess 1%. So 1% of 366 billion! Let you do the math. On the other hand if he had 10% which would not be unreasonable, he would be very rich.

Re: Employee #1: Amazon

#28

Post by giarc »

BatFastard wrote: post #27
abc_lisper wrote: post #12

The most important question left unasked : Did he make enough money to retire after it?

Unquestionably! Lets say he had a typical 5%, no conservatively lets guess 1%. So 1% of 366 billion! Let you do the math. On the other hand if he had 10% which would not be unreasonable, he would be very rich.

A quote from a 2011 Geekwire article. " Jeff was working on it full-time already, and his wife, Mackenzie, was writing checks every once in a while. But that was it. I didn’t get founder’s stock."

0. http://www.geekwire.com/2011/meet-shel-kaphan-amazoncom-empl...

Re: Employee #1: Amazon

#30

Post by mikeleeorg »

0xmohit wrote: post #25
mikeleeorg wrote: post #17

Craig : How did you troubleshoot? Today I use Stack Overflow constantly. What would you do when you ran into a bug that you couldn’t figure out? Shel : Stay up late. Hahaha. I remember building an online art gallery back in 1996. It was for an internship. I got it because I bluffed and said I knew HTML. After I was hired, I purchased a book on HTML. Turns out, the company's "CTO" did the same thing. We both learned o…

http://imgur.com/gallery/SZPjHwz https://twitter.com/thepracticaldev/status/71639058321702912...

So true. So, so true.

So true that I often question technical interviewing practices that look solely for ability to memorize complex algorithms exactly, vs ability to seek out an even better solution and apply it effectively.

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