Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

Post by smabie » Wed, Feb 03, 2021, 3:29 AM UTC

ianai wrote: post #240

orev wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MS completely missed on mobile phones and tablets, despite trying so many times at it. The “Windows everywhere” approach prevented them from doing what really had to be done (make something new for these new devices). That was all under the Ballmer era. It’s only now that they have a new CEO who is happy to pursue other approaches that they have been able to start going in a better direction again.

Exactly. Bill stepped down in 2008. Balmer was CEO until 2014. Oddly that’s when their products started to turn around significantly. Cook has made a lot of original Mac power users completely pissed. He’s gutted entire software products that people relied upon using. He’s probably why we had the half decade of MBPs developers didn’t like. Etc. His best accomplishment has been the services stuff and maybe the M1.

Post by varenc » Wed, Feb 03, 2021, 3:35 AM UTC

oblio wrote: post #390

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something that always stuck with me is I remember reading in a book about the internet long ago about how innovative the name Amazon.com was and how it was the future of internet business. It said it needs to be more memorable. You aren’t going to buy your books on Books.com you are going to use Amazon. Turned out to be very right. And this was in the pets.com era. Everyone thought you needed the most generic name po…

It depends. facebook.com or messenger.com aren't super memorable. Microsoft also made it work by adding something else next to the name. Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft Access.

Post by ma2rten » Wed, Feb 03, 2021, 3:45 AM UTC

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #346

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #231

> This journey began some 27 years ago. Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name. It had a name, and that name was "Cadabra". It didn't become Amazon until Jeff watched a documentary about the Amazon River. His lawyer had already turned up his nose at "Cadabra", and Jeff was looking for something else. It's also worth noting that the idea didn't grow over time - Jeff always intended to build something like "Sears…

Something that always stuck with me is I remember reading in a book about the internet long ago about how innovative the name Amazon.com was and how it was the future of internet business. It said it needs to be more memorable. You aren’t going to buy your books on Books.com you are going to use Amazon. Turned out to be very right. And this was in the pets.com era. Everyone thought you needed the most generic name po…

Post by sumedh » Wed, Feb 03, 2021, 3:48 AM UTC

colonwqbang wrote: post #299

WitCanStain wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A for-profit corporation seems like a terrible candidate for such a position.

Consider all the horrors that large nations have inflicted on this world. You might conclude that they are an even worse fit for the position. In my country it is illegal not to subscribe to the state TV channel. The same cannot be said about Amazon Prime.

Post by noisy_boy » Wed, Feb 03, 2021, 3:55 AM UTC

burkaman wrote: post #642

DickingAround wrote: post #627

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem is that it's not obvious why getting super big is bad. Anti-trust is a law around abuse of customers by cornering a market. But what if they haven't abused customers? What if they treat customers really well and otherwise provide a lot of value? Why stop them from becoming that big? (It is a big company, but I also appreciate being able to order on-demand compute, or getting like a hundred million…

I guess it's similar to arguing against a benevolent dictatorship. And I don't mean that to be snide, I think if I met someone living under a truly benevolent dictator I would have a very hard time explaining to them why I think it's a bad and dangerous form of government.