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Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

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Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#711

Post by midasuni »

godelski wrote: post #357
colonwqbang wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> In my country it is illegal not to subscribe to the state TV channel. Just curious: 1) What country 2) Do you have to pay?

Certainly not the U.K, many people don’t pay for a license fee, there’s no law saying you have to. Everyone pays elevated prices for itv even though we don’t watch it though as the funding comes from tesco, sainsburys, etc increasing prices to pay for it.

a lot of European counties pay for state tv from a tax on things like electricity, but saying “it’s illegal not to pay tax” is an odd statement.

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#712

Post by xkgt »

agnosticmantis wrote: post #672
xkgt wrote: post #665

Given the recent discussions in hn on how Intel's fortunes declined under Bob Swan, it is interesting to note that Andy Jassy is also from a non-technical background. Same can be said about Jeff Bezos. Perhaps tech vs non-tech background is not that important a factor for being a successful leader of technology company. Or can we say that Amazon/AWS and Intel are different kinds of organization based on their core co…

Doesn’t Bezos have degrees in EE and CS?

Sorry, yes you are right.

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#713

Post by mrunkel »

eyelidlessness wrote: post #602
eigenvalue wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that the real reason? Being bundled with the OS as the default browser for 95% of all computers seems like a bigger driver!

Neither of those are the reason, speaking from experience both as a family tech support and as a web dev. It’s because everyone recognized the big “e” icon. My brother got my dad a Mac and he already knew the main browser was Safari, but he still called me (knowing I had used Macs for years longer) and just asked: 1. What the hell is Safari (no kidding he didn’t even say hello). 2. Can I use the Internet Explorer? Ed…

I think you're confusing cause and effect here.

Yes, the `e` became synonymous with the Internet for a lot of users, but that's only because of the two reasons listed. Not the other way around.

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#714

Post by irrational »

My college student just called me saying, "Jeff Bezos is not the head of Amazon anymore, but if he thinks this will fix his problem he is wrong." Me, "What problem?" Her, "That we all hate him." Me, "Who is we?" Her, "Everyone who sees how the bourgeoisie are the enemy." Me, "Um, do you think Jeff Bezos actually cares enough about your thoughts on him to remove himself from the head of Amazon?" Her, "He's just hoping to survive the revolution." Me, "So, how are your marxist courses going at college again?"

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#715

Post by kindall »

toyg wrote: post #596
devlopr wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was really common to type in random words as domains expecting something. People would make mistakes so people would buy domains with common spelling mistakes.

Browsers also tried to autocomplete as www. .com (and .net and .org, iirc) and send you there if it resolved. At some point they switched to sending you to search engines instead, but i bet there are flags somewhere in Firefox' bowels that will still do that for you if you really want.

Or you just hit Ctrl-Enter

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#716

Post by exadeci »

not_knuth wrote: post #691
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…

Coincidentally, I saw this recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25671097 Giving it the benefit of the doubt, I could not help but wonder if this was the Usenet post you saw back in the day that made you apply for a job at Amazon :)

>Your compensation will include meaningful equity ownership.

I'd wonder how much that's worth today.

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#717

Post by runarberg »

yashap wrote: post #616
paxys wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He went to Princeton because he was smart, not because his family was rich. It isn't a school of billionaires or something. The majority of Ivy League enrollment is regular kids from working class families. They all have the best need-based scholarship programs in the country. His dad was a Cuban immigrant who worked as an engineer at Exxon.

I don’t disagree that he is/was super smart (and hardworking), but he came from a fairly wealthy family too. When he was starting Amazon, his parents invested $300,000 to help get it off the ground. You don’t have $300K to pour into your son’s startup if you aren’t wealthy. Also, when he was growing up his maternal grandparents owned a 25,000 acre ranch in Texas, which suggests significant wealth too. From what I und…

Note mentioning that “smart” in this context usually means “able to get a large return on investment”. Making it a redundant trait description.

“Good at business” is a better description. But people aren’t normally satisfied with calling billionaires “good at business” so they add this glittering “smart”, as if he is somehow a better person then you or I, which is a ridiculous statement.

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#718

Post by blabitty »

prepend wrote: post #656
ACow_Adonis wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do people do any analysis anymore or do they just repeat memes? i.e. "we put the customer first". For reference, I'm someone who hadn't used amazon (i'm in Australia, and I've just had no need). These holidays was my first real experience with the amazon brand and the amazon website. What I saw was an incredibly user hostile site: reviews mashed together from all over the world, and you can't even be sure whether the…

This is the “new amazon.” Old Amazon was really customer focused. Back when prime was a good value ($80/year for 2 shipping) everything just worked. You could find products easily, order, automate reorders. In the past five years, every visit to Amazon involved wading through ads for bad products (eg, search for Iphone7, see sponsored ads for Samsung phones). There are more sponsored line items than actual results. P…

My experience with Walmart is poorly packed boxes handled roughly by FedEx leading to a bunch of damaged orders. At this point Amazon's delivery service itself is a differentiator for me, and I don't love the company or paying for prime.

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#719

Post by senderista »

temp0826 wrote: post #269
libria wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, a bit of shakeup at the top. Jassy now CEO, Dave Clark stepping into Jeff Wilke's role as head of retail. I assume Charlie Bell will step up as head of AWS.

Listening to cbell rip someone apart in the weekly ops meeting while watching the #wtf peanut gallery whilst sipping my coffee are probably my fondest memories of working at AWS

I had to substitute for my manager once in the ops meeting and I've never been so terrified watching that roulette wheel spin...

Re: Email from Jeff Bezos to employees

#720

Post by travbrack »

ignoramous wrote: post #70

> This journey began some 27 years ago. Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name. Jeff's pitch at the time (1997); so on point, so precise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWRbTnE1PEM > The question I was asked most frequently at that time was, “What’s the internet?” Blessedly, I haven’t had to explain that in a long while. Here's Jeff explaining the Internet (at a TED talk): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMKNUy…

He sounds like a time traveler from the future. He talks like it's a given that the Internet is going to take over the world but back then it really wasn't.
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