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Jeff Bezos Is Playing Chess

m.techcrunch.com

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Re: Jeff Bezos Is Playing Chess

#31

Post by benologist »

rhizome wrote: post #27
badman_ting wrote: post #12

> Occasionally, you’ll have to show those cards and win a hand to prove that you can. But the rest of the time you call and fold, as you await the monster to take the entire pot. Wait, just which game are we talking about here? I thought it was chess and checkers but now we're on to cards. I'm only sort of kidding -- Bezos certainly does seem like a genius to me, no argument there. But this is just the author going "…

But this is just the author going "No, you don't get it, he's so smart!" I'm a little curious what TC thinks the purpose of insulting their readers in the title of their piece is. The hopelessly mixed metaphor is just icing on the cake, but you do have to break a few eggs to throw the baby out before it's hatched.

TC's purpose was probably to hide that once again they didn't scoop a big story so they put the call out for some me-two-three-four-five-six articles to cover it up.

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Playing Chess

#32

Post by rhizome »

benologist wrote: post #31
rhizome wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is just the author going "No, you don't get it, he's so smart!" I'm a little curious what TC thinks the purpose of insulting their readers in the title of their piece is. The hopelessly mixed metaphor is just icing on the cake, but you do have to break a few eggs to throw the baby out before it's hatched.

TC's purpose was probably to hide that once again they didn't scoop a big story so they put the call out for some me-two-three-four-five-six articles to cover it up.

Maybe I'm taking it personally, and the charitable read on the title is "While We (the editors, here at TC HQ) Are Trying To Follow His Game Of Checkers..."

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Playing Chess

#33

Post by ctdonath »

jeffasinger wrote: post #16
ctdonath wrote: post #7

A consistent problem I've seen with e-books and streaming video is lack of live content, in particular breaking & current news. Apple provides some live sports, and just added SkyNews, but that's all third-party encapsulated content limited to AppleTV. Google scrapes the Web for news, but just gives pointers to content instead of packaging it. Bezos isn't buying a newspaper, he's buying a content-gathering service -…

I think if the ultimate goal was to integrate the WaPo with Prime, he may have made the purchase as Amazon, instead of as a personal purchase. There's something else going on here.

Amazon per se may not be interested in WaPo per se under current conditions, but repackaged into a suitable form it may be. Bezos could make a tidy sum selling an Internet-future-ready news service to Amazon.

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Playing Chess

#34

Post by rpgmaker »

badman_ting wrote: post #12

> Occasionally, you’ll have to show those cards and win a hand to prove that you can. But the rest of the time you call and fold, as you await the monster to take the entire pot. Wait, just which game are we talking about here? I thought it was chess and checkers but now we're on to cards. I'm only sort of kidding -- Bezos certainly does seem like a genius to me, no argument there. But this is just the author going "…

He might be a genius but not all genius can make a profitable business. I doubt that will be the case for Amazon eventually (I may well be one of the suckers heh) but let's remember that they just LOST money on the last quarter and consistently earn little to no profits.

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Playing Chess

#35

Post by [deleted] »

rhizome wrote: post #27
badman_ting wrote: post #12

> Occasionally, you’ll have to show those cards and win a hand to prove that you can. But the rest of the time you call and fold, as you await the monster to take the entire pot. Wait, just which game are we talking about here? I thought it was chess and checkers but now we're on to cards. I'm only sort of kidding -- Bezos certainly does seem like a genius to me, no argument there. But this is just the author going "…

But this is just the author going "No, you don't get it, he's so smart!" I'm a little curious what TC thinks the purpose of insulting their readers in the title of their piece is. The hopelessly mixed metaphor is just icing on the cake, but you do have to break a few eggs to throw the baby out before it's hatched.

[deleted]

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Playing Chess

#36

Post by devsno »

rhizome wrote: post #27
badman_ting wrote: post #12

> Occasionally, you’ll have to show those cards and win a hand to prove that you can. But the rest of the time you call and fold, as you await the monster to take the entire pot. Wait, just which game are we talking about here? I thought it was chess and checkers but now we're on to cards. I'm only sort of kidding -- Bezos certainly does seem like a genius to me, no argument there. But this is just the author going "…

But this is just the author going "No, you don't get it, he's so smart!" I'm a little curious what TC thinks the purpose of insulting their readers in the title of their piece is. The hopelessly mixed metaphor is just icing on the cake, but you do have to break a few eggs to throw the baby out before it's hatched.

>>but you do have to break a few eggs to throw the baby out before it's hatched

This is great

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Playing Chess

#37

Post by ianstallings »

kingraoul3 wrote: post #24
badman_ting wrote: post #12

> Occasionally, you’ll have to show those cards and win a hand to prove that you can. But the rest of the time you call and fold, as you await the monster to take the entire pot. Wait, just which game are we talking about here? I thought it was chess and checkers but now we're on to cards. I'm only sort of kidding -- Bezos certainly does seem like a genius to me, no argument there. But this is just the author going "…

Well, it depends on which poker game you're playing and the table texture of your game.

What I thought was telling was they said "most of the time you're just calling and folding.

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Playing Chess

#38

Post by ojbyrne »

riggins wrote: post #18
ojbyrne wrote: post #4

I thought that was a pretty poor article - no real argument and essentially a mixed metaphor between the title (chess) and the body of the article (cards/poker). The bit about "negative cash cycles" seems hopelessly outdated - comparing Amazon to bricks and mortar companies seems appropriate to 2002, not 2013.

I wouldn't agree that a negative cash cycle is outdated. However I would disagree with the author's inference that a low profit business with negative working capital is as good a high profit business. As evidence, I'd point to a great negative working capital businesses. Dell. No one's arguing that Dell is a super business thanks to the cash it generates because of its negative working capital cycle. Bezos is obviou…

I just meant that the comparison to bricks and mortars companies who have to pay for their inventory up front, then collect cash 15, 30, 45 days down the road is outdated. Amazon isn't competing against mall bookstores anymore, it's competing against other online companies - eBay, Apple, B&N (online), etc.

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Playing Chess

#39

Post by ds9 »

raheemm wrote: post #3

He said the same thing in all the paragraphs as in the headline - Bezos is playing a smart game that the rest of us don't get. So what exactly is that game?

I can't speak for the writer, and one can only speculate, but here goes:

Two suggestions seen (here on HN?) recently: (a) Washington Post is influential "inside the beltway" (b) its book reviews can influence buying on Amazon.

These putative purposes may be in tension with the idea that print newspapers are going away, but may be viable if Wapo will stay in another form (at least the website).

Also maybe adding some sort of news service into Amazon-related products, a subscription or such.

(The article is convincing about Amazon playing a smart or fortunate business strategy, but doesn't live up to the headline.)

Re: Jeff Bezos Is Playing Chess

#40

Post by venomsnake »

Or we can KISS (keep it simple stupid):

1. Next time a law surfaces Amazon tax they will have much bigger mallet with which to hit the gong. WaPo has amazing team and journalists.

2. Right now content is king - Amazon lacks much original content. Newspapers are dying, but the market for quality journalism will always be there. And he learned a lesson from Apple books.

3. He could just be Citizen Kane - just for the fun of it and the challenge to bring it to the digital world.

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