Would you have answered this job ad?

So, who'd he hire with that?

someone who is very rich now

The quote on that post mentions pg as an Emacs users, but he's used vim for years.

Probably not (much to my regret). The only distinguishing factor is Bezos' name, and that is obvious only in retrospect. I see too many ads like this everyday for any one to stand out. Anyway, I'm going to console myself by saying I would've replied and seen them in person, and immediately realized they were onto something huge, blah blah blah

Compare: "You must have experience designing and building large and complex (yet maintainable) systems, and you should be able to do so in about one-third the time that most competent people think possible. You should have a BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or the equivalent."

with: "Requirements: BS or MS in Computer Science or equivalent (PhD a plus). Several years of software development experience. Extensive experience programming in C++ and/or Java. Enthusiasm for solving interesting problems. Experience with Unix/Linux or Windows environments, C++ development, distributed systems, machine learning, information retrieval, network programming and/or developing large software systems a plus."

The first is from Amazon, the latter is from Google.

Great companies grow where top-notch engineers meet exciting market meet confident coworkers with high expectations. :-)