Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D

Judging from things Steve Yegge has written about Amazon, and from friends of mine who have worked there, I don't get the impression that Amazon is a company dedicated to technical excellence.

In particular I seem to recall something about 40 million lines of C++ code in their core product, and about mediocre engineering talent and high levels of burnout due to the technical debt they're required to deal with...

In fact, ever-increasing engineering costs would be just as indicative of mounting technical debt as it would of an increasing commitment to R&D.

Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D

#6

Post by petercooper » Wed, Apr 27, 2011, 4:03 PM UTC

jordanb wrote: post #5

Judging from things Steve Yegge has written about Amazon, and from friends of mine who have worked there, I don't get the impression that Amazon is a company dedicated to technical excellence. In particular I seem to recall something about 40 million lines of C++ code in their core product, and about mediocre engineering talent and high levels of burnout due to the technical debt they're required to deal with... In f…

In my experience, their tech job listings list tech degrees as a must-have. That seems to be a common attribute of companies that care more about HR box ticking than technical excellence, alas.

Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D

#7

Post by mfringel » Wed, Apr 27, 2011, 4:08 PM UTC

matthavener wrote: post #4

revorad wrote: post #2

PR damage control?

I think so, but not for the reddit/EBS outage.

Exactly. This is all about their earnings. Given a general trend towards decreasing or outsourcing R&D, Amazon is still doing it in-house, because it's their competitive advantage. Explaining that to a bunch of panicky stockholders who just saw a Big Ugly show up on the cashflow statement is mandatory, no matter how much they care about the long-term.

Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D

#8

Post by px » Wed, Apr 27, 2011, 4:15 PM UTC

Investors want higher margins but obviously Amazon is investing substantially in itself. So far, though, Bezos seems to be winning the tug of war. Many analysts are glad to see higher revenue and feel that Amazon is cementing its position at the top of the ecommerce world. AMZN shares are up over 5% despite the earnings miss.

Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D

#9

Post by petrilli » Wed, Apr 27, 2011, 4:38 PM UTC

jordanb wrote: post #5

Judging from things Steve Yegge has written about Amazon, and from friends of mine who have worked there, I don't get the impression that Amazon is a company dedicated to technical excellence. In particular I seem to recall something about 40 million lines of C++ code in their core product, and about mediocre engineering talent and high levels of burnout due to the technical debt they're required to deal with... In f…

I get the feeling that you're both right and wrong. Right in that a lot of the legacy Amazon code is probably burdened with huge technical debt. I also get the feeling they're pushing the boundaries in other areas. A bit of the "chase the shiny coin" syndrome.

One of the issues is that none of us really know what goes on inside Amazon. They are notoriously secretive about most everything.

Re: Why I, Jeff Bezos, Keep Spending Billions On Amazon R&D

#10

Post by chrismealy » Wed, Apr 27, 2011, 4:42 PM UTC

jordanb wrote: post #5

Judging from things Steve Yegge has written about Amazon, and from friends of mine who have worked there, I don't get the impression that Amazon is a company dedicated to technical excellence. In particular I seem to recall something about 40 million lines of C++ code in their core product, and about mediocre engineering talent and high levels of burnout due to the technical debt they're required to deal with... In f…

Yegge left a long time ago.