Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: It’s probably not going to work out

Re:Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: It’s probabl... by cmpbl on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @05:47PM (#37329598)

(Former Amazon) Tenets in general, including the LPs, are valuable as a common decision-making framework. Amazon is a leader in laying those out there for all to read (including on their public website). People would frequently refer to the LPs in resolving difficult debates, and I valued them.

Amazon is Amazon because it gets things done. Certainly many at Amazon circa 2000s thought AWS was an incredible boondoggle and risk. "We sell books, why the hell would we sink capital into renting servers." Surely those same people disagreed and committed. Others have probably disagreed and committed to ideas that did prove to be terrible. But you increase your success rate by increasing your attempt rate... and nothing interesting happens at a stand still.

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Re:Amazon CEO reportedly told remote employees: It’s probabl... by vagab0nd on Wednesday August 30, 2023 @08:34PM (#37331035)

Sorry, I don't buy it.

I don't doubt that Amazon is a great company. But if you are asserting that it got there because of the LPs I find it hard to believe. Are you suggesting that had those people "had backbone" and "were right, a lot", then AWS wouldn't have succeeded? That seems quite far-fetched.

The LPs look good on paper. But it's a stretch to call it a decision-making framework because the LPs are so vague and open to interpretation. Furthermore, they are often used by those in power to exploit those who are not, as illustrated by the story.

Then again, I don't work for Amazon so what do I know.

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