The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 10 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Carr: Amazon developed nearly all core products and processes between 2003-2007
“This period of both product and process innovation actually occurred in this one narrow window of 2003 to 2007. During that window of time, all the products I just mentioned and all of the processes except for one Were all developed in this one four year perio…”
Pincus: Every member of Andy Jassy's C-suite was Bezos's technical assistant
“And in fact, Andy Jassy at Amazon, everyone on the C staff used to be someone who'd been the tech assistant to Bezos.”
Rachitsky: Major tech companies hire product managers, not product owners
“Google has no product owners as far as they know. Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, like no company you, you've heard of that's a tech company has a product owner. They have, or they're all product managers. They're all product managers.”
Carr: Amazon tied executive compensation to stock price, not unit performance bonuses
“So there were no performance bonuses. So if I was running the book business and I had a killer year from a financial point of view, there was no like extra kicker for me. And if I ran the book business and it had a bad year, there was no financial penalty for …”
Colin Bryar drafted Jeff Bezos's famous 2004 memo banning PowerPoint at Amazon
“Apparently he was the one that drafted this memo. He handed it to Jeff, sent it out. They didn't think it was going to be that big a deal, but of course the deal that not only changed all of Amazon, it probably changed every other company.”
Rachitsky: Amazon's six-page narrative is designed to expose flawed ideas early
“The narrative approach at Amazon, one of the benefits of that and the reasons they go there is partly for you to realize this is a bad idea before anyone even needs to give you feedback. And that's why they force you to write six pages in depth about your idea…”
Carr: Amazon required S-team plan alignment before granting team autonomy
“There's, there was an intense review process at Amazon where either, you know,
At some level, whether it be the vice president, senior vice president, or all the way up to the Jeff level and his direct reports called the S team, this plan would be reviewed and…”
Carr: Amazon Borrowed Bar Raiser Hiring Process from Microsoft
“So they created this bar raiser process, which by the way, they borrowed from Microsoft, which had a process called as appropriate.”
Carr: Amazon measured its key selection input metric incorrectly for years
“We tell a story in the book about one of our most important input metrics, which was how much selection do we have? And we were actually not measuring that right for several years. We had to refine that measurement.”
Shah: Amazon gives new employees business writing classes and tip cards
“Every employee goes through actually like a business writing class after they started Amazon, they give you a little card with five tips that you're supposed to keep on your desk about Concision and specificity in the words you use.”