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Jeff Bezos on the 4 principles that differentiated Amazon from other companies “The thing that connects everything that Amazon does — our #1 conviction, philosophy, and principle — is customer obsession, as opposed to competitor obsession. We are always focused on the customer, working backwards from the customer’s needs,...

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Jeff Bezos explains Amazon’s process for expanding into new products like Kindle and AWS “I would definitely advise a small startup company to be as narrow and as focused as is possible to be. If you look at the original Amazon business plan, there was no hint of anything other than books in it… I wanted to build an online bookstore, and that was it.” But the online bookstore worked better than they thought it would. So Amazon launched music, and that worked better than they thought. Then video, and that worked too. So Jeff sent an email to customers: “I picked about 1,000 customers and I said, besides the things we sell today - books, music, and video - what would you like to see us sell? And the list came back incredibly long-tailed… So it’s been kind of one foot in front of the other.” As Jeff explains, Amazon expands into new businesses in two ways: “One is from a customer need. We will work from a customer need to the skills that we need. And the other one is skills forward: from a skillset we have to a new set of customers.” Kindle is an example of a customer need - Amazon had no hardware team at the time, but to make sure they didn’t miss the transition to ebooks, they built one. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is an example of skills-forward: “We had probably more distributed computing expertise than anybody else in the world because of transactions. Transaction systems are so complicated and hard to build, and we had a service-oriented architecture of great complexity - probably before anybody else. Because we were doing that, we could see the future a little bit and decided to build AWS, which has turned into a huge business in its own right.” Jeff concludes: “Business is very situational. Rules of thumb are good, but they have to be applied to the right situation. Sometimes the old maxim that you should stick to the knitting is correct, but sometimes it’s wrong. And a senior leader’s job is to figure out: Which situation are you in?” Video source: Business Insider (2014)
2:25

Jeff Bezos explains Amazon’s process for expanding into new products like Kindle and AWS “I would definitely advise a small startup company to be as narrow and as focused as is possible to be. If you look at the original Amazon business plan, there was no hint of anything other than books in it… I wanted to build an online bookstore, and that was it.” But the online bookstore worked better than they thought it would. So Amazon launched music, and that worked better than they thought. Then video, and that worked too. So Jeff sent an email to customers: “I picked about 1,000 customers and I said, besides the things we sell today - books, music, and video - what would you like to see us sell? And the list came back incredibly long-tailed… So it’s been kind of one foot in front of the other.” As Jeff explains, Amazon expands into new businesses in two ways: “One is from a customer need. We will work from a customer need to the skills that we need. And the other one is skills forward: from a skillset we have to a new set of customers.” Kindle is an example of a customer need - Amazon had no hardware team at the time, but to make sure they didn’t miss the transition to ebooks, they built one. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is an example of skills-forward: “We had probably more distributed computing expertise than anybody else in the world because of transactions. Transaction systems are so complicated and hard to build, and we had a service-oriented architecture of great complexity - probably before anybody else. Because we were doing that, we could see the future a little bit and decided to build AWS, which has turned into a huge business in its own right.” Jeff concludes: “Business is very situational. Rules of thumb are good, but they have to be applied to the right situation. Sometimes the old maxim that you should stick to the knitting is correct, but sometimes it’s wrong. And a senior leader’s job is to figure out: Which situation are you in?” Video source: Business Insider (2014)

Startup Archive

63,593 views • 10 months ago

Jeff Bezos on how to build a business strategy “I very frequently get the question: ‘What’s going to change in the next 10 years?” And that is an interesting question… But I almost never get the question: ‘What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?’ And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two.” Jeff argues: “You can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time. In our retail business, we know that customers want low prices, and I know that’s going to be true 10 years from now. They want fast delivery. They want vast selection. It’s impossible to imagine a future 10 years from now where a customer comes up and says, ‘Jeff I love Amazon, I just wish the prices were a little higher.’ Or, ‘I love Amazon, I just wish you’d deliver a little slower.’ Impossible. And so we know the energy we put into these things today will still be paying dividends for our customers 10 years from now.” He gives AWS as another example. It’s impossible to imagine AWS customers asking for a less reliable or more expensive service. ”When you have something that you know is true, even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it… The big ideas in business are often very obvious, but it’s very hard to maintain a firm grasp of the obvious at all times. But if you can do that and continue to spin up those flywheels and put energy into those things, over time, you build a better service for your customers on the things that genuinely matter to them.” Video source: Amazon Web Services (2012)
2:01

Jeff Bezos on how to build a business strategy “I very frequently get the question: ‘What’s going to change in the next 10 years?” And that is an interesting question… But I almost never get the question: ‘What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?’ And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two.” Jeff argues: “You can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time. In our retail business, we know that customers want low prices, and I know that’s going to be true 10 years from now. They want fast delivery. They want vast selection. It’s impossible to imagine a future 10 years from now where a customer comes up and says, ‘Jeff I love Amazon, I just wish the prices were a little higher.’ Or, ‘I love Amazon, I just wish you’d deliver a little slower.’ Impossible. And so we know the energy we put into these things today will still be paying dividends for our customers 10 years from now.” He gives AWS as another example. It’s impossible to imagine AWS customers asking for a less reliable or more expensive service. ”When you have something that you know is true, even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it… The big ideas in business are often very obvious, but it’s very hard to maintain a firm grasp of the obvious at all times. But if you can do that and continue to spin up those flywheels and put energy into those things, over time, you build a better service for your customers on the things that genuinely matter to them.” Video source: Amazon Web Services (2012)

Startup Archive

22,420 views • 3 months ago

Jeff Bezos on how to build a business strategy “I very frequently get the question: ‘What’s going to change in the next 10 years?” And that is an interesting question… But I almost never get the question: ‘What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?’ And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two.” Jeff argues: “You can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time. In our retail business, we know that customers want low prices, and I know that’s going to be true 10 years from now. They want fast delivery. They want vast selection. It’s impossible to imagine a future 10 years from now where a customer comes up and says, ‘Jeff I love Amazon, I just wish the prices were a little higher.’ Or, ‘I love Amazon, I just wish you’d deliver a little slower.’ Impossible. And so we know the energy we put into these things today will still be paying dividends for our customers 10 years from now.” He gives AWS as another example. It’s impossible to imagine AWS customers asking for a less reliable or more expensive service. ”When you have something that you know is true, even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it… The big ideas in business are often very obvious, but it’s very hard to maintain a firm grasp of the obvious at all times. But if you can do that and continue to spin up those flywheels and put energy into those things, over time, you build a better service for your customers on the things that genuinely matter to them.” Video source: Amazon Web Services (2012)
2:01

Jeff Bezos on how to build a business strategy “I very frequently get the question: ‘What’s going to change in the next 10 years?” And that is an interesting question… But I almost never get the question: ‘What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?’ And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two.” Jeff argues: “You can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time. In our retail business, we know that customers want low prices, and I know that’s going to be true 10 years from now. They want fast delivery. They want vast selection. It’s impossible to imagine a future 10 years from now where a customer comes up and says, ‘Jeff I love Amazon, I just wish the prices were a little higher.’ Or, ‘I love Amazon, I just wish you’d deliver a little slower.’ Impossible. And so we know the energy we put into these things today will still be paying dividends for our customers 10 years from now.” He gives AWS as another example. It’s impossible to imagine AWS customers asking for a less reliable or more expensive service. ”When you have something that you know is true, even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it… The big ideas in business are often very obvious, but it’s very hard to maintain a firm grasp of the obvious at all times. But if you can do that and continue to spin up those flywheels and put energy into those things, over time, you build a better service for your customers on the things that genuinely matter to them.” Video source: Amazon Web Services (2012)

Startup Archive

61,775 views • 1 year ago

Jeff Bezos responds to CNBC reporter who says Amazon isn’t a “pure internet company” The CNBC reporter asks Jeff in this 1999 interview: “You’re not really a pure internet company anymore, are you? You’ve got millions of square feet of real estate, a huge and growing inventory of items, and you’ve got thousands of employees now.” Jeff responds: “Yes, we have over 3,000 employees and over 4 million square feet of distribution center space. And those are things I’m very, very proud of. That distribution center space allows us to get product close to customers so that we can ship it to customers in a very timely way, which improves customer service levels. If there’s one thing Amazon is about, it’s obsessive attention to the customer experience end-to-end.” The reporter protests that this approach is more capital-intensive than the “pure internet play” business models that stock market analysts prefer. Jeff responds again: “It doesn’t matter to me if we’re a pure Internet play. What matters to me is whether we provide the best customer service… Our investors should be investing in a company that obsesses over customer experience. In the long term, there’s never any misalignment between customer interests and shareholder interests.” Source: CNBC (1999)
1:53

Jeff Bezos responds to CNBC reporter who says Amazon isn’t a “pure internet company” The CNBC reporter asks Jeff in this 1999 interview: “You’re not really a pure internet company anymore, are you? You’ve got millions of square feet of real estate, a huge and growing inventory of items, and you’ve got thousands of employees now.” Jeff responds: “Yes, we have over 3,000 employees and over 4 million square feet of distribution center space. And those are things I’m very, very proud of. That distribution center space allows us to get product close to customers so that we can ship it to customers in a very timely way, which improves customer service levels. If there’s one thing Amazon is about, it’s obsessive attention to the customer experience end-to-end.” The reporter protests that this approach is more capital-intensive than the “pure internet play” business models that stock market analysts prefer. Jeff responds again: “It doesn’t matter to me if we’re a pure Internet play. What matters to me is whether we provide the best customer service… Our investors should be investing in a company that obsesses over customer experience. In the long term, there’s never any misalignment between customer interests and shareholder interests.” Source: CNBC (1999)

Startup Archive

115,258 views • 27 days ago

Jeff Bezos: “People who are right a lot change their mind a lot” “Because of AI, new technologies, and all the dynamism in the world, so many things are changing — and they’re changing rapidly,” Jeff observes. The best solution he’s found for dealing with this rapid change is “thinking long-term” because it forces you to ask yourself, “What are the points of stability?” and “What is not going to change?” He continues: “One of the things that changes very slowly is customer needs. So you can build a strategy around customer needs. That will have durability.” When building Amazon, for example, Jeff built the company around the customer needs of fast delivery, low prices, and vast selection. “The technologies will change. Your competitive set will change. Everything will change, except those customer needs,” Jeff argues. And it’s this idea that is behind Jeff’s core idea of “Be stubborn on the vision, and flexible on the details.” He explains: “You have to be [flexible on the details] because the world is changing and so you change your mind. I’ve noticed that people who are right a lot change their mind a lot. People who are wrong a lot are very stubborn on the details.” Source: Reuters (Oct 2025)
2:20

Jeff Bezos: “People who are right a lot change their mind a lot” “Because of AI, new technologies, and all the dynamism in the world, so many things are changing — and they’re changing rapidly,” Jeff observes. The best solution he’s found for dealing with this rapid change is “thinking long-term” because it forces you to ask yourself, “What are the points of stability?” and “What is not going to change?” He continues: “One of the things that changes very slowly is customer needs. So you can build a strategy around customer needs. That will have durability.” When building Amazon, for example, Jeff built the company around the customer needs of fast delivery, low prices, and vast selection. “The technologies will change. Your competitive set will change. Everything will change, except those customer needs,” Jeff argues. And it’s this idea that is behind Jeff’s core idea of “Be stubborn on the vision, and flexible on the details.” He explains: “You have to be [flexible on the details] because the world is changing and so you change your mind. I’ve noticed that people who are right a lot change their mind a lot. People who are wrong a lot are very stubborn on the details.” Source: Reuters (Oct 2025)

Startup Archive

100,510 views • 1 month ago

Jeff Bezos in 1999 on why "Internet Shminternet" doesn't matter: Jeff was being challenged on whether Amazon is still an internet company. They had 3,000 employees and over 4 million square feet of distribution centers. The interviewer pushes back: "You're not really a pure Internet company anymore either. You've got millions of square feet of real estate, growing inventory, thousands of employees." Jeff's response: "I'm very proud of that because with that distribution center space and half a dozen distribution centers around the country, it allows us to get product close to customers so we can ship it in a timely way which improves customer service levels. That's what we're about." The interviewer tries again: "But you're not a pure Internet play." Jeff fires back: "It doesn't matter to me whether we're a pure Internet play. What matters to me is we provide the best customer service. Internet Shminternet. That doesn't matter." On what investors should care about: "They should be investing in a company that obsesses over customer experience in the long term. There is never any misalignment between customer interests and shareholder interests." The interviewer accuses him of corporate arrogance: "Isn't it corporate arrogance to assume that you can come into these businesses which you have no experience in and virtually overnight become the best and the market leader?" Jeff's response: "When we first started selling books four years ago, everybody said 'you're just computer guys, you don't know anything about selling books.' And that was true. But we really cared about customers and now we know a lot about books. We hired the right people. We take the commitment to the customer very seriously." On the risk: "There's no guarantee that Amazon(.com) can be a successful company. What we're trying to do is very complicated. There's huge execution risk involved. We have a terribly complicated business. But this is the less risky of the two approaches because scale is important in this business." Customer obsession beats everything else.
6:35

Jeff Bezos in 1999 on why "Internet Shminternet" doesn't matter: Jeff was being challenged on whether Amazon is still an internet company. They had 3,000 employees and over 4 million square feet of distribution centers. The interviewer pushes back: "You're not really a pure Internet company anymore either. You've got millions of square feet of real estate, growing inventory, thousands of employees." Jeff's response: "I'm very proud of that because with that distribution center space and half a dozen distribution centers around the country, it allows us to get product close to customers so we can ship it in a timely way which improves customer service levels. That's what we're about." The interviewer tries again: "But you're not a pure Internet play." Jeff fires back: "It doesn't matter to me whether we're a pure Internet play. What matters to me is we provide the best customer service. Internet Shminternet. That doesn't matter." On what investors should care about: "They should be investing in a company that obsesses over customer experience in the long term. There is never any misalignment between customer interests and shareholder interests." The interviewer accuses him of corporate arrogance: "Isn't it corporate arrogance to assume that you can come into these businesses which you have no experience in and virtually overnight become the best and the market leader?" Jeff's response: "When we first started selling books four years ago, everybody said 'you're just computer guys, you don't know anything about selling books.' And that was true. But we really cared about customers and now we know a lot about books. We hired the right people. We take the commitment to the customer very seriously." On the risk: "There's no guarantee that Amazon(.com) can be a successful company. What we're trying to do is very complicated. There's huge execution risk involved. We have a terribly complicated business. But this is the less risky of the two approaches because scale is important in this business." Customer obsession beats everything else.

Jaynit

28,602 views • 5 months ago

#WATCH | Delhi: On India-US trade deal, Rajesh Agrawal, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry says, "We are very optimistic and very hopeful that we should find a solution within this calendar year. But as you know, in any trade negotiations, even if there is one sticking point or issue on the mind of even one of the partners, the trade deal may not meet that deadline. The overall position is well set to deliver it in the next few weeks or months as soon as we can. But let's see, it's a call that will have to be taken at multiple levels. At the levels of negotiator, I think we are in a zone where we can say it is something that we can achieve in a very short while of time. There's not much to negotiate...As a country, we have always stood for our own sensitivities and our own uniqueness. So there are areas which are non-negotiable from our perspective..." (Source: FICCI/YouTube)
1:27

#WATCH | Delhi: On India-US trade deal, Rajesh Agrawal, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry says, "We are very optimistic and very hopeful that we should find a solution within this calendar year. But as you know, in any trade negotiations, even if there is one sticking point or issue on the mind of even one of the partners, the trade deal may not meet that deadline. The overall position is well set to deliver it in the next few weeks or months as soon as we can. But let's see, it's a call that will have to be taken at multiple levels. At the levels of negotiator, I think we are in a zone where we can say it is something that we can achieve in a very short while of time. There's not much to negotiate...As a country, we have always stood for our own sensitivities and our own uniqueness. So there are areas which are non-negotiable from our perspective..." (Source: FICCI/YouTube)

ANI

13,721 views • 7 months ago

breakdown. - the short film is out now 🖤🖤🖤 “The universe is very, very big and we are so very, very small, and that used to terrify me, until I realised something. You see we are the only thing that gives meaning to the cosmos. We decide what matters. We can be cruel or kind, brave or fearful. We can decide that love is the most important thing in the world, and just like that it is. We can always choose – at least if we slow down enough to see where we’re going.”
3:12

breakdown. - the short film is out now 🖤🖤🖤 “The universe is very, very big and we are so very, very small, and that used to terrify me, until I realised something. You see we are the only thing that gives meaning to the cosmos. We decide what matters. We can be cruel or kind, brave or fearful. We can decide that love is the most important thing in the world, and just like that it is. We can always choose – at least if we slow down enough to see where we’re going.”

YUNGBLUD

49,558 views • 2 years ago

Trump: Many points were agreed to. And there are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there. We didn't get there
0:36

Trump: Many points were agreed to. And there are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there. We didn't get there

Acyn

245,864 views • 11 months ago

YOKO ONO: ONOCHORD, VENICE, 2004 Yoko: The world is divided in two industries. One is the War Industry and the other is the Peace Industry. The people in the War Industry are totally together. They don't have to talk to each other, even. They know exactly what they want to do. They want to go out there, kill and make money. But the people in the Peace Industry, which are us - we are so idealistic that each one of us criticises the other Peace Person in the Peace Industry. And we are always just arguing and we are wasting our energies doing that. So let's just forgive each other and see that we are in the Peace Industry and that's all that counts. Even if you are not marching for peace, just be yourself, being a florist, being a merchant, being a talior, anything. That way you're contributing to the Peace Industry. People are just concentrating on fear, confusion and anger. And therefore just for a moment, I'd like us to think about Love. In a very magical, straight way, John and I met in London and from then on we stood for Peace and Love. And when I do this kind of event. Well it is... I was inspired to do it, but I still think that I'm still with John in spirit. John and I created the country called Nutopia. Not Utopia, because there was Utopia as a concept already. And we wanted to create a new concept, so we just added N on it - Nutopia - and as a country. Well, that is the concept of a country. And we all are citizens of that country. And in my apartment in the Dakota Building, we put a little plaque on the back door, the kitchen door. It says 'Nutopian Embassy' and even now we have that. (laughs). Nutopia exists in our minds. And because of that, some people want to rebel against it. The reason some want to rebel against it is a good proof that it exists. I think that it was a terrible thing that happened in Chechnya. But we have to still keep our hopes up. And instead of giving up, we have to keep on sending the message of Love to each other. You say that I am the Ambassador of Peace. We are all Ambassadors of Peace. You are too. Everybody in this room are Ambassadors of Peace. Just the fact that we are not participating in War. The fact that we are here, and we are what we are, means that we are in the Peace Industry. All of us. John and I used to say that our apartment in the Dakota is a conceptual monastry, just for the two of us. And when we go out of the Dakota, we get so many people communicating with us, so it's very important that we had silence and quietness. And my apartment is a very small space compared to the world. And I need that for my peace of mind. You should be kind to each other. You should come together, hug each other, love each other, express our love to each other and we should make it work. We should finally create a world that is a totally an Earth for Us. So let's do it. Yoko Ono, OpenAsia Press Conference, whilst exhibiting Onochord, 2004 by Yoko Ono (Nutopia) at the Venice Biennale: OpenAsia 2004, Lido Di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 9 September 2004.
9:13

YOKO ONO: ONOCHORD, VENICE, 2004 Yoko: The world is divided in two industries. One is the War Industry and the other is the Peace Industry. The people in the War Industry are totally together. They don't have to talk to each other, even. They know exactly what they want to do. They want to go out there, kill and make money. But the people in the Peace Industry, which are us - we are so idealistic that each one of us criticises the other Peace Person in the Peace Industry. And we are always just arguing and we are wasting our energies doing that. So let's just forgive each other and see that we are in the Peace Industry and that's all that counts. Even if you are not marching for peace, just be yourself, being a florist, being a merchant, being a talior, anything. That way you're contributing to the Peace Industry. People are just concentrating on fear, confusion and anger. And therefore just for a moment, I'd like us to think about Love. In a very magical, straight way, John and I met in London and from then on we stood for Peace and Love. And when I do this kind of event. Well it is... I was inspired to do it, but I still think that I'm still with John in spirit. John and I created the country called Nutopia. Not Utopia, because there was Utopia as a concept already. And we wanted to create a new concept, so we just added N on it - Nutopia - and as a country. Well, that is the concept of a country. And we all are citizens of that country. And in my apartment in the Dakota Building, we put a little plaque on the back door, the kitchen door. It says 'Nutopian Embassy' and even now we have that. (laughs). Nutopia exists in our minds. And because of that, some people want to rebel against it. The reason some want to rebel against it is a good proof that it exists. I think that it was a terrible thing that happened in Chechnya. But we have to still keep our hopes up. And instead of giving up, we have to keep on sending the message of Love to each other. You say that I am the Ambassador of Peace. We are all Ambassadors of Peace. You are too. Everybody in this room are Ambassadors of Peace. Just the fact that we are not participating in War. The fact that we are here, and we are what we are, means that we are in the Peace Industry. All of us. John and I used to say that our apartment in the Dakota is a conceptual monastry, just for the two of us. And when we go out of the Dakota, we get so many people communicating with us, so it's very important that we had silence and quietness. And my apartment is a very small space compared to the world. And I need that for my peace of mind. You should be kind to each other. You should come together, hug each other, love each other, express our love to each other and we should make it work. We should finally create a world that is a totally an Earth for Us. So let's do it. Yoko Ono, OpenAsia Press Conference, whilst exhibiting Onochord, 2004 by Yoko Ono (Nutopia) at the Venice Biennale: OpenAsia 2004, Lido Di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 9 September 2004.

Yoko Ono

35,208 views • 2 years ago

Arteta on Martin Odegaard: “I think he had a very difficult season in terms of the days that he's missed, the amount of games, which is very unusual. “He's a player that needs that rhythm, that needs to be very connected with the team. And not only that he's missed that opportunity, but the team as well has missed him. “So much for what he brings, that some things that are probably unnoticed to the public or in general are not in those stats, but it's much more profound within the team and the identity of this team. “We need him at his best, we need him constantly with us because we are a much better team with Martin in and around the team. Isaan Khan: “What is it the public don’t notice?” Arteta: “He’s the one that connects everybody, that glides everybody together, that makes the team flow in a way that nobody else can do that, and that's a huge quality to have.”
1:23

Arteta on Martin Odegaard: “I think he had a very difficult season in terms of the days that he's missed, the amount of games, which is very unusual. “He's a player that needs that rhythm, that needs to be very connected with the team. And not only that he's missed that opportunity, but the team as well has missed him. “So much for what he brings, that some things that are probably unnoticed to the public or in general are not in those stats, but it's much more profound within the team and the identity of this team. “We need him at his best, we need him constantly with us because we are a much better team with Martin in and around the team. Isaan Khan: “What is it the public don’t notice?” Arteta: “He’s the one that connects everybody, that glides everybody together, that makes the team flow in a way that nobody else can do that, and that's a huge quality to have.”

Connor Humm

173,568 views • 3 months ago

I have a friend who doesn't read anything published in the past 50 years, and the more I think about it, the more I think he's onto something. The reason is that time is the best filter we have for quality. People are bad at judging quality in the moment but very good at getting rid of junk over time. — — "History is not very good at capturing all that is great in art. It is not good at that. There are many great symphonies that have been lost permanently, there are many great painters that died unknown and their paintings are gone, there's novels that have been written that no one will ever read. So history is not good at capturing all this great art. But history is very good at discarding all that is mediocre. And the amount of time that that takes, it's something like 50 years. So over the course of 50 years, what will happen is a lot of stuff that was prominent will be re-filtered and re-filtered and re-filtered, and you'll end up with a smaller group of things which have survived that test of time. So if you think about it right now, if you go back and look at the bestseller lists for 1974, 1973, there's a lot of that that would have been highly regarded at the time, which people do not read anymore for a variety of reasons, and there's some that has survived, and that's a very telling distinction. So in a world where I'm turning 60 this year, you have a limited amount of time, all four of us have active lives, we want to make sure that if we're going to sit down, we're going to read carefully, we're going to meet and we're going to discuss it in detail, we want to make sure that the work is rewarding. And the best way to ensure that is by drawing from the past." amor towles
1:31

I have a friend who doesn't read anything published in the past 50 years, and the more I think about it, the more I think he's onto something. The reason is that time is the best filter we have for quality. People are bad at judging quality in the moment but very good at getting rid of junk over time. — — "History is not very good at capturing all that is great in art. It is not good at that. There are many great symphonies that have been lost permanently, there are many great painters that died unknown and their paintings are gone, there's novels that have been written that no one will ever read. So history is not good at capturing all this great art. But history is very good at discarding all that is mediocre. And the amount of time that that takes, it's something like 50 years. So over the course of 50 years, what will happen is a lot of stuff that was prominent will be re-filtered and re-filtered and re-filtered, and you'll end up with a smaller group of things which have survived that test of time. So if you think about it right now, if you go back and look at the bestseller lists for 1974, 1973, there's a lot of that that would have been highly regarded at the time, which people do not read anymore for a variety of reasons, and there's some that has survived, and that's a very telling distinction. So in a world where I'm turning 60 this year, you have a limited amount of time, all four of us have active lives, we want to make sure that if we're going to sit down, we're going to read carefully, we're going to meet and we're going to discuss it in detail, we want to make sure that the work is rewarding. And the best way to ensure that is by drawing from the past." amor towles

David Perell

86,741 views • 1 year ago

#WATCH | India AI Impact Summit 2026 | Delhi: Founder Chairman and CEO of Sampark Foundation & former CEO of HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayar says, "...From an employment point of view I think it is very important for us to understand that Indian companies, including Indian IT companies, are going to be profit-driven and therefore if you believe that they are going to create employment you must be dreaming. Therefore, the question is how do we create employment in this environment, and that employment comes from mass scale startups, which is what this government has already doing. So, how do we create new sets of people who are trying to solve new sets of problems not new sets of technology and if we do that we will get it right. I think we as Indians have to be very careful on who does data belong to and that is the debate we have a problem with. The LLM models which exist worldwide are far superior than the Indian models. Unfortunately, in India, we never develop products, so therefore we do not have SLMs and LLMs which are world-class. On one side, we have global LLM products which are coming to India and trading on our Indian data. Should we allowed that or should we not allowed that? But on the other side if we don't allow that then we have the data but we don't have the LLM models. So, how do we encourage technology completely to develop the LLM models. This needs radicals strategic thinking and a very important aspect otherwise we will either give up a data. So, I think it's a very critical aspect for us to think about - who does this data belong, what is the kind of incentives we are going to give to develop LLM technologies or SLM technologies fast so that we train on our data otherwise an LLM will come in with our data and we'll immediately see return and we'll celebrate and we will do all these kind of press releases but the India will lose a competitive advantage on something which is very critical for the next decade."
5:37

#WATCH | India AI Impact Summit 2026 | Delhi: Founder Chairman and CEO of Sampark Foundation & former CEO of HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayar says, "...From an employment point of view I think it is very important for us to understand that Indian companies, including Indian IT companies, are going to be profit-driven and therefore if you believe that they are going to create employment you must be dreaming. Therefore, the question is how do we create employment in this environment, and that employment comes from mass scale startups, which is what this government has already doing. So, how do we create new sets of people who are trying to solve new sets of problems not new sets of technology and if we do that we will get it right. I think we as Indians have to be very careful on who does data belong to and that is the debate we have a problem with. The LLM models which exist worldwide are far superior than the Indian models. Unfortunately, in India, we never develop products, so therefore we do not have SLMs and LLMs which are world-class. On one side, we have global LLM products which are coming to India and trading on our Indian data. Should we allowed that or should we not allowed that? But on the other side if we don't allow that then we have the data but we don't have the LLM models. So, how do we encourage technology completely to develop the LLM models. This needs radicals strategic thinking and a very important aspect otherwise we will either give up a data. So, I think it's a very critical aspect for us to think about - who does this data belong, what is the kind of incentives we are going to give to develop LLM technologies or SLM technologies fast so that we train on our data otherwise an LLM will come in with our data and we'll immediately see return and we'll celebrate and we will do all these kind of press releases but the India will lose a competitive advantage on something which is very critical for the next decade."

ANI

18,753 views • 5 months ago

Take 3 minutes and listen to Zachary Levi speak about how Kamala Harris voters are not the enemy: “Within my industry, as you can probably imagine, Hollywood is a very liberal town, and this (endorsing Trump) very well could constitute career suicide.” “We are being inundated every single day with poison, not just in the foods that we're eating and not just in the pharmaceuticals that are being shoved down our throats, in the images that we are looking at, and the audio that we are hearing through our media we are being poisoned and lied to.” “Recognize that all of the people on the other side that still believe that Kamala is the answer are being lied to. They are not the enemy. They are not evil. There is evil at the top of that food chain, but the American people that believe that Kamala is the way they are not evil people.” “So to the best that we can do, may we practice grace. May we practice forgiveness. May we practice patience so that as we go to the polls, as we talk to our friends and our family and we encourage people to go and look, do not be baited into their attacks.”
2:35

Take 3 minutes and listen to Zachary Levi speak about how Kamala Harris voters are not the enemy: “Within my industry, as you can probably imagine, Hollywood is a very liberal town, and this (endorsing Trump) very well could constitute career suicide.” “We are being inundated every single day with poison, not just in the foods that we're eating and not just in the pharmaceuticals that are being shoved down our throats, in the images that we are looking at, and the audio that we are hearing through our media we are being poisoned and lied to.” “Recognize that all of the people on the other side that still believe that Kamala is the answer are being lied to. They are not the enemy. They are not evil. There is evil at the top of that food chain, but the American people that believe that Kamala is the way they are not evil people.” “So to the best that we can do, may we practice grace. May we practice forgiveness. May we practice patience so that as we go to the polls, as we talk to our friends and our family and we encourage people to go and look, do not be baited into their attacks.”

End Tribalism in Politics

273,271 views • 1 year ago

Jeff Bezos: “Focus on the controllable inputs to your business instead of the outputs” Jeff gives the example of companies trying to drive up their stock price by actually going out and trying to sell their stock: “[A higher stock price] is the final output…. That’s not going to be sustainable. It’s a silly approach.” Jeff recommends working backwards from a higher stock price to its controllable inputs instead: “What are the inputs to a higher stock price? Okay, well, free cash flow and return on invested capital are inputs to a higher stock price. Let’s keep working backwards. What are the inputs to free cash flow? And you keep working backwards until you get to something that’s controllable.” He points out that a controllable input to free cash flow would be something like a lower cost structure: “If we can improve our picking efficiency in our fulfillment centers and reduce defects - reducing defects at the root is one of the best ways to lower cost structure - that starts to be a job you would accept. If you’re a reasonable person, you would say, I have no idea how to drive up the stock price - I can’t manage that directly. It’s not a controllable input. But I can make your picking algorithms more efficient, and that will reduce cost structure. And then you follow that chain all along the way. That’s what you do in all of these businesses.” Video source: Business Insider (2014)
1:29

Jeff Bezos: “Focus on the controllable inputs to your business instead of the outputs” Jeff gives the example of companies trying to drive up their stock price by actually going out and trying to sell their stock: “[A higher stock price] is the final output…. That’s not going to be sustainable. It’s a silly approach.” Jeff recommends working backwards from a higher stock price to its controllable inputs instead: “What are the inputs to a higher stock price? Okay, well, free cash flow and return on invested capital are inputs to a higher stock price. Let’s keep working backwards. What are the inputs to free cash flow? And you keep working backwards until you get to something that’s controllable.” He points out that a controllable input to free cash flow would be something like a lower cost structure: “If we can improve our picking efficiency in our fulfillment centers and reduce defects - reducing defects at the root is one of the best ways to lower cost structure - that starts to be a job you would accept. If you’re a reasonable person, you would say, I have no idea how to drive up the stock price - I can’t manage that directly. It’s not a controllable input. But I can make your picking algorithms more efficient, and that will reduce cost structure. And then you follow that chain all along the way. That’s what you do in all of these businesses.” Video source: Business Insider (2014)

Startup Archive

18,881 views • 1 year ago

Jeff Bezos: “Missionaries build better products” In the clip below, Jeff tells Charlie Rose that Amazon’s mission is to be “Earth’s most customer-centric company.” When asked what that means, Jeff shares the example: “Right after World War II, Akio Morita—the guy who founded Sony—set as the mission for Sony that they were going to make Japan known for quality. You have to remember, this was a time when Japan was known for cheap, copycat products. And Morita didn’t say ‘we’re going to make Sony known for quality’. He said ‘we’re going to make Japan known for quality.’ He chose a mission for Sony that was bigger than Sony.” And Jeff wanted to do the same with Amazon: “We want other companies to look at Amazon and see us as a standard-bearer for obsessive focus on the customer—as opposed to obsessive focus on the competitor.” He cites this as one of the reasons Amazon takes such a long-term view—he argues you can’t really do the right thing for customers if you’re short-term oriented. This mindset also a key factor in their success versus Walmart: “Our profitability is not our customer’s problem. We don’t take the point of view that we’re going to price products at a particular margin for ourselves… We’re going to price products competitively. And if that means on that product we lose money, that’s ok because we need to take care of the customer to earn trust. And we’ll figure it out over time… But we’re not going to make customers pay for our inefficiencies.” As an example of the company’s long-term thinking, Jeff shares that most businesses Amazon starts have either no impact on financials for the first 5-7 years or a negative impact. “It’s an outcome of customer obsession.” In 1997, George Colony of Forrester Research called the company “Amazon.toast.” Jeff knew that every employee—and perhaps more importantly: every employee’s mother—had read the article. So he called an all-hands meeting with all 150 employees at the time and told the team: “You should wake up terrified every morning. But don’t be worried about our competitors because they’re never going to send us any money anyway. Let’s be worried about our customers and stay heads-down focused.” He tells Charlie: “[Our competitors] can succeed fabulously and it won’t stop us from succeeding. These retail markets are huge…. Sometimes people think of business as a sporting event: there’s a winner and a loser. But it usually isn’t. Most often, industries succeed—I can tell you, e-commerce is succeeding. And the way we think about it: nobody else has to fail for us to do well… I have a list of 50 competitors we could walk through all over the world doing different things… We’re going to pay attention to those competitors, but we’re not going to obsess over them. We’re going to obsess over customers… And it’s not just a business for us, it’s a mission. And missionaries build better products.”
7:39

Jeff Bezos: “Missionaries build better products” In the clip below, Jeff tells Charlie Rose that Amazon’s mission is to be “Earth’s most customer-centric company.” When asked what that means, Jeff shares the example: “Right after World War II, Akio Morita—the guy who founded Sony—set as the mission for Sony that they were going to make Japan known for quality. You have to remember, this was a time when Japan was known for cheap, copycat products. And Morita didn’t say ‘we’re going to make Sony known for quality’. He said ‘we’re going to make Japan known for quality.’ He chose a mission for Sony that was bigger than Sony.” And Jeff wanted to do the same with Amazon: “We want other companies to look at Amazon and see us as a standard-bearer for obsessive focus on the customer—as opposed to obsessive focus on the competitor.” He cites this as one of the reasons Amazon takes such a long-term view—he argues you can’t really do the right thing for customers if you’re short-term oriented. This mindset also a key factor in their success versus Walmart: “Our profitability is not our customer’s problem. We don’t take the point of view that we’re going to price products at a particular margin for ourselves… We’re going to price products competitively. And if that means on that product we lose money, that’s ok because we need to take care of the customer to earn trust. And we’ll figure it out over time… But we’re not going to make customers pay for our inefficiencies.” As an example of the company’s long-term thinking, Jeff shares that most businesses Amazon starts have either no impact on financials for the first 5-7 years or a negative impact. “It’s an outcome of customer obsession.” In 1997, George Colony of Forrester Research called the company “Amazon.toast.” Jeff knew that every employee—and perhaps more importantly: every employee’s mother—had read the article. So he called an all-hands meeting with all 150 employees at the time and told the team: “You should wake up terrified every morning. But don’t be worried about our competitors because they’re never going to send us any money anyway. Let’s be worried about our customers and stay heads-down focused.” He tells Charlie: “[Our competitors] can succeed fabulously and it won’t stop us from succeeding. These retail markets are huge…. Sometimes people think of business as a sporting event: there’s a winner and a loser. But it usually isn’t. Most often, industries succeed—I can tell you, e-commerce is succeeding. And the way we think about it: nobody else has to fail for us to do well… I have a list of 50 competitors we could walk through all over the world doing different things… We’re going to pay attention to those competitors, but we’re not going to obsess over them. We’re going to obsess over customers… And it’s not just a business for us, it’s a mission. And missionaries build better products.”

Startup Archive

119,548 views • 2 years ago

Peter Thiel: Think of the future on three horizons “What you end up doing when you think of the future as indefinite is you pick a job that will be good on your resume because it will then lead to a different job later on.” Instead of viewing the future as indefinite, Thiel suggests that the students in the audience think of the future on three horizons: short term, medium term, and long term. Very short term is: Are you going to be happy and will you be learning a lot? Very long term is: Are you working on something important or meaningful? “I think we are in a skewed world where we overweight the medium term, and we underweight some combination of the short term and the long term.” Thiel would recalibrate it to: “Focus on some combination of short term and long term. And forget about the medium term.”
1:01

Peter Thiel: Think of the future on three horizons “What you end up doing when you think of the future as indefinite is you pick a job that will be good on your resume because it will then lead to a different job later on.” Instead of viewing the future as indefinite, Thiel suggests that the students in the audience think of the future on three horizons: short term, medium term, and long term. Very short term is: Are you going to be happy and will you be learning a lot? Very long term is: Are you working on something important or meaningful? “I think we are in a skewed world where we overweight the medium term, and we underweight some combination of the short term and the long term.” Thiel would recalibrate it to: “Focus on some combination of short term and long term. And forget about the medium term.”

Startup Archive

69,175 views • 2 years ago

This is not fair Andy Jassy cc Jeff Bezos Amazon is charging my company money to answer customer questions and then directing our customers to inferior competitor products who have paid Amazon. We never signed up for Rufus ads. The customer is already on the Amazon page for Brain Flakes. We may have even already paid for an ad for them to get there. And then Amazon shows them an ad designed to answer questions that are already answered by us directly on the page they are on? And then Amazon sends them to another “brand” which is advertising on our product page. Look, I get it. Amazon is a big company with lots of people, lots of teams, and lots of AI, but you can’t keep doing this. You have to rethink your approach. The more you squeeze sellers, the higher prices will go on Amazon, because we don’t have the margins that you do (or the access to capital). This combined with Amazon’s market share and pricing policies mean that when you force us to raise prices by raising our costs, pricing across the entire ecommerce ecosystem rise. In other words, all Americans pay more when shopping online. You need to rethink these policies and the endless backdoor price increases. Thank you
0:32

This is not fair Andy Jassy cc Jeff Bezos Amazon is charging my company money to answer customer questions and then directing our customers to inferior competitor products who have paid Amazon. We never signed up for Rufus ads. The customer is already on the Amazon page for Brain Flakes. We may have even already paid for an ad for them to get there. And then Amazon shows them an ad designed to answer questions that are already answered by us directly on the page they are on? And then Amazon sends them to another “brand” which is advertising on our product page. Look, I get it. Amazon is a big company with lots of people, lots of teams, and lots of AI, but you can’t keep doing this. You have to rethink your approach. The more you squeeze sellers, the higher prices will go on Amazon, because we don’t have the margins that you do (or the access to capital). This combined with Amazon’s market share and pricing policies mean that when you force us to raise prices by raising our costs, pricing across the entire ecommerce ecosystem rise. In other words, all Americans pay more when shopping online. You need to rethink these policies and the endless backdoor price increases. Thank you

molson 🧠⚙️

42,988 views • 2 months ago

Most CEOs of $2 trillion companies stopped reading customer emails a long time ago, Jeff Bezos never did. Bezos says one customer complaint isn't a customer service problem, it's a root cause waiting to be fixed for every customer. "My email address is famous and I keep it, it's jeff@amazon. com. I'll get one from a customer and there's a defect. Something seems a little odd about it." "I ask the team to do a case study and find real root causes, usually causes, and then real root fixes." "When you fix it, you're not fixing it for that one customer. You're fixing it for every customer. That process is a gigantic part of what we do." PS. We post daily content strictly for dedicated entrepreneurs, so if you’re one of them, make sure to follow us Entrepreneurs on X for more. Like and repost if you found value in this post:
0:49

Most CEOs of $2 trillion companies stopped reading customer emails a long time ago, Jeff Bezos never did. Bezos says one customer complaint isn't a customer service problem, it's a root cause waiting to be fixed for every customer. "My email address is famous and I keep it, it's jeff@amazon. com. I'll get one from a customer and there's a defect. Something seems a little odd about it." "I ask the team to do a case study and find real root causes, usually causes, and then real root fixes." "When you fix it, you're not fixing it for that one customer. You're fixing it for every customer. That process is a gigantic part of what we do." PS. We post daily content strictly for dedicated entrepreneurs, so if you’re one of them, make sure to follow us Entrepreneurs on X for more. Like and repost if you found value in this post:

Entrepreneurs on X

96,650 views • 1 month ago

#F1 | Lewis Hamilton believes the team is very well equipped to take on the 2026 season: “Just to be in Fiorano, you know, to be at Ferrari, to be here, to know that this is a start of a long journey, but one that I know that it just feels right, I think the team is in the best place it’s been, I think, for the time I’ve been here. And seeing everyone so motivated and driven, I think we’re really on it.” “We’ve got a lot of work to do to really make sure we do all the diligence and we really understand this car and we really have to be quick to react, be very dynamic but I feel like all hands are on deck so I’m sure we can do that.”
0:43

#F1 | Lewis Hamilton believes the team is very well equipped to take on the 2026 season: “Just to be in Fiorano, you know, to be at Ferrari, to be here, to know that this is a start of a long journey, but one that I know that it just feels right, I think the team is in the best place it’s been, I think, for the time I’ve been here. And seeing everyone so motivated and driven, I think we’re really on it.” “We’ve got a lot of work to do to really make sure we do all the diligence and we really understand this car and we really have to be quick to react, be very dynamic but I feel like all hands are on deck so I’m sure we can do that.”

deni

23,078 views • 5 months ago