Amazon TB-CB Interview

What I write here is not the thoughts and opinions of Tiffani Bova or Colin Bryar, but these are my notes for my own edification. I find it difficult to comprehend that in the 21st Century that our education system has taught the vast majority of us to show up like we do to a school and then sit dutifully by as if we are student and there is an authority that is meant to teach us. The TB-CB Amazon interview is based on a live 42 minute broadcast.

It is perfectly cool asking questions but I am one who questions the questions I ask. Would I ask that question had I not attended the online session? If the answer is no, then that is a question which is in the moment and I do not see how in the moment questions help us, because the context of the answer is always different to the problem we are trying to solve. Where the greenfield is, what sparks and turns on our lights and this particular interview had many moments. That in turn tells me that whatever Colin Bryar wrote, it will not be fluff.

Unless I capture this in the here and now, I would have spent 42 minutes, picked up interesting things and then by next week have minor recollection of the interview and more importantly take away broad points that connected with my attention - but lose so much to the neuron ether in my brain, which is our brains natural mechanism to protect us from information overload.

Yet the act of journaling the experience is sending a message to the brain that this is information that is consciously important, thus give it subconscious relevance. The important thing for me to remember is that this one perspective from a senior and former of exec of Amazon (albeit one worth listening to) but today there are over 575,000+ people working for Amazon, so that is one just from those 1/2 million currently active folk.

The last thing that was discussed in the interview is the first one that exemplifies what I am doing here, which is a point about deliberate practice, emphasized further by Anders Ericsson. My deliberate practice is a combo of thinking, googling and integrating.

It does not matter that I also learned today the difference between naive practice, purposeful practice and deliberate practice, what is key IMHO is that practice is practice. It underscores everything we do whether it is law, medicine, public speaking, management or leadership. I am all for attribution but I am not a fan of content porn.

Context is king and all of this I am writing here is being generated in regards to my context. We have sat in the industrial age as a society for so many centuries, that we cannot get out of our societal habit of producing. Yes, we are rewarded for producing content but a few actually earn a living from production, the rest of us are the cogs in the production wheels.

The first thing IMHO that came up in the interview that was of note was that Amazon had 14 principles. I am not sharing the 14 principles here for the very reason that as I write this, I am also reading the article that accompanies it. I am learning in the moment I write this, that is not sharing with the unwashed masses, taught by our antiquated education system to behave in a socially responsible manner. I am not responsible for your learning or growth.

Should Fatima follow the linked pic above? No.

I don't care if our "hypothetical Fatima" has found this page or what she chooses to click, or what she takes away, other than I would say "Fatima, please go to the actual interview". I did and this is my discovery. At the same time we are all socially engineered to follow, so this should not become a reason to get anxious, be comfortable with exactly who you are.

Asides to the caveats I send out to people who find themselves on this page, I do solemly declare that I do not want to own you.

Even though I totally accept Amazon Principle #2 about ownership, I do not believe in the term "my readers", in terms of ownership, if I thought that, this would be akin to slavery. You are not my slaves, go forth and read everywhere, anywhere or no where - you choose your life actions, not me.

I am very comfortable with all the points, including 3. Listen and Simply. In the context of what I am doing here, my listening is directed to the interview and I have no responsibility to simply my thoughts, thankfully I let my people go free, a bit like Jiddu Krishnamurti telling the followers of the Order of the Star, that the Order is closed. Next I am gong to show how "Single Threaded" I really am, (Maybe right now Amazon should not hire me).

Spurs are playing a Europa League game on Thursday, so the article about decision making by Ram Charan is one that I have skimmed through now, but I will be revisiting during that game.

My team Tottenham is one I have supported for nearly 52 years, so I know by now that matches serve as great background noise. If only I had written these thoughts this morning, I could have read Ram Charan's thoughts during today's game against Arsenal. Yet as a foolish football fan, sometimes the feeling is that my team will beat the old enemy ragged, and then life does not work out that way. What a waste !

The Forbes article was pretty straight forward, though I wish there was far less padding before they started talking about the substantative points about the Amazon system.

I am not under any obligation to remove the padding of my thoughts here, because I am thinking out aloud about this, not that class of online animal called the "reader".

What Forbes calls Staying at Day One, I refer to as Beginners Mind. One of the things most people do not do well is cross over learnings that apply to organizations, to the home and leadership practices that work in our home, as practice points in how we lead in the workplace. To me, the practice of leadership starts with the individual, including the home. There are some links in the Forbes article that I will follow up during the next broadcasted Tottenham game. If anyone is listening at Amazon - please buy the team! Please, Please.

While I was fascinated by the "Collection of Error" system that Colin Bryer mentioned, it looks pretty logical, in step with other continuous improvement systems like Toyota's.

https://wa.aws.amazon.com/wat.concept.coe.en.html

It is good to know what Amazon call theirs, as a general reference. I did not understand what "Tier Goals" are, I assume Amazon operate a Tier system, so it is not something that I am burning to find out about, but I do love their attitude about anecdotes and data :

If there is anecdotal evidence for the way I adapt, learn and create, then it behooves me to "know myself". I am already a fan of Elon Musk being the poster child for First Principles, but I have to say that First Principles was here a long time ago, well before Elon became a fertilized gamete.

Exposure is important, but the direction we run is our own. That is what makes Elon Musk great, not that he adopts or learns from First Principles. Since I know what First Principles are, I really don't need to link to it. No one talked about First Principles during the Interview, but they did talk about Principles. Anyone can do what I do, but I can do what I do both because Google exists and that I exist. ("Readers" I don't know if they actually do).

Final two takeaways for me were controllable inputs and a reinforcement regarding the notion of a silent meeting. Something that sounds great on paper but hard to practice.

While I liked the point about controllable inputs, when I found this medium article, it reminded me about Jeff Bezos's Letters to Shareholders.

I have not looked at Berkshire Hathaways Letter to Shareholders from Warren Buffett let alone the treasure trove created by Bezos.

Reading "Letters to Shareholder" should be called BINGE READING, and I still have to get a little better at Binge Watching, which is when one consumes the Game of Throne series in the same two weeks. If only I had the time to do that and this, why did God invent Sleep?

I have head about Bezos's Silent Meetings before, but what is important about revisiting this is that I can't do them. While I am absorbing things in the moment in thinking through this, that is not the same thing as the skill of Critical Thinking.

Also just because I am imaginative enough to process information that does not mean I am good at Creative Thinking either.

I am a whiz at reflective thinking, which is what some estimates suggest only 10% of people do, there is so much space and room for me to develop my critical thinking abilities (even though exercises like debate), as well as improve my creative thinking (through scary practice such as Improv).

So should Amazon hire a person like me to join their executive team. Oh, no, no, no, no - if I developed greater faculty of critical thinking and creative thinking, I would be treated like a God in the Amazon boardroom.

We get too preoccupied with weird thinking like "Imposter Syndrome" and not enough in exercising practice. It really helps when I attend a really good interview such as the one Tiffany Bova and Colin Bryar held two hours ago. Now I am two hours wiser, and on Thursday, I expect Tottenham to progress through to the Quarter-Finals of the Europa League - but my chief "Amazon" lesson today, is I should have had my computer open during the Arsenal-Spurs game. Even when our favourite team does not perform, we can.