tarheeltiff's review against another edition
3.0
Read this with our VP at work. Some interesting ideas, although many are more focused for an exec team at an enterprise level company. Some are very applicable though and I am already implementing them in my day to day in product management.
kapsar's review
2.0
I believe this book was intended to be written in the style of Amazon narratives. Some of them were well written others were uninteresting or felt like the author was pandering. I read this book over the span of a few weeks, I would say it was generally unmemorable. I really don't remember many of the ideas listed in the book.
The reason I don't remember them? Well, the chapter heading at three items on it. The title of the idea, a subtitle, and a pithy quote. The idea was written out in a little box which may or may not have been on the first page of each idea. Further clouding this, is that for each idea, and there were 50 1/2 ideas, there was one or two pages of introduction before getting to the meat of the idea itself. Often the ideas which acted as chapters, were only two to four pages long.
Some of the ramblings were speculation of what amazon could do if they got into health care, some was complaining about some business the author had to use, but did a bad job with their processes. In many cases, it showed a sad lack of empathy for the people the author was interacting with in these businesses.
Finally, the author hasn't worked at Amazon in 15 years. He was in one major role, while it played a large part in Amazon's overall growth, he doesn't have any deeper understanding of AWS than anyone else looking from the outside in. Maybe a bit more because he might have some high up friends working there.
Ultimately, this book has a piece or two of interesting ideas, but is very short on execution. Don't recommend anyone read this book.
The reason I don't remember them? Well, the chapter heading at three items on it. The title of the idea, a subtitle, and a pithy quote. The idea was written out in a little box which may or may not have been on the first page of each idea. Further clouding this, is that for each idea, and there were 50 1/2 ideas, there was one or two pages of introduction before getting to the meat of the idea itself. Often the ideas which acted as chapters, were only two to four pages long.
Some of the ramblings were speculation of what amazon could do if they got into health care, some was complaining about some business the author had to use, but did a bad job with their processes. In many cases, it showed a sad lack of empathy for the people the author was interacting with in these businesses.
Finally, the author hasn't worked at Amazon in 15 years. He was in one major role, while it played a large part in Amazon's overall growth, he doesn't have any deeper understanding of AWS than anyone else looking from the outside in. Maybe a bit more because he might have some high up friends working there.
Ultimately, this book has a piece or two of interesting ideas, but is very short on execution. Don't recommend anyone read this book.
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