[ApicalDendrite]

I've worked with engineers at Amazon up to the senior principal level. Even if you grant that people in cybersecurity see a broader swath of the company, there's just no way that he can talk authoritatively about everything from AWS sales tactics, to hiring practices for former DoD procurement people, to real estate strategy to Amazon's own supply chain, to Jeff B.'s personal life. It would be like a mid-level employee at State Department talking about how the Trump administration views farm policy, and what the National Park Service is planning, and what types of cool things the US Mint is cooking up. That State Department guy might have heard about a lot of those things either from reading the news or from talking to buddies, but he wouldn't come within a mile of it as part of his job.

[amursft]

They're clearly putting on an air of authoritativeness, but yeah exactly. I read this more like a very extended Glassdoor review. You're getting one person's perspective. Interesting interview, big grain of salt.

[ericjang]

Which is fair. I don't think the interview is meant to be read as an authoritative source of truth on Amazon culture and sales and so forth, but rather just relaying what they've heard. They're more plugged into the Amazon rumor mill than I am and I think rumors often contain kernels of truth.

[ttam]

I don't think he said anything particularly insightful irt all those topics. A lot of the statements were superficial things that you'll pick up while working on adjacent areas (and as we know, it's pretty easy to jump around different teams/fields in Amazon) or from Amazonian friends.

Interesting things he didn't really talk much about: Alexa (there was 1 like 1 very superficial reference to it), Kuiper, and others.

I don't think this is a PR piece, and most likely it is not approved by the company (the reference about Jeff's Sex Life would've been removed). This does feel like a real view from an insider, it's very opinionated, and not all of it is right.