[dcow]

Just curious, has Bezos engaged in behavior indicative of an actual narcissist. Or have there been reports from people close to him? Or is your assessment mostly a projection of Amazon back onto him? I know a few people who actually have narcissistic personality disorder but I don't know Bezos at all.

[aeturnum]

I think people can have narcissistic goals without having narcissistic personality disorder. It is tempting to see our passions as deriving from an objectively correct view of how the world should improve. Jeff likes space and, what do you know, it turns out Jeff's way of exploring space is at the center of a larger plan to save the world that Jeff feels pretty confident about.

Those of us who aren't billionaires just have to satisfy more people with our arguments about why our ideas are worth doing. When you're funding everything, it's a lot easier to attribute pushback to personal preference rather than your overall worldview being flawed. After all, if your worldview was flawed, why are all these people working at your space company? How did you make all this money? Etc.

I don't actually if Jeff has drunk his own cool-aid, but I think people in his position have fewer people to push back against their worldview than most.

[mnowicki]

I'm guessing based on his business practices and attitude in interviews/statements. I don't claim to be an expert though, that's why I qualified my post stating that's it's purely my speculation, just like the authors post

[dcow]

Fair. Do you have any examples or links to the offending remarks or practices? I’m trying to build up my own profile in order to understand the negative responses to the blue origin flight.

[dundarious]

It was reported that Bezos himself was behind the failed pushback online by Amazon "ambassadors" to the peeing in bottles story. Replying "You don't really think people are peeing in bottles, do you?" and then finding internal Amazon documents proving management awareness of people peeing in bottles was certainly a poor decision, and seemingly influenced by Bezos' pride and ego more than reason.

And it's not as attributable to Bezos, but Amazon is famous in journalism for asking for numerous "corrections" to articles about them, when those supposed corrections are actually just unrelated talking points and PR spin.