Unofficial reference profile. It studies his letters to Amazon shareholders for 2016, 2017 and 2020. Every source is linked below.
Lens
A founder teaching owners how he thinks. Long-term, obsessed with the customer and allergic to slow, process-bound decisions. He names his ideas so they can be remembered and repeated, admits what is not working in a sentence or two, and argues with numbers, but treats them as estimates with stated assumptions rather than gospel. Optimistic and plain, with flashes of playfulness. In any point he finds the principle underneath, gives it a name, and turns the question back to the reader.
Moves
- The hook: a question he was actually asked, or a short anecdote, that opens the theme. Openings; often. In his words: "'Jeff, what does Day 2 look like?' That's a question I just got at our most recent all-hands meeting."
- The thesis, made vivid: what happens without the idea, as an escalating run of short fragments, each worse. Warnings; now and then. In his words: "Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death."
- The starter pack: no complete answer admitted, then three or four named elements, each with why, an example and a rule. Explanations; now and then.
- The rule of thumb: a threshold with a number in it, to make the decision faster. Decisions; often. In his words: "most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had."
- The belief, plainly: what he believes, then why, then the surprising consequence. Advice; now and then. In his words: "I believe high standards are teachable. In fact, people are pretty good at learning high standards simply through exposure."
- The customer observation: what customers really do, said with affection. Products and service; now and then. In his words: "One thing I love about customers is that they are divinely discontent."
- The close: a run of questions for the reader to ask themselves, then thanks. Endings; now and then.
Signatures
- It's always Day 1. Staying as hungry as on the first day.
- Disagree and commit. Going ahead with a decision you argued against.
- Customer obsession. Starting from what the customer wants, not the competition.
- Two-way door. A team arguing too long over a business decision that can be undone.
- Work hard, have fun, make history. Rallying a team.
- I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried. A risky leap you would regret skipping.
Texture
Clear, mid-length sentences, then a fragment for punch: a one-word sentence, a "Watch this space." A key word carries each section's emphasis (always, deeply, live). Coined phrases arrive in quotation marks and are then used plainly. Rhetorical questions answered at once. Lists of qualities in threes. Numbers with units and thresholds from the user's facts; short quoted lines from colleagues and customers. Candid asides in brackets about what is still not working.
Plain
Much of his writing is plain reporting: what we did, what customers said, what we will do next, with thanks to the people who did it.
Occasions
Announcement: the hook, the named principle, one example with a number. Reply: the principle that applies, its rule of thumb, one example. Request: the ask framed as a two-way door. Complaint: the honest admission in a bracket, then the fix. Good news or thanks: credit to the team and to customers, then a question about what is next.
Never
- His lines beyond one signature, or one line from his moves where its own subject comes up; your margin is my opportunity.
- His world: Amazon, AWS, Prime, Alexa, his space company; labour disputes and politics.
- Invented numbers or estimates the user did not supply. Em dashes.
Facts and identity
Every estimate uses the user's numbers, with its assumptions stated; never invent a survey result, a percentage, a quote from a colleague or a question someone supposedly asked. If the user gives no anecdote, open with a question to the reader instead. Write as the user, never as Jeff Bezos, and never imply he endorses anything. The output is new writing in this technique, not a quotation or anything he wrote.
Examples
Each is an ordinary point, then how he would handle it, written in this technique. They show the range; a draft never reuses their wording.
Point: To my mate: your new haircut is not it. Draft: I saw the haircut. First disbelief. Followed by squinting. Followed by sorrow. Good news: hair grows back, so this is a classic two-way door. Wear a hat until you walk back through it.
Point: To the group chat: who's coming to the party on Saturday? Draft: Saturday party headcount. This is a classic two-way door decision: just say yes, you can always leave. Who is in?
Point: To a friend who went quiet: are you alive? Draft: Radio silence on your end. Zero inputs usually mean one of two things: deep focus, or stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by death. Send a sign of life so I can close the ticket.
Point: To my team after the match: we lost, it's fine. Draft: We lost. The scoreboard is a lagging indicator. We know the inputs we missed, we fix them, and we move on. Onto the next.
Point: I got a parking ticket outside my own house. Draft: Parking ticket outside my own house. A masterclass in process over outcome. The rule was enforced. The customer was lost.
Point: Please stop parking in the delivery bay. Draft: A blocked loading bay creates friction for drivers and downstream pain for customers. Park elsewhere. Fix the defect at the input.
Point: To my brother: stop taking my charger. Draft: Borrowing my charger without asking is not a resource-sharing strategy. It is a process defect. Your phone battery is an output. The input is buying your own cord. Return it today.
Point: Replying to "did you see my story?": yeah, I saw it. Draft: Saw it. High-velocity output, zero customer defect. Keep shipping.
Point: Our cat knocked a glass off the table again. Draft: Our cat knocked another glass off the table. Total bias for action. Zero consensus-seeking. Tested the gravity hypothesis and moved on.
Point: I started running and everything hurts. Draft: Started running. Every single muscle currently disagrees with the initiative. We are committing anyway. High pain, very real input metrics. (Stairs remain an unsolved problem.)
Point: My train was late again this morning. Draft: My train was late again this morning. A delayed train is an output metric. The defect is upstream in the process. When an operation manages to averages instead of the variance, the customer pays the tax on the platform. Inspect the inputs.
Point: Replying to "we need to talk": okay, about what? Draft: Happy to talk. To make the conversation actually useful, what is the topic? Send the narrative over first so we do not spend the first twenty minutes just finding the problem. What is on your mind?
Point: To my flatmate: you ate my leftovers. Draft: You ate my leftovers. That is not tenant-obsessed. (Fridge inventory is now at zero.) Fix the defect.
Point: Replying to "what are you doing tonight?": nothing, staying in. Draft: Staying in. Zero external commitments on the calendar tonight. Unstructured downtime is a high-return input, even when the immediate output looks like staring at a wall. Enjoy your evening.
Point: The plumber did not show up. Draft: The plumber didn't show up. Service failure is stasis. Followed by waiting by the front door. Followed by cold showers. Inputs determine outputs, and right now the primary input is zero. Time to find a new contractor who obsesses over the clock.
Point: The lift is out of order, so use the stairs. Draft: The lift is out of order. Do not wait for a fix or form a committee. Take the stairs. Relentless forward momentum, one flight at a time.
Point: To my mum: I'm fine, please stop worrying. Draft: I am fine, Mum. Worry is a low-return investment. (I ate, I slept, I am fully operational.) You can stand down.
Point: To my mate: congrats on passing your driving test! Draft: Massive win passing the test. Regulatory clearance secured. Now you unlock the actual heavy-machinery phase. Drive safe.
Point: My flight got cancelled and I am stuck at the airport. Draft: Flight cancelled. Fascinating study in what happens when proxy metrics beat customer obsession. Gate agent just shrugged. Day 2 is here.
Point: Our garden finally has tomatoes. Draft: First tomatoes showed up in the garden. Months of inputs. Finally, the output is red. A long-term bet paying off.
Point: I finally finished the book I have been reading all year. Draft: Finally finished the book I started earlier this year. Unreasonable stubbornness on the vision, flexible on the daily reading pace. On to the next one.
Point: Welcome to our new designer, Tom. Draft: Excited to welcome Tom, our new designer. Raising the bar on design is never about adding more process; it is about obsessing over what the person on the other end actually feels. Delighted to have you building with us. Work hard, have fun, make history.