What keeps you up at night?
For Adam Selipsky, the CEO of AWS, Amazon's giant cloud business, it's waking up one morning to find he works at a "big company," according to a transcript of an internal staff meeting obtained by Insider's Eugene Kim.
Selipsky does work at a "big company" of course, but he doesn't want Amazon to feel that way. Big companies are slow moving and risk-averse. At Amazon, it's always supposed to be "Day 1," the dawn of a new era where the customer comes first and bold bets are backed.
Not surprisingly, that's gotten harder to maintain now it's a tech and retail goliath.
Employees have complained about red tape, bloat, and bureaucracy. Facing a new financial reality, CEO Andy Jassy is exercising discipline when it comes to Amazon's bets. The company's facing intense external pressure, including a recent Federal Trade Commission suit.
Selipsky said in the staff meeting that Amazon has to keep the mentality that "we are going to be the insurgents." But it's tough to be a $1 trillion revolutionary.
Economic update: I wrote a week ago that the dream scenario for the economy was looking more likely by the day. Inflation data out this past week strengthened that argument, showing another sharp slowdown. Markets now think the Fed could be done tightening after an expected rate hike this month. We're about to find out if the US economy can stick the (soft) landing.
Now, let's get to more of today's top reads.
'Lazy management'
While tech companies were laying off tens of thousands of employees earlier this year, some leaders leaned on the term "fake work" to justify their decisions. If workers are just sitting around pretending to look busy, the thinking goes, surely layoffs are sensible?
Well, that thinking might be wrong. More than 30 people involved in the tech industry told us the real problem was lazy managers. The typical lazy manager — you may know one yourself — offers little guidance, assigns purposeless tasks, and overhired for their team just to look more important.
Inside Big Tech's "lazy management" problem.
Also read:
How to save San Francisco
San Francisco has become the scary poster child for the death of American downtowns: A quarter of storefronts in the main shopping district are empty, commercial real estate is a garbage fire, it feels like police may have quiet quit, and homelessness is a devastating problem.
Insider's Adam Rogers broke down where things went wrong — and what can be done to try to set things right, including building more housing and reviving the city's freak-flag-flying fun. It's an important story. As Rogers writes, "the problems we face here are coming to a city near you."
Also read:
The dollar war
The US dollar is the world's reserve currency. But motivated by shifting political alliances and rapidly-evolving economics, countries are starting to wean themselves off of the greenback.
As Insider's Phil Rosen writes, a concerted effort to eat into the dollar's dominance could cause real shifts in the financial system. If America wants to stay on top, it can't take the dollar's status for granted.
Inside the dedollarization war.
Also read:
The 'Birkin bandit'
Over an eight-year social climb, George Mickum infiltrated the inner circle of one of the US's most esteemed families. But his fall was abrupt.
He was ubiquitous at the galas and events frequented by the city's blue bloods. He was on the toughest guest lists and had a seat reserved for him at all the best tables. Then, last February, news broke that he'd sold fake Birkin bags to his circle of Manhattan socialites, some at more than $20,000 a pop. Now he's persona non grata on the Upper East Side.
This week's quote:
"Many people talk about salary bumps as a benefit of job-hopping. However, the No. 1 reason and motivation has always been to gain a breadth of experience."
- Mitchie Nguyen in an as-told-to essay about how much money she made at Google, Meta, and LinkedIn — and why she left her $196,000 job.
More of this week's top reads:
- Remote work is having a huge — and unexpected — effect on women's careers.
- Some users say OpenAI's GPT-4 got "lazier" and "dumber." This might be why.
- This map shows how much you need to make to be in the top 1% in every state.
- Jamie Dimon warned of much bigger threats than a recession, predicted more banking turmoil, and described the downsides of working from home.
- How a couple with a seven-figure net worth invest their money in index funds.
- The Gen Zer who helped spark the quiet-quitting trend ended up leaving his job after all.
- AI is going to use way more energy than the cloud: "It's staggering," an investment-firm CEO said.
- How the ultra-rich use trusts to protect the family fortune from their heirs' lawsuits or divorces.
Curated by Matt Turner. Edited by Hallam Bullock and Lisa Ryan. Get in touch: insidertoday@insider.com