Interview Referenced Resources

People

• Jeff Bezos - founder and executive chairman of Amazon and founder of Blue Origin, guest in the interview.
• Andrew Ross Sorkin - host of the interview.
• Eugene Meyer - founder of the modern Washington Post, whose words are inscribed in the lobby.
• Marty Barron - former editor of The Washington Post, quoted as calling the non-endorsement decision "cowardice".
• David Remnick - quoted as suggesting it would have been better if Jeff Bezos had expressed his views on editorial endorsements earlier.
• Elon Musk - mentioned as a competitor to Jeff Bezos in the space industry.
• Vivek - mentioned as helping Trump with the Department of Government and Efficiency.
• Serena Williams - mentioned in the context of discussing confidence.
• Tom Brokaw - interviewed Jeff Bezos about Amazon's losses.
• Bill Gates - mentioned in an anecdote about becoming the wealthiest person in the world.
• Oprah - mentioned as a rare public figure who may be well understood by the public.
• Howard Hughes - mentioned as an example of a recluse.
• Lex Friedman - mentioned as someone Jeff Bezos has done an interview with.
• Andy Jassy - mentioned as the current CEO of Amazon, whose success Jeff Bezos is focused on supporting.
• Jim Lovell - Apollo 13 astronaut and later Moonwalker, quoted for his perspective on seeing Earth from space.
• William Shatner - flew on New Shepard and described his experience of seeing space.
• JFK - mentioned in the context of the moon being a potential "pit stop" similar to JFK airport.
• Prince Harry - mentioned in the context of discussing technology and social media.

Organizations

• Amazon - Jeff Bezos's company, discussed in terms of its founding, success, and ongoing involvement.
• Blue Origin - Jeff Bezos's space company, discussed in terms of its mission, technology, and business potential.
• The Washington Post - Jeff Bezos's newspaper, discussed in relation to its editorial decisions, financial performance, and his ownership.
• Bezos Earth Fund - Jeff Bezos's philanthropic fund, mentioned for its $2 billion in grants.
• Congress - mentioned in the context of declining trust in media, where media's trust rating fell below Congress's.
• NVIDIA - mentioned as an example of a company whose leader, Jensen, would rank high on a list of wealth creators for others.
• AWS (Amazon Web Services) - discussed in the context of providing compute power as a utility, analogous to electricity.

Documents

• High school newspaper article from Miami Palmetto Senior High - mentioned as an early article about Jeff Bezos's space plans.
• Six page memos - used at Amazon for discussions, read for half an hour before a messy discussion.
• Forbes list - mentioned as a list ranking people by their own wealth, contrasted with a proposed list ranking wealth created for others.

Tools

• New Shepard - Blue Origin's suborbital vehicle for tourism.
• New Glenn - Blue Origin's orbital vehicle, a super-heavy launch vehicle.
• Voting machine - used as an analogy for media's need to be trusted to count votes accurately.
• Computerized calculation models (e.g., Nova) - mentioned in the context of AI and large language models.

Technologies

• Internet - mentioned as a topic of discussion during early fundraising for Amazon.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) - discussed as a horizontal enabling layer that will improve everything, compared to electricity and compute.
• Large Language Models (LLMs) - discussed extensively in relation to Amazon's own model, Nova, and its competitiveness with other models.
• Robotics - mentioned as an area of investment and interest for Jeff Bezos.

Concepts

• Overview Effect - the transformative experience of seeing Earth from space.
• Risk Capital - discussed as a key factor in the United States' success in venture and entrepreneurial endeavors.
• Excessive Permitting and Regulation - identified as a burden on growth in the US.
• Growth Mindset - emphasized as crucial for economic progress.
• "Messy" Meetings - a preferred meeting format at Amazon, contrasting with rehearsed presentations, for the purpose of seeking truth.
• "Crisp Documents" and "Messy Meetings" - Amazon's preferred meeting structure, where clarity in documentation is followed by open discussion.
• Founder's Stock - discussed in the context of Jeff Bezos's decision not to take additional equity in Amazon.
• Wealth Creation for Others - a proposed metric for ranking individuals, contrasting with personal wealth.
• Human Bias (overestimating risk, underestimating opportunity) - discussed as a factor for entrepreneurs to consider.
• Unspoken Family Rules - mentioned in relation to Jeff Bezos's upbringing and the suppression of negative emotions.
• Early Warning System (emotions) - discussed as a way to understand and act upon potential issues.
• Being Indispensable - a concept Jeff Bezos emphasizes for CEOs, believing no one is indispensable.
• Horizontal Enabling Layer (AI) - AI's role as a foundational technology that improves all other applications.
• Commoditization - discussed in relation to AI models, with the prediction of specialized models rather than complete commoditization.
• Multidisciplinary Intelligence - a characteristic of AI models that can be more advanced than human specialization.
• The "Founder's Mentality" - discussed in relation to Jeff Bezos's approach to building companies to outlast him.