Bezos Generates Twitch Insights

Emmett Shear shares a story about Jeff Bezos's remarkable ability to generate novel insights during Twitch presentations at Amazon.

"We presented to Bezos probably twice a year for the first 3-4 years I was at Amazon. Every time, two things would happen. First, he would remember everything we told him from the first meeting. I don't think he was reviewing extensive notes because I observed him going from meeting to meeting and he did not review notes. I think he just remembered at least the high points.

Second, he would read our plan and ask questions about why we didn't do certain things, or give us ideas for things we could do that I hadn't thought of before. Most people would be lucky to get one of those ideas ever, let alone once a year. He would just generate them, and they weren't all bad ideas either.

To get a new idea I haven't thought of on a topic I've been thinking about for a decade, that might even be a good idea - that shows he's just really smart. The first time I thought 'oh he's smart' because smart people often have one good idea about your business when they first see it. But then he did it the second time, and I was just like 'what is going on, this doesn't make any sense.' I've never had that experience before."