Today my badge turned red. I hope you find my brief reminiscing interesting, and you find at least some of my takeaways helpful:

My first desk location was in the Union Station 2 building, across from Uwajimiya in the International District. Over 10 years I must’ve moved locations more than 10 times—the latest move, of course, being to my home office to wait out the viral pestilence of our age with everyone else. My door desk was an oddity at four feet (rather than five or six) in length. My transition to a standing desk was one-way, with 4x4s cut to my height. Of my original office equipment, all has cycled except for my keyboard and mouse.

Here’s what I’ve taken away from my first ten years:

You can often address problems from both the supply and the demand perspective. Trying to get better test coverage on your code? You could add tests—but often you can also simplify the production code. Struggling with the issues which arise from coordinating a large team? Perhaps independent, cross-functional, two-pizza teams can redirect that effort towards more progress for your customers and business. And so on.

Social ties are extremely meaningful. The Amazonians around you are the result of Hiring the Best. Get to know them. They’re great.

We’re best when curiously engaging with our Leadership Principles in good faith. I’ve seen genuine curiosity about LPs guide tough decisions in the right direction. I’ve also seen LPs ignored. Worst, I’ve seen LPs cynically used to win arguments—the cynical use sort of feels like lock-picking. The best outcomes have always been in the first case, where LPs guided a genuinely curious conversation among humble participants.

I miss Vocally Self-Critical. It feels different since VSC got rolled into Earn Trust. I’ve noticed a culture shift away from a former expectation that Amazonians will sometimes take the wrong side of an argument, be convinced in discussion, admit they were wrong, and move on. The culture seems to be trying to backfill VSC’s role by emphasizing two-way doors and the “commit” part of “Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit.” While VSC has technically become part of Earn Trust, culturally it seems like it’s lost its punch since the transition.

“I told you so” is a joyless phrase. I’ve heard “Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit” regularly shortened to the latter half. Be humble and open in discussions and disagreements, but don’t let a premature disagree-and-commit stick you with a joyless pile of I-told-you-so’s.

Frugality is about more than money: it’s about using anything that’s limited in ways that truly matter. Hardware costs get a lot of attention, but Frugality is just as important when it comes to reducing toil, protecting your team’s capacity to deliver, and devoting your talents in your career towards work that genuinely matters to you.

I now respect my gut, even when I don’t know why it feels a certain way. If I’m not smart enough to know why I’m getting a queasy feeling, I’m definitely not smart enough to determine that the feeling is safe to ignore. Guts can still be wrong (every machine learning system generates errors in practice), but unexplained gut feelings are an invitation to dive deep, rather than immediately dismiss—especially when the signal is strong.

Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) feedback seems to be the stable currency of performance discussions. It seems the best way to thank a team member is to write up the SBI for a positive interaction and sending it to the person who helped you with the manager CC’d. A lot of the work that has gotten Amazon to where it is today has been “thankless.” We need that work to continue. SBIs are accepted everywhere. Rather than brainstorming how to motivate yourself and teammates to do important work that may be thankless…thank them instead. (There’s that supply/demand approach again!)

Day One does not continue only by fiat; however, because Amazon is far from a homogeneous company, each team and team member has day one in reach. (No irony lost here, posting on what’s technically day 3653±2)

Earning Trust is a two-way street. Earning is difficult. Amazonians I’ve worked with have by and large been very trustworthy. It’s been safe to give some trust up-front to just about all I’ve met, the rare exceptions being those eager to take or demand trust unearned.

Cherish your spouse/partner/friends/family. Our waking hours are roughly half-allocated to our careers. One does not fill balloons by only exhaling.

Still working hard. Still having fun. Still making history. Hope you are, too. Happy Monday.

John Gorski