In a candid interview with podcaster Lex Fridman, Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos has opened up about his vision for the future. During the interview, Bezos got candid about his exit from Amazon to focus more on Blue Origin, an aerospace company he founded over 23 years ago. “Blue Origin needs to be much faster, and it's one of the reasons that I left my role as the CEO of Amazon a couple of years ago,” he said. “I wanted to come in, and Blue Origin needs me right now. Adding some energy, some sense of urgency. We need to move much faster. And we're going to,” he added.
Bezos also acknowledged that Blue Origin's comparison to Space X is inevitable. Founded almost 23 years ago, Blue Origin is the ex-Amazon CEO's passion project and has invested close to $20 billion so far. The space company currently employs 11,000 people.
Jeff Bezos' plans for Blue Origin :
While discussing what he has in mind for Blue Origin, Bezos said, “We're going to become the world's most decisive company across any industry.” “We're going to get really good at taking appropriate technology risks, making those decisions quickly. You know, being bold on those things. And having the right culture that supports that,” he added.
He admitted that people need to be “ambitious, technically ambitious.” He continued, “If there are five ways to do something, we'll study them, but let's go through them very quickly and make a decision. We can always change our mind.”
Jeff Bezos talks about Elon Musk :
Bezos revealed that he doesn't “really know” fellow billionaire and Space X founder Elon Musk “very well.” Despite Musk's constant presence in the limelight, Bezos said that a person's “public persona” cannot be a determining factor and praised Musk's efficient leadership capabilities.
“I know his public persona. But I also know you can't know anyone by their public persona,” Bezos said, adding, “It's impossible. I mean, you may think you do, but I guarantee you don't.” “In terms of judging him by the results, he must be a very capable leader. There's no way you could have Tesla and SpaceX without being a capable leader. It's impossible.”
Long-term thinking solves everything :
Towards the end of the podcast, Fridman asked Bezos about his views on the “10,000-Year Clock.” To this, he explained in detail that the “10,000-Year Clock is a physical clock of monumental scale.” “It’s about 500 feet tall. It’s inside a mountain in west Texas at a chamber that’s about 12 feet in diameter and 500 feet tall,” he said.
Bezos continued, “The idea is to build a clock as a symbol for long-term thinking. And you can kind of just very conceptually think of the 10,000-Year Clock as it ticks once a year, it chimes once every a hundred years, and the cuckoo comes out once every a thousand years. So it just sort of slows everything down.”
“And it’s a completely mechanical clock. It is designed to last 10,000 years with no human intervention. So the material choices and everything else. It’s in a remote location, both to protect it, but also so that visitors have to make a pilgrimage.”
The 59-year-old billionaire stressed the importance of long-term thinking citing its limitless potential. “You can literally solve problems if you think long-term, that are impossible to solve if you think short-term. And we aren’t really good at thinking long-term.”
Bezos' views on life and death :
Fridman asked Bezos, “Do you think humans will be here when the clock runs out here on earth?” To this, he said, “I think so. But the United States won’t exist. Whole civilizations rise and fall. 10,000 years is so long. No nation state has ever survived for anywhere close to 10,000 years.” He continued, “Do I think humans will be here? Yes. How will we have changed ourselves and what will we be and so on and so on? I don’t know, but I think we’ll be here.”
Bezos admitted that he used to be afraid of death during his younger days. However, he no longer is afraid of dying but he does want to live as long as possible. “I would like to stay alive for as long as possible, but I’m really more focused on health span,” he said.
© Hindustan Times.
