Jeff Bezos

It's such a good question, and... I honestly don't know how it works. If I did, I would try to explain it. I know it involves lots of wandering. So when I sit down to work on a problem, I know I don't know where I'm going. So to go in a straight line, to be efficient, efficiency and invention are sort of at odds. Because invention, real invention... Not incremental improvement.

It's such a good question, and... I honestly don't know how it works. If I did, I would try to explain it. I know it involves lots of wandering. So when I sit down to work on a problem, I know I don't know where I'm going. So to go in a straight line, to be efficient, efficiency and invention are sort of at odds. Because invention, real invention... Not incremental improvement.

Incremental improvement is so important in every endeavor and everything you do. You have to work hard on also just making things a little bit better. But I'm talking about real invention, real lateral thinking. That requires wandering. And you have to give yourself permission to wander. I think a lot of people, they feel like wandering is inefficient and like...

Incremental improvement is so important in every endeavor and everything you do. You have to work hard on also just making things a little bit better. But I'm talking about real invention, real lateral thinking. That requires wandering. And you have to give yourself permission to wander. I think a lot of people, they feel like wandering is inefficient and like...

Incremental improvement is so important in every endeavor and everything you do. You have to work hard on also just making things a little bit better. But I'm talking about real invention, real lateral thinking. That requires wandering. And you have to give yourself permission to wander. I think a lot of people, they feel like wandering is inefficient and like...

When I sit down at a meeting, I don't know how long the meeting is going to take if we're trying to solve a problem. Because if I did, then I'd know there's some kind of straight line that we're drawing to the solution. The reality is we may have to wander for a long time. And I do like group invention.

When I sit down at a meeting, I don't know how long the meeting is going to take if we're trying to solve a problem. Because if I did, then I'd know there's some kind of straight line that we're drawing to the solution. The reality is we may have to wander for a long time. And I do like group invention.

When I sit down at a meeting, I don't know how long the meeting is going to take if we're trying to solve a problem. Because if I did, then I'd know there's some kind of straight line that we're drawing to the solution. The reality is we may have to wander for a long time. And I do like group invention.

I think there's really nothing more fun than sitting at a whiteboard with a group of smart people and spitballing and coming up with new ideas and objections to those ideas and then solutions to the objections and going back and forth.

I think there's really nothing more fun than sitting at a whiteboard with a group of smart people and spitballing and coming up with new ideas and objections to those ideas and then solutions to the objections and going back and forth.

I think there's really nothing more fun than sitting at a whiteboard with a group of smart people and spitballing and coming up with new ideas and objections to those ideas and then solutions to the objections and going back and forth.

So sometimes you wake up with an idea in the middle of the night and sometimes you sit down with a group of people and go back and forth and both things are really pleasurable.

So sometimes you wake up with an idea in the middle of the night and sometimes you sit down with a group of people and go back and forth and both things are really pleasurable.

So sometimes you wake up with an idea in the middle of the night and sometimes you sit down with a group of people and go back and forth and both things are really pleasurable.

100% right. In fact, when I come up with what I think is a good idea, and it survives kind of the first level of scrutiny that I do in my own head, and I'm ready to tell somebody else about the idea, I will often say, look, it is going to be really easy for you to find objections to this idea, but work with me. There's something there. There's something there, and that is intuition.

100% right. In fact, when I come up with what I think is a good idea, and it survives kind of the first level of scrutiny that I do in my own head, and I'm ready to tell somebody else about the idea, I will often say, look, it is going to be really easy for you to find objections to this idea, but work with me. There's something there. There's something there, and that is intuition.

100% right. In fact, when I come up with what I think is a good idea, and it survives kind of the first level of scrutiny that I do in my own head, and I'm ready to tell somebody else about the idea, I will often say, look, it is going to be really easy for you to find objections to this idea, but work with me. There's something there. There's something there, and that is intuition.

Because it's really easy to kill new ideas in the beginning, because they do have so many easy objections to them. So you need to kind of forewarn people and say, look, I know it's going to take a lot of work to get this to a fully formed idea. Let's get started on that. It'll be fun.

Because it's really easy to kill new ideas in the beginning, because they do have so many easy objections to them. So you need to kind of forewarn people and say, look, I know it's going to take a lot of work to get this to a fully formed idea. Let's get started on that. It'll be fun.

Because it's really easy to kill new ideas in the beginning, because they do have so many easy objections to them. So you need to kind of forewarn people and say, look, I know it's going to take a lot of work to get this to a fully formed idea. Let's get started on that. It'll be fun.