Review: Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos

Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos by Jeff Bezos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve read a book or two about Amazon, but thought this “from the horse’s mouth” selection of Bezos’ writing would be a different take on his company’s story. Before you get to the business discussion, the book begins with an excellent introduction by Walter Isaacson. This is followed by a collection of Bezos’ letters to shareholders from Amazon’s annual reports as well as various other speeches and transcripts Bezos has given over the years. I found the introduction well written and interesting in providing a biographical background on Bezos. I found his explanation of why he wants to invest in going to space was eye-opening. Being the same age and consuming the same sci fi books as Bezos when young, I strongly identified with his thoughts on this, and you could understand how his thoughts on building an infrastructure also came into play with Amazon. I enjoyed his explanation of how decisions are made at Amazon, and found it very much as I was taught to present cases when I was in business school – concise. And I found the writing style of the shareholder letters and the speeches to government to be very much in line with Trump’s style in boiling issues down into simple terms that anyone could understand. While you could say that this style was the results of using corporate writers, given Bezos’ goal to simplify decision-making through concise communication, it seems to be driven from the top. Overall, I found this a worthwhile read in terms of understanding the business of Amazon, understanding a simple writing style, and understanding the way Bezos thinks.

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