Communication

It’s 9 AM. You walk into a conference room at Amazon for a major product decision. No one is talking. Everyone is reading. For 20 minutes, the room is completely silent. Executives, directors, engineers-all reading the same six-page document. No PowerPoint deck. No bullet points. No presenter standing at the front of the room. Just reading. Then, after everyone finishes, the discussion begins. Welcome to Amazon’s most powerful cultural practice: the 6-pager. ...

Signaling Games: Communication When Words Are Cheap Why do peacocks have such ridiculously large tails? Why does a college degree help you get a job, even if you learned nothing useful? Why do companies spend millions on Super Bowl ads that don’t describe their products? Signaling theory provides the answer: When words are cheap, credible communication requires costly signals. From biology to business, from education to dating, signaling games explain how information is transmitted when one party knows more than another - and has an incentive to lie. ...

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy stood before the American people and did something remarkable for a politician: he admitted total failure. The Bay of Pigs invasion-a CIA-backed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro-had been an utter disaster. Over 1,400 Cuban exiles were captured or killed. It was a humiliating defeat, just three months into Kennedy’s presidency. Kennedy didn’t deflect. He didn’t blame his predecessor. He didn’t hide behind classified briefings. ...

A software engineer tries to explain their work at a dinner party: “So basically we’re implementing a microservices architecture using containerized deployments with an event-driven messaging pattern…” The eyes around the table glaze over. A doctor explains a diagnosis: “You have acute pharyngitis secondary to a streptococcal infection, so we’ll prescribe a beta-lactam antibiotic…” The patient nods, understanding nothing. An experienced teacher wonders why students don’t grasp concepts that seem obvious. ...