Here are my responses to the AWS interview worksheet concerning Amazon leadership principles.

Ownership

 I practice ownership through mindful cleanliness of my physical belongings, and mindful awareness of my abstract belongings such as relationships and careers.

Invent and Simplify

Productivity is an exponential curve over time if optimizations are applied locally and consistently.

Are Right, A Lot

No. That’s not right. Leaders are wrong most of the time they just keep it to themselves 😉

Hire and Develop the Best

That’s wrong too. People don’t start off as the best, they must be guided. Do not separate the wheat from the chaff.

Insist on the Highest Standards

I am a practitioner of lean manufacturing. It allows for incredibly high visual and performance standards to be achieved through the systemization of processes. Systems engineering provides a meta-framework for developing lean processes for all forms of matter, data, and energy transforms.

Think Big

 Focus on the global optimum by optimizing locally.

Bias for Action

The universe owes you nothing, however, patience is also a form of action.

Frugality

Constraints are the fertilizer of genius.

Learn and Be Curious

You must always seek confusion if you ever intend to achieve common sense.

Earn Trust

There is no leadership without empathy, you lead by example. Hold the highest standards for yourself, and others will naturally raise their own. But you can do it with kindness and patience.

Dive Deep

I find joy in immersion in a technical topic. There is no greater joy than understanding a system at many levels of abstraction. For example, going from a visual modeling of the DFT to a mental model of the system, while also understanding the linearity ramifications of the analog signal chain, is a great example of diving deep.

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

You must be willing to bother people. You cannot reach your goals unless you set standards for yourself and others. Sometimes, others will say no thank you. You have to trust yourself enough to be wrong for a long time.

Deliver Results

All you have is only what you can show for it.