Jesus christ, is the argument here, "You're all paid too much and don't deserve it. Let's push you harder?" There's a huge difference between pushing ourselves and what we're hearing about Amazon.
I totally agree. My experience working for companies with low margins showed they were able to stretch whatever they had very far. Many were way too conservative compared to Amazon. They were hesitant to take chances even when it made sense, like proven by other firms. However, they get stuff done and many stuck around for 100+ years. I've yet to see a Silicon Valley firm get closed to doing that.
And, no, IBM doesn't count: more like a profitable version of a traditional firm with excellent government connections on top of that. Microsoft also an exception in the data. Oracle and SAP come closer in terms of success plus probability of duplicating it. Yet, they don't run like the firms that make Hacker News often. So, although I don't push their model, I think a combination of the old wisdom and modern innovation can go a long way.
