https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/z6o9g6sysxur57t "It’s not easy to work here (when I interview people I tell them, “You can work long, hard, or smart, but at Amazon.com you can’t choose two out of three”)"
I don't understand this quote. Does he mean that you have to choose ONE of the three? Or that you have to do all three (which means his "or" is misplaced)? Or that Amazon.com chooses for you, rather than you choosing yourself?
His "or" isn't misplaced, because it's a play on an existing phrase: "better, faster, cheaper - you only get to choose two." Meaning you cannot optimize on all 3 dimensions.
Here he is saying that Amazon expects you to excel at all 3, by providing a contrast to a known idiom that says you cannot.
I actually thought the same thing reading this quote. But the convention is present three, choose two. His example is an appeal to one's sense of what I can only describe as "drama". The "dramatic" realization being of course that Amazon is different; you have to choose three out of three instead of the conventional choose two out of three. Choosing one out of three is less dramatic and therefore must be eliminated. Not logical I know.
