No backlash for terrible managers

Amazon has a great set of values that they adhere to better than most companies. Customer obsession has lead to them to growing at a geometric rate and that's really the problem. Direct managers are often incompetent but still trusted implicitly. The front-line management is almost entirely made of developers who have no idea how to do their management jobs. That means when there are problems, the front-line management is unwilling to listen to anyone and blames all problems on scapegoats instead of admitting their own failures. There seem to be no repercussion for this as there is a tacit assumption that the scapegoats are always the problem and the managers are inherently right.

The biggest lesson in this for me is that Amazon isn't somehow special. The same politics and petty infighting happens like at most big companies. Your happiness will be determined by the direct manager you work for. No one and nothing will prevent the same kind of drudgery at any other company.