Nice one! Sad thing that this is a true story though and Google actually operates this way…

It’s alive again! Thank you! /and now I’m off to read your post

Amazon’s US sales were probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $6B last year.

$6,000,000,000 * 0.012% = $720,000

That seemingly inconsequential decision is 7 fewer people that would have been laid off.

Granted, most businesses are not large enough to make this sort of minute detail worth testing, or even possible with any statistical significance. But don’t underestimate the value of testing your design hypotheses. It’s possible to be data-driven without sacrificing design innovation.

Any chance this was inspired by Doug Bowman’s exiting goog article? (http://bit.ly/nNE3b)

0.012% saved by the border

unknown % lost eternally as the company’s “best and brightest” are mired in micromanagement and paralysis by analysis, rather than pursuing more lucrative ventures

another % lost as the company’s most talented employees flee for a less insane asylum