I've been at Amazon over a decade (joined right after grad school) and so, I've been molded by this doc writing culture. I've not only written countless docs myself, but have helped train others in effective document writing.
I wouldn't have it any other way. Writing narratives forces the owner to think deeply about the topic, and that in turn forces structured problem solving. You can't hide behind the ambiguity of slides (or spoken words). If you have muddled thinking, it shows in the write-up. In my time here, I've read a ton of documents and you often see a lot of variation in the quality of documents. Like Jeff points out in his '18 shareholder letter[1], often the difference lies in how much time the author spent thinking about, and refining his/her write-up.
[1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312518...) "Often, when a memo isn’t great, it’s not the writer’s inability to recognize the high standard, but instead a wrong expectation on scope: they mistakenly believe a high-standards, six-page memo can be written in one or two days or even a few hours, when really it might take a week or more!"
As a non-US citizen watching this from the outside, I'm divided between my relief at American's not having to endure Trump's stupidity for another 4 years, and some trepidation for world citizens on what a competent/active US president will do w.r.t. foreign policy & proxy wars.
The perception is that Trump was too dump to start new wars and wasn't subtle - so you could at least know what he's thinking w.r.t. your (non-American) interests. On the other hand, most American presidents are nice & courteous at face value while raining drone bombs on unsuspecting non-Americans, spreading Freedom (with a capital F).
As a non-American, I would rather Americans endure a bit longer and the remaining (7B-0.3B) world citizens have 4 more years of (relative) US non-involvement. Selfish, I know, but the world needs a breather.
I wouldn't have it any other way. Writing narratives forces the owner to think deeply about the topic, and that in turn forces structured problem solving. You can't hide behind the ambiguity of slides (or spoken words). If you have muddled thinking, it shows in the write-up. In my time here, I've read a ton of documents and you often see a lot of variation in the quality of documents. Like Jeff points out in his '18 shareholder letter[1], often the difference lies in how much time the author spent thinking about, and refining his/her write-up.
[1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312518...) "Often, when a memo isn’t great, it’s not the writer’s inability to recognize the high standard, but instead a wrong expectation on scope: they mistakenly believe a high-standards, six-page memo can be written in one or two days or even a few hours, when really it might take a week or more!"