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Here's how Amazon decides when to kill new projects

Hint: It's not when people call it crazy.

Asa Mathat
Jason Del Rey has been a business journalist for 15 years and has covered Amazon, Walmart, and the e-commerce industry for the last decade. He was a senior correspondent at Vox.

If Amazon listened to conventional wisdom, a lot of its big ideas never would have seen the light of day, CEO Jeff Bezos says.

But how does the company decide when it actually is the right time to abandon one of these ideas?

"I think it's when the last high-judgement champion folds his or her cards," Amazon Bezos said in a wide-ranging interview with Walt Mossberg at the Code Conference on Tuesday evening.

Translation for those who don't speak Amazon-ese: It's when the last high-ranking executive who is a supporter of an idea decides to abandon the initiative.

"Most companies, especially larger companies, give up on things too soon," Bezos added.

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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.