tense silence.
The moderator had just asked Amazon founder Jeff Bezos what will change in the next ten years and what will happen today.
And who should know that better than someone who revolutionized online trading, commercialized the cloud and who is also tinkering with space technology with no lesser goal than making space habitable and raw materials mineable far away from Earth?
Jeff Bezos surprised - because he answered very differently than the participants at the technology conference in Las Vegas, where this episode once took place, expected.
At least as important as what changes is what doesn't change, he said.
And then listed a few things from his point of view, the point of view of the Internet entrepreneur: the customers' desire for the largest possible selection, the lowest possible price and the fastest possible delivery.
In summary, they remain, regardless of whether people buy something else in the future or whether the packages are distributed by drones or even by robot cars at some point.
maintain family and friendships
Bezos brought a perspective that's all too easily overlooked, but vitally important.
Especially today, by the way, at the end of a year that has irritated, unsettled and at times downright shaken many people in this country, too, because a brutal war is taking place in Europe, inflation is extraordinarily high and a pandemic had to be overcome that generations have not experienced .
At the same time, they remain confronted with technological progress that affects all sectors, changes the value of a wide range of skills, opens up new opportunities, thwarts life plans or sometimes simply overwhelms them.
The new artificial intelligence ChatGPT, the recent breakthrough in nuclear fusion and the corona vaccines produced using the mRNA method are just dazzling examples of what is currently happening.
Of course, anyone who wants to keep their bearings should not close their eyes to all these developments.
At the same time, it is always worth pausing, taking a step back and thinking about which values, concepts or principles remain essentially untouched, which will most certainly endure.
For his part, Bezos outlined this for companies – and in fact, business models that increasingly run counter to the customer interests he named tend to be threatened.
Gates and Jobs fallacies
But this isn't just about business.
How valuable intact (extended) families and friendships are, hopefully many fellow citizens have experienced once more during the holidays.
Good community protects and supports against all kinds of upheavals, and especially when hardship or illness hits the individual.
In it, the old listen to the young – and vice versa!
Unfortunately, it is often not as easy as it sounds.
And for the state, which is often challenged and under pressure, it helps not only to look at which reforms or funding are now urgently needed and work against this or that acute problem.
Long-term successful economic and financial policy never only looks at the demand or the supply conditions in the country, but always at both.
People expect it to compensate for social hardship, provide for crises and protect against some risks - and at the same time that performance is worthwhile, funds are used sparingly and the framework conditions are such that Germany does not suffer from them in international competition.
It goes without saying that the social market economy, which has already served our country so well, remains the economic form of choice.
Of course, none of this protects against crises, mistakes or tragic mistakes – as is well known, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates himself once predicted that there was hardly any money to be made with the Internet, or Apple boss Steve Jobs that the same would apply to online music subscriptions.
In your own interest, none of this can be a pretext for refusing necessary change.
Especially when the uncertainty is particularly great and worries about the future threaten to get out of hand, it can help to reflect on some conservative and commercial ideals in the best sense of the word: cultivating family and friendships.
Make a wide offer.
And deliver quickly.