Tim O’Reilly has posted quotes from an interview with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.

“We’ve co-evolved with our tools for thousands of years,” he says, explaining how ease of Kindle buying changes behavior.

“Reading is an important enough activity that it deserves a purpose-built device….It’s a myth that multi-purpose devices are always better…. I like my phone… I like my swiss army knife too, but I’m also happy to have a set of steak knives.”

“I get grumpy now when I have to read a physical book….The physical book has had a great 500 year run, but it’s time to change.”

Hmmm.  First of all, anyone who uses the expression ‘swiss army knife’ in a conversation is skating on very thin ice because if he actually owns one he understands perfectly well that those things are not ‘multi-purpose’ at all.  And no army in the world carries them.  Secondly, if Mr. Bezos is grumpy when he has to read a physical book, he should get out of the bloody book selling business.  What a simpleton.  During Amazon’s entire history of steady growth as the Wal-Mart of the internet, I have never heard Mr. Bezos utter a single intelligent or captivating remark.

Thirdly, I think it is very clear that Mr. Bezos gets grumpy whenever he has to read anything at all.