Boycotting the Fraidy Cats

Right now, I am very unhappy with Amazon, or more specifically Jeff Bezos, the largest Amazon stockholder.  I won't belabor the reason why, it's pretty well documented:

 

 

Like many, my first notion was to cancel my Washington Post subscription.  But Eugene Robinson, long time Post columnist, and someone I admire, has changed my mind.  See this answer to a readers question.  TL;DR, the Washington Post remains a left leaning paper, endorsed all other democrats in 2024 and Robinson says that this is the first time since Bezos bought the paper that he has interfered:

 

The next best thing, IMHO, is to hit Bezos where his money is.  That will be my quest, to find ways to stop giving Amazon money.  Will I change his lifestyle?  Not likely.  But perhaps of others follow my example, we might just get his attention.

For me, extracting Amazon from my life isn't necessarily trivial.  I give money to Amazon (or cause Amazon to get money in a number of ways).  Here is a list, by impact:
 

1. AWS - I have long been a huge advocate of AWS everywhere I work.  And since deciding which cloud provider to use at the particular company I work at is often withing my purvue, I would have some impactful effect here.
2. Amazon.com - This one is pretty obvious...explore ways to avoid buying anything through this website.
3. Prime Video - Fortunately, this one has many alternatives.  Very few content items on Prime Video are exclusive to that platform.
   
4. Kindle - This may be the easiest one.  Barnes and Noble has a direct competitor to Kindle, so all I have to do here is buy one.
5. Audible - This one will be a bit harder.  My initial quick look has indicated that Audible definitely continues to have the widest selection of audio books.  This may require multiple solutions.  I will probably address this first in upcoming articles
6. Goodreads - Yes, Amazon bought Goodreads.  But since Goodreads is completely free, a boycott really isn't necessary IMHO.
7. Me.  As a Software Engineer and Technical leader, I can boycott Amazon by not going to work for them.  This may be more impactful than ones above, but I guess that is subjective.

I will follow this post with details of my experience getting Amazon out of my life.  I hope this helps others navigate this course.