21 Dog Years : A Cube Dweller's Tale

Rating:
Summary: Well written and quite funny.
Review: How interesting to write a review about Amazon.com for Amazon.com!

This is a surprisingly well-written book about the inner workings of Amazon during the heady pre-.com bomb days and the effects the potential for insane amounts of money can have on otherwise normal people.

Quite insightful and semi-degradatory (but only semi) toward Amazon itself, which comes off as nearly the antipothesis of the warm and fuzzy side it tries to present to the public. Instead, Amazon is shown to be the same as any other massive company intent on massive growth: overwhelmed, overworked, understaffed, etc.

Which isn't that big of a surprise when you think about it. I mean, who really thought a company this size and this fast growing didn't have some real velociraptors at the helm?

The big is genuinely funny though and presents some great commentary on the mentality of the time. Definitely worth the read and kudos to Mr. Daisey.

Rating:
Summary: Based on a true story
Review: Read this as amusing fiction if you must, but don't mistake it for history. The author's exploits at Amazon.com made him a legend in his own mind but never really fooled anybody for long - except perhaps himself. If hindsight has granted the author a new perspective on his journey, it's one distorted by self congratulation and lacking in honest introspection. One might even call it payback.

To really understand this book you need to do continual translation. A desperate lateral move, under threat of termination for slacking off, was apparently a "promotion". Getting caught lying about goofing off gets recast as a clever ruse to get ahead. A department name ("Business Development") does false double duty as a job description, when in fact the poor schlub did nothing but customer service email for every day of his 21 tortured dog-years. Who but an overheated venture capitalist would buy this package? Calling a chronic underperformer an insightful social historian doesn't make it true.

In the upside-down dot.com world where crushing losses became pro-forma profits and the "new economy" briefly replaced common sense, is it any wonder that such a book would emerge? Step through the looking glass with Mike if you choose but look closely; it's a funhouse mirror to begin with.