- Unknown Binding: 240 pages
- Publisher: PerfectBound; Gemstar Reader Ed edition (16 July 2002)
- ISBN-10: 0007153392
- ISBN-13: 978-0007153398
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,348,556 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Synopsis
In 1998, when Amazon.com went to temp agencies to recruit people, they gave them a simple directive: send us your freaks. Thus began Mike Daisey's love affair with the world's biggest bookstore. Mike Daisey worked at Amazon.com for nearly three years during the dot-com frenzy of the late 1990s. Now that his nondisclosure agreement has expired, he can tell the story of tech culture, hero worship, cat litter, Albanian economics and venture capitalism that feeds into the delusional cocktail exulted as the New Economy.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
You have to remember that this was written before the point where it all looked very grim for the Internet Revolution. When this book came out it was a breath of fresh air from all the hype - at least someone looked like they had spotted some basic truths. As a picture of what it was actually like inside an organisation - it seems quite accurate (I had experienced the same in my organisation)and although humourous - that's how funny, strange and crazy it was in real life. Most of what's been written has been by journalists looking in from outside - what it was like for real was more like this book. I'll always remember Mike's assertion that far from becoming a millionaire from the new technologies, he calculated that he'd been working for about $4 an hour for three years. From my point of view this book and a one man show of it, was the start of Mike Daisy's career, which has gone from strength to strength desite this off-beat start to his Woldwide acting and story telling.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
It's quite easy to get sucked into Mike Daisey's '21 Dog Years: Doing Time At Amazon.Com' as he moves from dilettante to corporate business development guy. On the journey we learn he is one of the (mythological?) freaks that Amazon initially wanted to help launch and then staff its growing customer service division. We learn about the training, the call-time targets, the lack of windows, the Chicken Orzo Salad and Jeff obsessions.
Unlike Robert Spector's 'Amazon.Com: Get Big Fast' this is a tale from the inside but how much is exaggerated for comic effect is unclear. For sure, life in an under-staffed call centre - where if you don't work all hours you're seen as letting the team down - is not the glamorous side of any business and the world of fast growing online books sellers can be no exception. The dreams that all would be multi-millionaires on the back of huge stock rises are also not unusual to any tale of this era. Perhaps the thought of sending the free books to customers on the database isn't typical of the dot-com boom but the frenzied '1-click Christmas' period will be familiar to many in a start-up venture.
Daisey's book is flagged as a comic tale but it takes a while for the comedy to warm-up. In fact, it's only towards the end that I felt there were some laugh-out-loud moments but don't let that put you off. '21 Dogs Years' in well written and compelling. You really do want to know what Mike's going to do at the end. Don't look for an insight into business strategies of that time but you will get a view of the craziness of life in the trenches of a rapidly growing business.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
WITLESS DRIVEL...
8 Jun 2008
I bought this book, thinking that it would offer some insight into Amazon.com in terms of what it was like to work there during its halcyon days. Touted as a funny memoir, among other things, I was to discover that it was none of what was promised. In fact, the book was painfully difficult to read, as it was very poorly written, decidedly not funny, and offered little insight into what it really was like to work at Amazon. It was totally sophomoric in terms of what it did say.
The author should be thankful that he was not fired by Amazon, as that is what he richly deserved to have happen based upon his own account of what he was like as an employee. He was a total slacker who treated customers with the contempt that he felt that they deserved. He was totally wasteful of the company's resources. He proudly stole supplies in bulk from the company. When toys were given to him for review purposes, he not only did not bother to review them, he then refused to return the toys to Amazon. He may think that all this is hilarious. Unfortunately, I do not. Reading this drivel felt like it took twenty-one dog years.
Moreover, this book was so poorly written, I am surprised that a reputable publisher went ahead with the expense of actually publishing it. I guess that the name Amazon carries a great deal of weight for which the author should be eternally grateful. I doubt that had he written a book titled, "21 Dog Years: Doing time @ Sears.Com", substituting Sears for Amazon, that he would have found a publisher. Don't waste your time with this drivel. If you want to read a well-written, interesting book about working at Amazon, read "Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot. Com Juggernaut" by James Marcus.
The author should be thankful that he was not fired by Amazon, as that is what he richly deserved to have happen based upon his own account of what he was like as an employee. He was a total slacker who treated customers with the contempt that he felt that they deserved. He was totally wasteful of the company's resources. He proudly stole supplies in bulk from the company. When toys were given to him for review purposes, he not only did not bother to review them, he then refused to return the toys to Amazon. He may think that all this is hilarious. Unfortunately, I do not. Reading this drivel felt like it took twenty-one dog years.
Moreover, this book was so poorly written, I am surprised that a reputable publisher went ahead with the expense of actually publishing it. I guess that the name Amazon carries a great deal of weight for which the author should be eternally grateful. I doubt that had he written a book titled, "21 Dog Years: Doing time @ Sears.Com", substituting Sears for Amazon, that he would have found a publisher. Don't waste your time with this drivel. If you want to read a well-written, interesting book about working at Amazon, read "Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot. Com Juggernaut" by James Marcus.
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