Daniel Brandt

“its 1994–95 version listed 1.5 million titles. Transferring that entire list of titles from the Bowker CD-ROM to the Amazon.com database was a tedious and time-consuming process because only 600 titles could be retrieved at a time. Kaphan compared the process to emptying a swimming pool using a drinking straw. The transfer of Bowker’s weekly update of changes, deletions, and corrections took almost an entire day.”
― Robert Spector, Amazon.com: Get Big Fast

“In those early months, Amazon.com hedged its bets by focusing on being both an e-mail store and a Web store. Under the e-mail system, when a customer e-mailed Amazon.com with a request for a particular book, the company would run a search for the book, and e-mail the results back to the customer, who would then send another e-mail to place the order.”
― Robert Spector, Amazon.com: Get Big Fast

“Where the realm of complexes begins the freedom of the ego comes to an end,”
― Murray Stein, The Collected Writings of Murray Stein – Volume 1: Individuation

“If there is anything I can do about the future, right now, I shall do it. Then I’m going to just leave it alone and settle down to enjoy the present moment, because all the experience of my life has shown me that I can only cope with things when they are present, not before they occur. And that the present always gives me the resources and the energy I need to deal with them.”
― Anthony de Mello, The Way to Love: Meditations for Life