Post #1

Prologue
- "Customers fall into two buckets...people who feel that asking for help is a personal failure and those who don't."
- "Physical stores are laid out for a species that rarely has eyeballs more than six feet off the ground."
- "Information doesn't want to be free. It wants to be miscellaneous."

The main point of the prologue was to describe the types of ideas that the book will be talking about, mainly the idea that our world is no longer limited to the physical dimensions. Also how information now travels through our world and how its organized.

When the prologue talks about walking into staples and having all of the items you need right there on one shelf it reminded me of how that has become a reality in my life. When I need to get all of my books for school for every new semester I dread the thought of going into the stores and browsing every shelf for every book I need. Yet today there is the very convenient option of pre-ordering all of your books online. You just put in your classes and sections and the store knows exactly what books are needed for each class and package them for you.


Chapter 1
- "Our bookstores look like they prefer seekers over browsers because the usual layout works well for people trying to find what they came in for."
- "The world started out miscellaneous but it didn't stay that way, because we work so damn hard at straightening it up."

The main point of this chapters is to get deeper into the ideas of how we organize and order everything in our lives so that nothing is miscellaneous. The most interesting point I thought was the Bettmann photo archives which I didn't even know existed. It was just an example of a form of old school organization but a good one at that.

After reading the first quote that I pulled out, it reminded me of many times I've walked into Barnes and Noble either knowing exactly what I want and walking to the help desk to find it as quickly as possible r having no idea and describing a genre I would like to explore and being directed to it. It's an overwhelming experience but so rewarding when you find what you want.


Chapter 2
- "On a field trip no one gets upset when students are told that A through M go on bus No. 1 and the N-Z's go on bus No. 2, but it would be front-page news if students were divided by race, prettiness, or their parents incomes."
- "We all understand that the companies owners made up the name so they'd get placed first in the yellow pages, because the trick works."

The main point of the second chapter is to look at a very particular form of organization, alphabetizing. It explores the different ways it has been used through out the century and whether it is the new ages best friend or worst enemy according to god.

The second quote reminds me of a time when I actually needed to find the AAA (triple A) number and there it was right in the beginning of the book. it is true that certain tricks for customer attention does work.