Books
If you are thinking of opening an account with Commerce Bank, stay as far away as possible. These are quite possibly the most corrupt, evil assholes on the planet. They'll use every opportunity to screw you over. They'll lie to you about it. I can't even come up with the words to describe how awful this bank is. What a bunch of horrible, horrible people.
Over 10 years as a customer and they couldn't care less. Stay far, far away.
Malcolm Gladwell has been going back and forth with The Freakonomics Guys about the integration of the Broken Windows theory from The Tipping Point with the Abortion-reduced crime theory in Freakonomics.
Based on Gladwell's argument, I see no discongruence. I present a future unified dust jacket:
If you have not read either of these books, stop what you are doing right now and go buy both of them. Gladwell's storytelling ability is hypnotic, and cathching a glimpse into the way Levitt approaches problem-solving is worth ten times the price of the book.
OK, so I'm all fired up about Ruby on Rails.
I go to Amazon -- 2-3 week delay on the book.
I want it today or tomorrow, so I go to the Barnes and Noble website. They have the book in stock, but I want to know if it's in stock at my local Barnes and Noble. As far as I can tell, there is no way to tell if a book is in stock at my local B&N.
Why would they spend money on their web presence if they are going to use it to increase the value of their brick and mortar? Or vice-versa? I searched their help page. I googled it. Surely there is some actual business strategy at work here?
I can't find it.
Besides the store locator, there is no store integration. If I go to a store, they can tell me if a book is in stock at another location. Does B&N need a couple ETL developers? Gimme a week and I'll come integrate it with Rails.
Just read the first half of this great book by Jamie Whyte. The book goes in depth on spotting logical fallacies in politics and your personal life. It's amazing, but I think the wignuts actually read this book and used Mr. Whyte's lessons to master the art of dodging debate.


