World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech

by Franklin Foer

Bezos and his boss, an eccentric computer scientist called David Shaw, even kicked around the idea of creating an “everything store”—a site that would serve as the mother of all intermediaries between the world’s manufacturers and its customers. But Bezos methodically studied the possibilities for commerce on the burgeoning medium, and considered that big idea a few steps early. Before consumers would shop at an everything store, they needed to acclimate to online shopping. He went searching for the ideal gateway product. The key would be to find a business that could easily be mastered by a small, underfunded operation—that would quickly build the trust of consumers, that didn’t require traveling the world to source inventory, that would allow for low-cost experimentation. After meticulous analysis, he decided that books—not office supplies, not music, not socks—were his best play.