Comment by teh_klev | Hacker News Reader

Comment by teh_klev | Hacker News Reader

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>> This journey began some 27 years ago. Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name.

> It had a name, and that name was "Cadabra".

This seems like nitpicking. Lots of projects start out with long forgotten names. I'm involved in one that's pretty successful, but you can see from the code base the name evolved over time (~15 years). Codenames and attempts at product placing in the market evolve, stuff becomes myth or forgotten. I can absolve Bezos (this once) of not remembering exactly what that embryonic Amazon was to begin with, or was called, because it was ~25 years ago, probably during a period of great turmoil.

And the tone of this comment feels like someone who checked out of the company too early and feels a bit sour at doing so. I say this as a single digit employee who could have made a small fortune a couple of times but either bottled it, or the gig wasn't right for me. I missed out on some nice payouts, but I'm not that sour about it. It was my choice.

I have ZERO regrets about checking out of Amazon when I did. I've had an awesome life, raising my daughter, writing a DAW, living. I want for nothing, really.

There's a lot of historical revisionism regarding the early history of corporations. Claiming, specifically, as Jeff did, that 27 years ago (1994) that he had no name for his idea is ... not really true. It's likely true that when he actually started working out what the business might be, he didn't have a name. But who does?

Does it matter? Obviously that depends on your perspective. Probably not much. But it's not even particularly hard to read up on the early history (e.g. Brad Stone's "Get Big Fast"), so memory is not really required.

> This seems like nitpicking.

I don’t know if it’s nitpicking. If it’s true that the Amazon #2 employee took time to post this here, Jeff Bezos should have remembered and be precise in his speech.

> Jeff Bezos should have remembered

Who cares? It's getting into deep time (internet-wise), memories fade, do we care, I don't despite opening my first Amazon account ~1998. It was called "something", big deal. Not everyone has photographic memories of these things, perhaps Paul does, but wasn't asked to recall those memories. Again, who cares? And they might have worked through twenty other names after Paul left. I'm 54 I would have trouble remembering exact details of important things from 25 years ago, and Jeff is older than me, so give the guy a break, it's likely off of his event horizon until he writes "the book".

1) The name "Amazon.com" was chosen in 1994 (or possibly January 1995). 2) Subsequently, the company never considered any other name 3) I'm older than you and Jeff 4) I don't have a photographic memory 5) I've been asked twice in court, on Amazon's behalf, to remember things that happened/took place/were done back then.

[ EDIT: added "subsequently" for clarity ]

Ok fine, but in your original post you don't provide any dates, and you assert that:

> It had a name, and that name was "Cadabra".

Now you're saying something different. So it's one thing or another. Maybe just clarify the "when" of these things as you remember them. Not having a go at you.

This seems like nitpicking.

Especially because "Amazon" being chosen in '94 doesn't mean Cadabra wasn't the name it was chosen to replace. How is Paul "saying something different"?

Registration for Cadabra was filed in July 1994. I suspect this was chosen because Bezos' attorney had discovered that his first preference "Abracadabra" was taken.

Amazon was a much better choice.

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