It's not amazing. It benefits Matasano more than it benefits any individual team members. It would be ridiculous not to have the policy; people would deliver crappier work for clients and waste everyone's time bugging us for books. In the worst case, one of the managers might get a bug up their ass and start thinking about what books people should get; calamity!
There are a very few conditions:
## Terms and Conditions
### Limits
This benefit includes no stated specific limit on the number of books you can acquire or the subject matter they involve. We'd like to keep the policy as simple as possible.
Our only request is: please intend to read or use whichever books you acquire. If you think you'll want a book on Clojure programming 6 months from now, consider waiting a couple months before getting it.
### Multiple Copies
Please do not obtain more than one copy of the same title, unless you've lost or somehow destroyed your first copy.
### Ownership and Sharing
When you get a book under this benefit, it's your book. It belongs to you.
At the same time, we hope books acquired under this benefit will help build an office library. If you're not using a book, please give it a home in the office library.
We'll provide a wiki page to register what books are available in the library, so you can easily tell whether you should look for a title in the office or go ahead and order it.
If you know the library has a copy of something you want, please use the library copy until you're sure you need to own your own copy. We are not asking everyone to share a single copy of the IDA Pro book, but we also don't want to buy 10 copies of "Designing BSD Rootkits".
### Crazy Ridiculous Books
Please do not use this benefit to try to acquire collector copies of first-edition signed Knuth prints that cost $1000, or, for that matter, to acquire professional books (like ANSI standards) that cost hundreds of dollars. If you need a book that costs hundreds of dollars, use "How Do I Get Books" option 3 and talk to Cory or Dave; we'll figure something out.
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Nothing in there says you can't use this policy to buy Denis Johnson's _Tree of Smoke_ to read on the train. Nobody has, but if someone did I'd probably just smile.
In my sleep deprived state I was thinking you wrote Monsanto...I was trying to justify my dislike of the company with how much I liked this policy, including the amiable words used in the policy!
I love the spirit of these conditions and the policy in general, but I can't help but think a leaf could be taken from Nordstrom's book in turning the policy into a one-liner:
Actually, by spelling things out, we aim to make people feel more comfortable ordering books: it's clear that we've thought things out, and that there isn't some "mistake" you're going to make ordering (say) a copy of K&R2 when there are already 2 copies in the office ("your book privileges are suspended, Peter!").
I honestly don't look that closely; I just know what the final number is, and it's not a big deal. From the volume of Amazon traffic coming to our office, my sense is that everyone takes advantage.
There are a very few conditions:
## Terms and Conditions
### Limits
This benefit includes no stated specific limit on the number of books you can acquire or the subject matter they involve. We'd like to keep the policy as simple as possible. Our only request is: please intend to read or use whichever books you acquire. If you think you'll want a book on Clojure programming 6 months from now, consider waiting a couple months before getting it.
### Multiple Copies
Please do not obtain more than one copy of the same title, unless you've lost or somehow destroyed your first copy.
### Ownership and Sharing
When you get a book under this benefit, it's your book. It belongs to you.
At the same time, we hope books acquired under this benefit will help build an office library. If you're not using a book, please give it a home in the office library.
We'll provide a wiki page to register what books are available in the library, so you can easily tell whether you should look for a title in the office or go ahead and order it.
If you know the library has a copy of something you want, please use the library copy until you're sure you need to own your own copy. We are not asking everyone to share a single copy of the IDA Pro book, but we also don't want to buy 10 copies of "Designing BSD Rootkits".
### Crazy Ridiculous Books
Please do not use this benefit to try to acquire collector copies of first-edition signed Knuth prints that cost $1000, or, for that matter, to acquire professional books (like ANSI standards) that cost hundreds of dollars. If you need a book that costs hundreds of dollars, use "How Do I Get Books" option 3 and talk to Cory or Dave; we'll figure something out.
---
Nothing in there says you can't use this policy to buy Denis Johnson's _Tree of Smoke_ to read on the train. Nobody has, but if someone did I'd probably just smile.