[mdp]

This should deservedly take some time commenting: I hope in the unfortunately forced rush I will not make a mess, omit, be obscure etc.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Hey man, it's a free country. You can say whatever you want. But your ludicrous example seemingly has nothing to do with the complaint that started this discussion. To quote:

But as in free countries you seemingly always get democratic participation and its obviously apt actors (we would have a problem otherwise): are you sure j.p.s. is throwing words around?
Because I read his intervention as "You [Zod] would like to obtain «suggestions [from an] helpful [un]jerk», and this reinforces the importance of dealing with [free country worthy] well developed human intelligences, in contrast to an Artificial Stupidity generated lure-purposed html page that in its dispersive palette of offers rings of Gruen".
Surely this has to do with the importance of bookstores.
Can it also follow my original complaint against some business models? Well, if you interpret it as the complainer seeing too many "Could I interest you in my few wares?" as opposed to "We strive to offer you the full catalogue", his note may interestingly show how the "Could I interest you" intention may bend the vendor's approach even when their offer really is massive.

I once stumbled into a fashion barber who insisted I should display a mohican, and that defined his range. I have no problem with barber shops that advertise "Every cut to make you look like a fool". But if to that aim you can only do mohicans and razor carved graffiti (maybe, I do not know, only of small cute bubbly animals), your shop is specialized only for people who have leasurly curiosity in haircuts, not for all those who have a professional interest, not even for that slice that professionally is into "haircuts, but specifically those intended to make you look like a fool".

My example was specific because there are two main approaches: finding what you may need and getting what you need. To find what you may need, sure you may buzz around like a bumblebee amongst flowers - but oh how important it is to be in a vast botanic garden. You may get some luck in an ikebana bouquet, but you must be spending time off-duty (otherwise: such search is not efficient). Thing also is, that when eventually you need some selected text, well, it is not that different from "yes, really I wanted to marry that one, not the sister, not the cousin, not the neighbour. If things work well with my choice I may also want to marry her flatmate later - again, not her accountant nor her postman".

I repeat the tale: I am chatting with a clerk in a never-before-visited bookstore of a most major city. This woman comes and asks for a good translation of the I-Ching (so, not even that specific). The clerk says sorry, unfortunately. Sighs fill the air. She has just left, and the clerk turns to me and annoyed goes, his hands agitated against such stiff people "But why does she not buy some some book about cooking, or a crime novel?"
Answer: because she came looking for a good translation of the I-Ching, for her own respectable personal business, instead of purposelessly wandering to cleanse from the load of the business itself.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Your example is very specific, but to stick to it, if you are in a store where the clerk is as well versed in Java texts as you are and the clerk is well aware they don't have a copy of James Gosling's preferred book, it is human nature (as well as good business) to try suggesting something they do have in stock.

If I went to a store looking for a copy of Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister, I would far prefer suggestions of other Chandler works or similar authors works that they do have in stock to a flat 'no'. I would think that clerk that did just say no is an unhelpful jerk.

It is certainly a good thing if the employee can contribute to the Exploration side and give good advice. But in that post about "you cannot have all of them, but try to have a very good, proper selection" I stated that if you cannot have many volumes (>100k), try at least to be specialized (in your <10k). You do not have the Chandler, ok I do not mind at all if you properly try to propose a Hammet. Still, a place where to get the Chandler remains of need - and useful when you are searching. But if your selection is such that you get - that is what your space allowed: Hammet yes, Chandler no, Huxley yes, Orwell no, Le Goff yes, Duby no, Malthus yes, Ricardo no, Schelling yes, Hegel no, Peano yes, Frege no - then you are managing a lottery, not a bookstore.