I'm Feeling Lucky

The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59

By: Douglas Edwards

Narrated by: Douglas Edwards

Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Comparing Google to an ordinary business is like comparing a rocket to an Edsel. No academic analysis or bystander's account can capture it. Now Doug Edwards, Employee Number 59, offers the first inside view of Google, giving listeners a chance to fully experience the bizarre mix of camaraderie and competition at this phenomenal company.

Edwards, Google's first director of marketing and brand management, describes it as it happened. We see the first, pioneering steps of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company's young, idiosyncratic partners; the evolution of the company's famously nonhierarchical structure (where every employee finds a problem to tackle or a feature to create and works independently); the development of brand identity; the races to develop and implement each new feature; and the many ideas that never came to pass. Above all, Edwards - a former journalist who knows how to write - captures the Google Experience, the rollercoaster ride of being part of a company creating itself in a whole new universe.

I'm Feeling Lucky captures for the first time the unique, self-invented, yet profoundly important culture of the world's most transformative corporation.

©2011 Douglas Edwards (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This lively, thoughtful business memoir is more entertaining than it really has any right to be, and should be required reading for startup aficionados." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Douglas Edwards is indeed lucky, sort of an accidental millionaire, a reluctant bystander in a sea of computer geniuses who changed the world. This is a rare look at what happened inside the building of the most important company of our time." (Seth Godin)

"Douglas Edwards recounts Google's stumble and rise with verve and humor and a generosity of spirit. He kept me turning the pages of this engrossing tale." (Ken Auletta, author of Googled: The End of the World as We Know It)

“With a warm, approachable tone and perfect pacing, Edwards narrates his detailed account of his experiences as an early employee of Google, Inc….Edwards seems a natural as he provides a highly listenable audio performance….the listener walks away with a better understanding of how true organizational creativity and brilliant technical engineering can impact the human condition and world culture.” ( AudioFile)

An Interesting View Into the Early Years of Google

What did you love best about I'm Feeling Lucky?

It is a great view into how Google was formed and some of the events that we all saw from the outside. I particularly enjoyed that it was a balanced portrayal, not always for and not always against Google. It also provided an interesting view of now popular figures like Marissa Mayer.

What does Douglas Edwards bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

An insider's view from someone who is willing to both support and be critical of Google.

Fantastic Read

Any additional comments?

What a fascinating, charming story. It is so well told, it inspired me to take a Python programming class.

I'm Feeling Intrigued

I give this book a 3.5, rounded up to 4. It was longer than I expected (16+ hours) but a really good personal account about living the Google life. Employee #59, Doug, if that is his real name, came on pretty early in Google's history. Seems like the company culture was constantly the Marketers vs. the Engineers. When will they ever see eye to eye? Hearing about previous competitors and Google's humble beginnings while comparing where they are now (Gmail and tablets and Chromebooks oh my) was fun. Granted, Doug's perspective ends in 2005, and there were many times where I felt like he definitely was at the wrong company, it was a nice insider's view of the conglomerate we all love (or love to hate).

Logical, riveting, and inspiring

Would you listen to I'm Feeling Lucky again? Why?

Yes. Not a fan of google before listening. I will say the book speaks volumes for the brand. It is a great story that is easy to identify with - for anyone who is highly rational. Also highly entertaining. Great humor. Even moments of laughter - out loud.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

LAUGHTER AND INTRIGUE ALL IN ONE

Any additional comments?

Want more by same author. Love the unique style

Well written, easy to listen to, captivating story

I first listened to 'In the Plex' by Steven Levy which provides keen insight into how Google thinks and the brilliance behind the company. In this book, Douglas Edwards brings the company and the people to life with a story of his own journey in a way that is witty, engaging, and real. If you have any interest in knowing the Google story from an insiders view, this is the book to read. It felt like I had worked alongside Douglas as he contributed is talents to making the company what it is from a branding and marketing perspective. This is one of my favorite books.

Yes. I surely recommend it.

Two things I love about this book:

First, the author tells a story very very well. Clear prose. Dramatic flow of each chapter. He was trained as a journalist and it shows.

Second, as he tells each tale about how Google developed from obscurity to success, and his part in that development, he describes the enlightened wisdom that he tried to bring to each challenge that Google faced. Then, as each story unfolds, he confesses how he was often wrong and what he really learned from each episode. (Hence the subtitle "Confessions of Google employee number 59"). Everyone should approach life in this way: share your wisdom with others, but be open to their wisdom too. Remembering that you might be wrong is the only path to enlightenment.

This book is the story of human endeavor: the creation of Google. And it is the author's personal story of his quest for wisdom, economic survival, and enlightenment.

Four stars from me is not faint praise. I reserve the highest rating for just the few books that come along rarely in one's lifetime. .

10 hour job resume and a 5 hour story of google

What made the experience of listening to I'm Feeling Lucky the most enjoyable?

I enjoyed the history and story of google, along with a candid and sometime cheeky way summing up the events of google's history

Any additional comments?

The Narrator and writer of the book is a saint, a genius, and possible responsible for all of Google's success, even thought set admits being pretty clueless and the company has no use or job for him in the end. Every good idea he was on board for and "pushed" forward and every bad idea that happen he knew it was bad and tried to stop to even though he had no impact on the out come. He wrote the copy on the website. By his account the only decision he really made and felt strongly about was not putting an American flag on Google after 9/11, too tasteless? The history is pretty in-depth due to interviews and accounts of the people he worked with and some of his own. Douglas Edwards seems like a polite nice guy but when he writes from his accounts it reads like a job resume and seems like he trying really hard to sound important and make the reader like him or maybe he was always right everyone else was wrong and he never made a bad decision at Google I'm not sure. Either way a nice read if you want to learn more about Google

Insider's entertaining account of pre-IPO Google

This is a well-written account of life in Google from the early days up to the IPO, and Douglas Edwards reads his own text very well.

It is a personal account, but covers many of the key events in the growth of the company from the early days when they built their own computers and packed them tightly into the racks in a data center, through the deals with Yahoo and AOL to the transformation of Google into a huge corporation.

Of course we know how the story is going to end, and we also know that Marissa Mayer (one colleague with whom he has numerous run-ins) is now CEO of Yahoo, but Douglas Edwards still manages to make it into an absorbing tale.

Interesting Look into Early Google from Non-Tech

What did you love best about I'm Feeling Lucky?

Doug did a great job of narrating and explaining the high tech world of Google in an easy to understand way. There were just so many interesting stories, he kept me coming back for more.

What about Douglas Edwards’s performance did you like?

He is an excellent speaker and brought some much needed humor to the subject matter.

Any additional comments?

It was hard for me to believe I would make it through the entire 16 hours, but it was so interesting, I couldn't stop. And, the ending was superb, alost emotional.

I'd really like someone else to do another book like this detailing the time after Google's IPO.

A History of Google and an enjoyable ride!

A long listen, but engaging and informative. Well written and read.,
The first person narrative by the author was easy to follow and kept my interest all the way to the end.