Where in the World Is Larry Page? • Hacker News Board

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#151

Post by tptacek » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:14 PM UTC

sidibe wrote: post #19

chosenbreed wrote: post #14

I might be missing something here but my thinking is that Google Inc/Alphabet is bigger than Larry Page. If for whatever reason he was not able to attend he could have sent a representative chosen from among the senior executives. It seems that neither his attendance nor Google's participation in the whole thing was not mandatory

They offered their legal guy who is also one of the main leaders at Google and is probably the right person to talk about this but Congress refused. They want figureheads.

That's not how it works. When they called Wells Fargo to testify, they didn't allow them to send a risk or compliance officer; they subpoena'd Tim Sloan, the CEO of the bank.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#152

Post by mbesto » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:16 PM UTC

RIMR wrote: post #119

Retric wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In practice, Lobbyists write these laws. Passage or non-passage is less important than content.

Politicians are the ones that introduce these laws, and these companies answer to the people, not just to lobbyists. You seem pretty consistently dismissive of the democratic process in this thread. I don't think I should have to remind you of how critically important it is.

> Politicians are the ones that introduce these laws

Technically yes. But politicians (the actual rep's themselves) do not really write the laws - they just agree on the spirit of the law of which they're pursuing and then basically sell it to other members.

It's the equivalent of engaging a Partner at a big 4 consultancy. They show up for the sales call, but are nowhere to be found when the solution they sold actually gets implemented.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#153

Post by nostrademons » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:17 PM UTC

meowface wrote: post #61

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of that is our collective fascination of young self made *illionaires, as well as the more personal interactions a user has with Facebook vs Google. Heck, I bet more people are aware of Tom from Myspace, than they are of Larry Page or Sergey Brin.

Larry Page made his first million by 25. I can't find info about when Sergey Brin made his first million, but probably not far off from that. They definitely count as young self-made millionaires.

Same time - they have equal shares in Google. "First million" probably refers to Google's first angel investment, which set a valuation on the company of maybe $10M and valued each founder's shares at probably $3-4M (I'm guessing on valuation, but this would be typical for an angel investment of $700K for a company this far along. Possibly a bit higher).

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#154

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:18 PM UTC

jonathanstrange wrote: post #144

l9k wrote: post #81

At this point, though, such a public-relations strategy feels dated. On balance, the celebrity of even the most caricatured CEO (Zuckerberg) appears to be a net positive for his company. I disagree totally with that point. The "superstar CEO" Zuckerberg is now ridiculed, hated, and negatively "meme-ed". He is now the face of censorship (for some) and a laissezfaire strategy threatening democracies (for others). Even…

I'm always amazed about the amount of hatred directed at anyone who is in the public spotlight. There is a whole Internet mob out there, and it doesn't even matter where the fame comes from. If you're prominent in any way it seems that the best option is to seclude yourself and avoid the public. At least that's what I would do, I guess it's a personal preference in the end.

A large segment of the population is wrapped up in consuming celebrity culture. Most of us will never know or meet these people and have little reason to know the particulars of their lives but they are a marketable product due to human nature.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#155

Post by joshuamorton » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:18 PM UTC

wybiral wrote: post #146

joshuamorton wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your first paragraph would be spot on if there were only a tiny amount of grandstanding. The majority of questions at every hearing I've seen have been politically biased grandstanding, with the goal of creating a soundbite that appeals to the base, not of factually informing the public.

Which Intelligence Committee hearings are you talking about? I linked to a recent one in a grandparent post that has almost no grandstanding as far as I'm concerned and for the IC that's usually how it is. I can't speak for the larger committees with more media attention.

Let me put it this way: if you want to have a real productive discussion on data privacy, you want the head lawyer who, despite Senate grandstanding, probably does make legal decisions for the company.

You don't want the guy who thinks that google, probably uses version control software, but doesn't know what it is.

The ic didn't want a decision maker, they wanted a heel.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#156

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:18 PM UTC

eutropia wrote: post #140

Jerry2 wrote: post #136

Larry Page probably didn't attend the Senate hearings because he knew that this video was going to get leaked: https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/09/12/leaked-video-googl... He would have been grilled for hours over it.

At the risk of sounding partisan, why should I trust a breitbart dot com link?

[deleted]

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#157

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:19 PM UTC

sidibe wrote: post #19

chosenbreed wrote: post #14

I might be missing something here but my thinking is that Google Inc/Alphabet is bigger than Larry Page. If for whatever reason he was not able to attend he could have sent a representative chosen from among the senior executives. It seems that neither his attendance nor Google's participation in the whole thing was not mandatory

They offered their legal guy who is also one of the main leaders at Google and is probably the right person to talk about this but Congress refused. They want figureheads.

> They want figureheads.

They also want to to get either the ritual validation of voluntary submission or the opportunity for theatrical (but fundamentally dishonest) complaint about non-compliance; if it was really important to have the specific witnesses there, they would forgo both and issue compulsory legislative subpoenas, which is fully within their power.

By not doing so, they are, in fact, saying they don't consider the testimony of the invited witness all that important to the legislative function, so the theatrics around the decision not to accept the voluntary invitation are clearly unwarranted.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#158

Post by Arubis » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:24 PM UTC

lisper wrote: post #116

One thing this article completely neglects to mention: Larry has vocal chord paralysis and so has difficulty speaking. https://www.wired.com/2013/05/larry-page-vocal-chords/ This could have something to do with why he's reluctant to do a lot of public speaking nowadays. [UPDATE] I was wrong: the article does mention this, I just missed it. I would delete this comment but I can't since it has been replied to.

While it's true (sibling comments) that this is indeed mentioned in the article, it's well into the body, about two-thirds down. This strikes me as extremely relevant information: Page acts "as if [he] had only so many words left to speak." (ftfa)

Why would he waste his breath, if it's actually limited? The mistake here wasn't in Page not showing up--it was in _nobody_ showing up.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#159

Post by Jerry2 » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:25 PM UTC

eutropia wrote: post #140

Jerry2 wrote: post #136

Larry Page probably didn't attend the Senate hearings because he knew that this video was going to get leaked: https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/09/12/leaked-video-googl... He would have been grilled for hours over it.

At the risk of sounding partisan, why should I trust a breitbart dot com link?

You shouldn't. It's an internal Google video. So unless you're a conspiracy theorist who thinks it was faked, it should be eye opening.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#160

Post by chosenbreed » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:26 PM UTC

joering2 wrote: post #127

394549 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They offered their legal guy who is also one of the main leaders at Google and is probably the right person to talk about this but Congress refused. They want figureheads. Why is this a problem? The CEO is the public face of the company. If Congress wants to question the company about serious issues, it shouldn't settle for a little-known subordinate who has much less authority or accountability for the decisions C…

That and also they learnt their lesson: first Facebook hearings were very frustrating when all they heard was: “I dont know answer to this questio, and I will ask Mr. Zickerberg [when I see him next time] and will let you know [when in reality I will never see you again because if FB is ever invited again we will send another top exec]”. I for once appload congressmen/women for not falling for this sinple trick again…

Okay...so they didn't fall that trick...but I get the impression that all they want is the opportunity to grill the top executive. The best that can happen is that said executive will apologize, prostrate, etc and the show goes on...