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Where in the World Is Larry Page?

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Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#201

Post by TangoTrotFox »

dibstern wrote: post #80

I don’t understand people on here complaining about the Senate demanding that the leaders of a business answer for its actions. Sending your lawyer or an underling is (1) a show of disrespect, (2) it shows you’re not taking responsibility for your company, and (3) when the person answering the questions isn’t really in charge, they can’t answer properly and they can’t commit their companies to behaving differently. P…

Google has more than 85,000 employees - with a good chunk of those being technical positions. And they take getting their employees to 'drink the kool-aid' very seriously. What percent of those employees do you think browse or post on hacker news?

I'm not suggesting the employees or Google are doing anything wrong but it's going to result in a visible bias that one should keep in mind.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#202

Post by ThomPete »

TangoTrotFox wrote: post #199
ThomPete wrote: post #150

This is why I more or less stopped reading or watching the news. If something is important I will find out. If I want to understand the world better I will either read a book about a given subject, ask someone who knows something, explore it on my own or debate it with someone who holds the opposite view of me. News especially these days is mostly sensationalist gossip made by people who's primary incentives is to ge…

"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day. The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer t…

Yeah, I don't think the problem is new it's just the consequences of the problem that are different.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#203

Post by trendoid »

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.

He could have been grilled, sure. But I don't think that was the reason as Google was arranging someone else to show up before this leaked.

Nothing in this video is surprising though. It has always been clear that the value system of people in Silicon Valley is completely different from Republican values. Their despise for Trump or his base is the most obvious connection anyone can make.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#204

Post by jstandard »

ThomPete wrote: post #194
jstandard wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see Cambridge Analytica as a "stupid media freak out", it exposed a concerning and far reaching privacy issue with the Facebook platform. Concerns about Tesla's solvency have been building for months. The departure of several high-level executives is a big concern and what moved markets. It might signal that people are jumping ship.

I am unconvinced about that. If it was the case that CA actually was able to do the things the media claimed they didn and affect people like that, FB would be in an even better position to affect people which means FB shares should have risen not fallen. We do not live in the world created by the media about the capabilities of CA not even close. But as they say. The market can stay irrational longer than you can st…

I don't think it was about CA capabilities per se, but the privacy blowback which followed.

The issue became mainstream and gave rise to the "Delete Facebook" movement which regular folks as well as celebrities[1] piled onto. It's fair to discuss the faddish nature of the #delete movements, but I don't see any positive angle in it for FB.

It also forced FB to overhaul their platform, most notably applying larger restrictions[2] to the amount of data available via APIs. This wasn't grandstanding, it cut revenue streams for many advertising and data companies. I'm not sure this had a direct effect on FB's revenue, but indirectly it makes FB less attractive as a platform for hyper-targeted advertising. This can eventually lead to a lower ROI on FB ads vs. other channels and thus, lower share of a marketing budget.

[1] https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/will-ferrell-delete-fa...

[2] https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/04/facebook-instagram-api-shu...

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#205

Post by wybiral »

dragonwriter wrote: post #180
wybiral wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Senate Intelligence Committee hearings are usually pretty facts-first unlike the other random hearings and sessions. I watch them on C-SPAN whenever they happen (which isn't that frequent). Edit: I strongly recommend watching these directly from C-SPAN rather than the summarized spin-version from random news companies. You might be surprised how little of their time is wasted on grandstanding. Yeah, some politici…

> The Senate Intelligence Committee hearings are usually pretty facts-first Granting, for the sake of argument, that SSCI public hearings are on average more substantive and less grandstanding around pre-set narratives than other public Congressional hearings [0], there was ample advance reason to believe that this hearing was not going to further that pattern. > Yeah, some politicians will throw in their jabs, but t…

Do you have any examples? I watch almost all of their public hearings and it's rarely ever grandstanding. Again, you might have a couple of people take quick jabs but if you watch the actual hearings (don't watch reporters take parts of them out of context) it's usually very straight forward and constructive.

Part of it is also to function as a communication channel to the people. It shows their constituents that they're asking the questions people want them to ask and it would give Google's leaders a chance to explain their company-wide position on issues in this case. But they have to care enough to show up.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#206

Post by puzzle »

advisedwang wrote: post #175
nostrademons wrote: post #162

I'd wondered about this when I heard Google wasn't sending any of their top brass. In my experience, it's very out of character for Google's top leadership to not predict when people are going to be pissed off about a decision. And it was stupendously easy to tell that Congress would be pissed off by this decision - when I mentioned the news to my wife she was like "You can do that? Just stand up Congress?" I'm remin…

Google tried to send their top lawyer, Kent Walker, but was rejected by the Senate [1] less than two weeks before the hearing. [1] https://www.law.com/corpcounsel/2018/08/23/senate-intelligen...

Nitpick: Dave Drummond is, or at least was, Kent Walker's boss, board member and the top lawyer. He focused on business, though.

Kent Walker was the policy guy. Ironically, this article from six weeks ago makes the point that he's the new Eric Schmidt when it comes to governments:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/30/google-kent-walker-svp-of-gl...

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#207

Post by sololipsist »

0x8BADF00D wrote: post #182
ThomPete wrote: post #150

This is why I more or less stopped reading or watching the news. If something is important I will find out. If I want to understand the world better I will either read a book about a given subject, ask someone who knows something, explore it on my own or debate it with someone who holds the opposite view of me. News especially these days is mostly sensationalist gossip made by people who's primary incentives is to ge…

> If you want to have another example besides this weird can completely forced article look no further to the Elon Musk interview on Joe Rogan last which made their shares drop 8% for the day because he took one puff. Everyone went berserk because you are not supposed to do something like that if you are the CEO of a large company. Instead of actually listening to the interview which was almost 3 hours and super inte…

> The rest of us will continue to ~~learn and innovate~~ buy $tsla after silly controversies cause it to tank, and sell $tsla once everyone remembers they like money and it climbs again.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#208

Post by 394549 »

tensor wrote: post #138
394549 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This just goes to show how much of a charade these hearings are. Literally no one in the public is going to pay attention or give a shit about hearings where Congress questions lower level executives with little to no decision-making authority. It's not a charade to want to question the one guy in the company who unquestionably has authority over whatever decisions Congress wants to ask about. If you think they sho…

They are looking for information, they should question the person who can answer those the best. They are not compelling the company to make any decisions/changes and if they were it would be through legal action anyways, not talking to a CEO. This is pure grandstanding for the purpose of public spectacle. Good on Page for telling them where to stuff it. If congress wants to take these issues seriously they should dr…

> They are looking for information, they should question the person who can answer those the best.

I disagree. Calling the CEO to testify puts the chief decision-maker on notice that these are issues he needs to focus on. Settling for a minor executive won't have the same influence on the CEO. Secondly, a minor executive has much more ability to dodge and evade, since he can legitimately claim "this isn't my area," "wasn't my decision," etc. Also, like I said before, settling for interviewing minor players doesn't attract the public's attention to the issue.

> If congress wants to take these issues seriously they should drop the politics

Congress is politics. It's not some technocratic regulatory body. Engaging in politics is literally the primary job of congressmen.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#209

Post by bogomipz »

Zelphyr wrote: post #60

It's kind-of Congress' own fault here. They so often have these... events, that are mostly for show and for the politicians to grandstand making them seem tough to voters but really have very little substance. I doubt any meaningful policy ever comes of them. Doesn't everybody know by now that they're grilling these CEO's in front of the cameras and begging them for money behind the cameras? "outrage" indeed.

This was the Senate Intelligence Committee though not a joint committee(Judiciary and Commerce)hearing like back in April.

Senate Intelligence Committee hearings tend to much more informed and productive comparatively speaking. It's apparent from even a cursory viewing of the hearing.[1]

Larry Page would have been made well-aware of this distinction before making the decision not to attend.

[1] https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/hearings/open-hearing-fo...

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#210

Post by jonny_eh »

kungtotte wrote: post #76
godzillabrennus wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google didn’t play as fast and loose with sharing data as Facebook did. That helps.

They never got caught doing it. That doesn't mean they never have.

You've never been caught murdering anyone, I assume.
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