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The Google+ project and exec team

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Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#81

Post by CoolGuySteve »

bambax wrote: post #71
brianberns wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that why they got rid of it? I liked using + more than putting the word in quotes, which is what you have to do now.

> Is that why they got rid of it? Yes. "Plus" is a dumb and lame product name. When Jean-Marie Messier was trying to make Vivendi an important Internet company, he decided he wanted to make some kind of portal (copying Yahoo) that would be named "Vivendi Plus". He announced it at a press conference before having even secured the vivendiplus.com domain. That was in Sept. '99. It failed miserably (didn't even launch).…

It also implies that regular Google is Google-, some kind of inferior good. Never a good thing to do to your principle revenue stream.

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#82

Post by tyingq »

goliatone wrote: post #76
ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this your definition of "walking all over you"? How much of a bubble is silicon valley? I have worked in the biggest bank in Australia where subcontractors were siphoning away the source codes and customer data via mobile hotspots. I blew the whistle to data security and got fired in return. Company later paid me huge chunk of money in return for silence. Sometimes you just gotta walk away to better deals. Life is…

Since you’re sharing, how did you get from being fired to being offered payment for silence? You got terminated and a day/week/month later the bank reached out to you offering money just in case, or they fired you and approached them asking for “cautionary” compensation, or something in between? Not trying to make a moral judgement, I’m wondering how these escenarios play out in real life

Guessing the sequence of fired->get lawyer->send letter->settlement+non-disclosure is pretty common.

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#83

Post by Meekro »

whack wrote: post #10

Controversial opinion here. I know that exaggerating and complaining is a surefire way to get clicks, but it's hard to take the author's criticisms seriously when he complains about so many different things. Some as minor as the noogler orientation. Others as petty as putting down colleagues who haven't worked as designers before. Regarding the main event in question: I like that Google allows people to party in the…

It was a hard lesson for me to learn in the past: if you care wildly more than the people around you -- so much that you work late into the night while your grandmother is dying and your coworkers are pounding drinks with their counterparts at a competitor -- you'll just end up really hurt and frustrated and they'll all think that you are the problem.

The author seems like the kind of person that I'd love to do a 3-person startup with. We'd be in an environment where working late into the night is valuable sometimes, and because all of us would be doing that he'd have no reason to be resentful. Hopefully he gets into a group like that before the corporate life trains him to preserve his sanity by not caring so much.

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#84

Post by zaphar »

pi-squared wrote: post #31

The Googleyness is weak with this one. Inferiority complex. Work-life balance problems (work over xmas break, late night after work). Not being able to stand for oneself (salary, reschedule meeting). Wanting everyone to like him (literally said it). Seems to dismiss other people's jobs and even names as being less important than his. Nobody's perfect, we all have some bad things in our personalities. But it's impossi…

For context the G+ team was viewed add being run in a very ungoogley way during Vic's tenure. It sounds like the OP had the misfortune to be hired into the worst run project at Google at the time.

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#85

Post by ganeshkrishnan »

goliatone wrote: post #76
ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this your definition of "walking all over you"? How much of a bubble is silicon valley? I have worked in the biggest bank in Australia where subcontractors were siphoning away the source codes and customer data via mobile hotspots. I blew the whistle to data security and got fired in return. Company later paid me huge chunk of money in return for silence. Sometimes you just gotta walk away to better deals. Life is…

Since you’re sharing, how did you get from being fired to being offered payment for silence? You got terminated and a day/week/month later the bank reached out to you offering money just in case, or they fired you and approached them asking for “cautionary” compensation, or something in between? Not trying to make a moral judgement, I’m wondering how these escenarios play out in real life

Similar to what the commenter below said except I had one more step of federal court intervening and forcing the settlement

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#86

Post by vezycash »

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #23
rightbyte wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The writer seems unbalanced and I can't tell if he or the workplace is the problem, or both. The thing that cought my eye is that he was telling his boss his coworker was home hung over, becouse he worked while his grandma died instead of visiting her. Like, who is being inconsiderate here really?

Well, he's passionate. He just didn't realize google is so big it's justanotherjob. Full of middle management machiavellis, and political deck chair shuffling.

This! Is the author immature? Yes but not out of malice. He's simply a novice to the world of people. Labeling this guy as mental, dysfunctional or having a Everest sized ego is just petty.

The key to understanding the author is at the top of the article.

He skipped college, freelanced for much of his life and worked for non-profits (whose lofty goals transcend internal politics.) As someone who recently worked to make the world a better place, he genuinely tried to help his teammates and naively believe they appreciated his help. (I bet he doesn't know how to read body language and fake smiles). They on the other hand felt he was trying to make them look bad, and use them as promotion stepping stones.

People who work with compilers for a long time have no qualms being wrong. They take feedback and improve. But for Straight A - straight out of college students and political types, being wrong is a personal insult.

Here's what I think:

Most of his co-workers had been complaining about his well meaning meddling. He couldn't be fired for making things better. The email was the excuse his boss had been looking for to get rid of him.

If he joined Google 10 years ago, he would have been a rock star.

My advice:

He should find a way to make freelancing work.

He should join a startup but freelance / consult on the side to augment his pay. Going to business school - or some management training might also do him a lot of good.

Most of all, if he gets another big job, he shouldn't help anyone unless they ask for it.

Wish him good luck.

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#87

Post by paganel »

mcbits wrote: post #53
Novashi wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The writer seems unbalanced That doesn't mean anything, and if you're trying to give it meaning, you're probably not qualified to diagnose someone over a twitter thread. Everything, all-caps profanities and all, would be part of a normal conversation where a friend is ranting to you.

Ranting makes people seem unbalanced. Especially ranting on Twitter.

For me it looks that he is a human being with genuine emotions, that he’s passionate about his work and not yet a complete corporate drone.

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#88

Post by ganeshkrishnan »

didibus wrote: post #30
ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #16

This is really ungrateful. The author is not happy because he got to work on Google+ not chrome? Google+ for all it's short comings were business failures not tech or ux or design failure. I worked on far stupider projects at big companies and I am utterly grateful for the opportunities given to me. Absurd blog and no matter how muchi hate Google posts like these makes me realize how ungrateful some people can be.

If you read through the end, you see he is not happy because his Manager backstabed him and fired him (slow release as they say) because he felt threatened by him.

Managers never feel threatened by employees. They have no reason to do so. Once you are inside a large company, with enough motivation you can switch projects and move up the ladder.

That's how it works in life, that how it works in companies.

Complaining that he didn't get his dream project right off the bat is vanity.

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#89

Post by goliatone »

otabdeveloper2 wrote: post #44

Megacorps don't work to make products. They work to keep their top-dog status perpetual. One way to do this is to hire smart people and keep them locked away wasting time. Two benefits: them not working productively at a competitor's place is one, and them losing the skills and drive to make real-world useful things after a few years is another.

Ive read other post basically making the same claim, Google is happy to create, fund, and hire for projects just to capture/retain talent and remove it from the hiring pool. Is that HN folks reading too much between lines or is it a thing?

Re: The Google+ project and exec team

#90

Post by Novashi »

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #67
Novashi wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Would you take up the job if the salary was reduced on day one? I'd certainly tell people on as many public forums as possible instead of just letting someone walk all over me and also see if I could get anyone with influence to reverse the decision. Do I sit and take it? Hell no. And you shouldn't either because you should have more self-respect.

Is this your definition of "walking all over you"? How much of a bubble is silicon valley? I have worked in the biggest bank in Australia where subcontractors were siphoning away the source codes and customer data via mobile hotspots. I blew the whistle to data security and got fired in return. Company later paid me huge chunk of money in return for silence. Sometimes you just gotta walk away to better deals. Life is…

>Is this your definition of "walking all over you"? How much of a bubble is silicon valley?

Yeah it is, but I don't live in the valley.

I mean, your example fits my definition too. I just have a much lower threshold that I tolerate apparently.

But lets wait for someone else to come by with a more impactful story than yours and we can reset the goal posts.

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