The Friendship That Made Google Huge • Hacker News Board

Re: The Friendship That Made Google Huge

#11

Post by Itaxpica » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 9:53 PM UTC

shafte wrote: post #5

I'm so glad this this article (unlike so many other representations of Jeff and Sanjay's work) does not overlook Sanjay's contributions. I don't know what it is; maybe Sanjay is a weird (read: non-English) name, maybe it's that computing culture's obsession with lone hackers leaves no room for a partnership like Jeff and Sanjay's. Anyway, kudos to the New Yorker for not falling into that trap.

I think a big part of it is something the article touches on: Jeff is an extrovert, Sanjay is an introvert. Jeff is the much more visible of the two; the one who people are more likely to have heard speak personally or to have dealt with. It sounds like this is how they both prefer it, but it definitely means that Sanjay's contributions get passed over in the common discourse. I was also glad to see the article avoid that trap.

Re: The Friendship That Made Google Huge

#12

Post by nlh » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 9:59 PM UTC

shafte wrote: post #5

I'm so glad this this article (unlike so many other representations of Jeff and Sanjay's work) does not overlook Sanjay's contributions. I don't know what it is; maybe Sanjay is a weird (read: non-English) name, maybe it's that computing culture's obsession with lone hackers leaves no room for a partnership like Jeff and Sanjay's. Anyway, kudos to the New Yorker for not falling into that trap.

Ditto on the sentiment. I’m not a Googler but I’ve worked closely with a few, and Jeff was revered accordingly (along with the Chuck Norris-esque jokes). I’d honestly never heard Sanjay mentioned (and didn’t know who he was) until I read this article. I’m glad he was given his due and I’m glad to have learned about his contributions.

Re: The Friendship That Made Google Huge

#13

Post by modeless » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 10:03 PM UTC

VikingCoder wrote: post #4

"Jeff Dean once shifted a bit so hard it ended up on another computer."

"Jeff Dean puts his pants on one leg at a time, but if he had more than two legs, you'd see that his approach is actually O(log n)."

Re: The Friendship That Made Google Huge

#14

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 10:23 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: The Friendship That Made Google Huge

#15

Post by woodhull » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 10:33 PM UTC

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #7

these are the kind of articles i like reading, well written, interesting subject and good content length. Too many times i read bold headlines on HN, "Why X is bringing america down", then go to read it and just when they get to the crux of the matter i find the article has ended smh.

The New Yorker does this very consistently every week at an extraordinary level of quality.

They will even mail you a copy in exchange for a subscription. It's magical.

Re: The Friendship That Made Google Huge

#16

Post by warent » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 10:34 PM UTC

fspacef wrote: post #8

Good stuff. Every sport has great partnerships (Jordon - Pippen, Brady - Gronk) and I always wondered if such a thing would even be possible in SE as I've felt overly self conscious and inefficient while pair programming. Though what really makes this my favorite long read of the year is how it follows their story over the course of Google's rise and the subtle juxtapositions between early Google of "doors across saw…

Don't forget Sam and Frodo

Re: The Friendship That Made Google Huge

#17

Post by skybrian » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 10:47 PM UTC

I wonder if more couldn't be done to encourage pair programming and collaboration in general? What are some other great partnerships?

Re: The Friendship That Made Google Huge

#18

Post by ineedasername » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 10:47 PM UTC

warent wrote: post #16

fspacef wrote: post #8

Good stuff. Every sport has great partnerships (Jordon - Pippen, Brady - Gronk) and I always wondered if such a thing would even be possible in SE as I've felt overly self conscious and inefficient while pair programming. Though what really makes this my favorite long read of the year is how it follows their story over the course of Google's rise and the subtle juxtapositions between early Google of "doors across saw…

Don't forget Sam and Frodo

Yeah, teams are good but every once in a while you need that lone crazy Tom Bombadil genius to come along and save your butt from disaster.

Re: The Friendship That Made Google Huge

#19

Post by enneff » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 10:50 PM UTC

If you want to see an example of Sanjay's elegant code, take a look at his Go stream package: https://github.com/ghemawat/stream

Re: The Friendship That Made Google Huge

#20

Post by ineedasername » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 10:50 PM UTC

Jyaif wrote: post #6

“In terms of sexiness, compilers are pretty much as boring as it gets,” That bit surprised me. For me it doesn't get much sexier than compilers.

Yeah. Maybe that's the outside view, or view from the surface level folks concerned with the next shiny framework, but I think the best engineers are always at least a little enamored with deeper nuts and bolts.