"Theft of trade secrets" is how Silicon Valley was built. Fairchild was "theft of trade secrets" from Shockley; Intel was "theft of trade secrets" from Fairchild. When Camenzind left Signetics and designed the 555 (under contract to Signetics), he was "using trade secrets" of Signetics; in today's legal environment, they could have just ordered him to stick around as an employee and work on a less risky project. MOST…
HN: How dare the rule of law get in the way of making money!!!
"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize."
The level of greed, hubris and stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me. Levandowski was paid a bonus of $120 million while at Google, which is more money than any reasonable person will need for several lifetimes. This was actually a running joke at Google (while I was still there) to describe $120M as "1 Levadownski". Like Sundar one year was described as earning "only 1.7 Levadownskis" (he got paid $200M…
Is the unit a “Levadownski” which is perhaps a deliberate corruption of his name?
"Theft of trade secrets" is how Silicon Valley was built. Fairchild was "theft of trade secrets" from Shockley; Intel was "theft of trade secrets" from Fairchild. When Camenzind left Signetics and designed the 555 (under contract to Signetics), he was "using trade secrets" of Signetics; in today's legal environment, they could have just ordered him to stick around as an employee and work on a less risky project. MOST…
> "Theft of trade secrets" is how Silicon Valley was built.
And blatant copyright violation is a common tool for up-and-coming countries (e.g. the US in the past) to jumpstart their creative sector. But at some point, they all begin to protect their own work (nowadays the US is among the fiercest proponents of a strong copyright).
Check out other reports - he clearly was enabled by lary for a long time by letting him get away with anything (self-dealing, employee abuse, borderline illegal stuff, etc). Not surprising he felt invincible after this. Just like with social clusterfuck Lary bears at least part of the blame here.
Between this, andy rubin, and all the nest stories, the "leadership" at google has demonstrated a willingness to enable tons of borderline behaviors.
The common denominator is Larry Page. He has great technical vision, but it's evident that he is an awful judge of character and a poor manager who was out of touch with what was really going on and unable to exert control over his reports. I was there when Eric Schmidt was CEO and don't recall any management issues. Larry takes over, and one of his first big things that happened was the G+ fiasco. Larry just sat back and watched that mess unfold. His whole tenure was marred by hiring sleazy execs like Gundotra, Levandowski, Fadell, and Rubin and letting them do whatever they wanted. Sundar is better, but he lacks the authenticity that Eric had. To be sure, there are lots of reasons not to like Eric, but he was easily the most effective CEO Google had in my mind.
"Theft of trade secrets" is how Silicon Valley was built. Fairchild was "theft of trade secrets" from Shockley; Intel was "theft of trade secrets" from Fairchild. When Camenzind left Signetics and designed the 555 (under contract to Signetics), he was "using trade secrets" of Signetics; in today's legal environment, they could have just ordered him to stick around as an employee and work on a less risky project. MOST…
Lawyers and investors provide pathways to the market that allow engineers to build things that have actual value. The idea that engineers like you and I hold all of the tools and training to "create wealth" is too dismissive of those professions.
You don't need a market to build things of value. The wealth creation happens with or without navigating laws. That's not true of capturing some of that wealth.
I think they meant $60m is "nothing" for that crowd due to the insane expenses involved in living like that.
Sure. But that’s an absurd response to the assertion that it’s “enough for any reasonable person for several lifetimes”. Sure, you could potentially burn $60 million on private jet service and an army of personal waitstaff. For that matter you could also literally burn $60 million cash in a fire. But most probably wouldn’t consider these “reasonable” behaviors.
>>Sure. But that’s an absurd response to the assertion that it’s “enough for any reasonable person for several lifetimes”.
The response assumed that he was NOT a "reasonable person" and wanted to move to the billionaire status. Almost did it, atually
"Theft of trade secrets" is how Silicon Valley was built. Fairchild was "theft of trade secrets" from Shockley; Intel was "theft of trade secrets" from Fairchild. When Camenzind left Signetics and designed the 555 (under contract to Signetics), he was "using trade secrets" of Signetics; in today's legal environment, they could have just ordered him to stick around as an employee and work on a less risky project. MOST…
"The indictment alleges that in the months before his departure, Levandowski downloaded from secure Google repositories numerous engineering, manufacturing, and business files related to Google’s custom LiDAR and self-driving car technology. The files downloaded included circuit board schematics, instructions for installing and testing LiDAR, and an internal tracking document. The indictment also alleges that at the…
The old school equivalent would be to rent a U-Haul on your last day at work and fill it with a dozen file drawers full of confidential docs (that you’ve been photocopying for weeks in plain sight) from your boss’ office...
He was on the Berkeley team for the original DARPA Grand Challenge. Their team was notable for being a motorcycle while everyone else used a car, the complexity of using a motorcycle earned them big points with the higher-ups even though the bike didn't do very well on the course. So if you were a CEO looking to hire a senior guy for autonomous vehicles, he was one of the most senior in years of experience, pretty mu…
Sure, but once it becomes clear that he doesn't fit in the culture and causes more issues than he solves, why does he keep getting promoted and his pay increased?
Because "results" matter more than culture. Just watch a TV series "Succession" to see how the upper echelons of people treat/think about ordinary engineers and senior engineer.
This is just an absurd statement. Do you really think that somone is sitting in some cubical thinking, “Geez, how can I regulate purchase of ballpoint pens?” or anything else? That’s not how laws and regulations come about. I really wish someone would point to an example where any “freedom stealing” law in a democracy was the came from a bureaucrat rather than outside lobbyists. Because the way this common claptrap i…
> relieving letters and bonds I don't know what a relieving letter is and I only know of a bond as a debt instrument. Can you explain?
I might be simplifying it but: A reliving Letter is document that your employer must (effectively) provide so you can resign and work for some one else, they can hold you hostage. Bond in this term refers to "An employment bond contains a clause which requires the employee to serve the employer compulsorily for a specific period of time or else refund the amount specified as bond value." Basically an indentured serva…
> Basically an indentured servant
… or a young graduate paying back a university bursary.