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Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

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Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#72
post #19

I think this is good news. Google has sometimes felt like it was pulled in two different directions - making the core business successful, and providing spinoff cash for the crazy projects. Having the same person run both of them seems like it will make management more efficient. It probably means that a number of Larry and Sergey "pet projects" will become deprioritized. Good. Self-driving cars seem like they have g…

What are some Larry and Sergey pet project? Genuinely curious.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#73
post #50
post #20

Buried in a paragraph 2/3 of the way down: > ... Going forward, Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet. ... Not knowing the internals of Google, it seems as if this is the announcement that Page and Brin are stepping down. Is this correct? If so, what an incredibly subtle way to announce a high-profile pair of resignations.

Nah, anyone used to reading Google press releases knows that a subject line of, "An Update on X" always means X is being shut down, and thus, "A letter from Larry and Sergey" could mean nothing else except they're stepping down.

This meme has to die. It's time.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#74
post #22

> Nonetheless, Google’s core service—providing unbiased, accurate, and free access to information—remains at the heart of the company. How is it ok to just say clear lies like this?! Without making any value judgements at all this is blatantly false. The ranking algorithms specifically encode a bias into search results. This is actually explicitly what users want, too! To be clear this is distressing to me because ve…

Don't be too pedantic. By your definition, what even is unbiased? A list of all the sites on the web, A to Z? Words are what we make of them, and there's clearly some distinction between Google and, say, Baidu that is entirely appropriate to capture with the word "unbiased".

I dont think this is pedantic and my point is exactly as you describe! There is no such thing as "unbiased" and people who are in search of that are living in a dream world.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#75
post #45
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, what about 20,000 of them? https://www.vox.com/2019/4/23/18512542/google-employee-walko...

The walkout referred to was over a year ago, so I wouldn't call that discontent "emerging". If anything, that demonstrates that discontent is diminishing, because there hasn't been another similar walkout.

You posted that someone needed to demonstrate "structural discontent" via a news story involving at least 1K employees. They linked to one involving 20K. And your response to that is: "This proves that discontent is diminishing?"

You set the challenge, they exceeded it 20x, and you've not made a believable case that this shows "content is diminishing." In fact exceeding your original demands by 20x seems to thoroughly show that the basis for the claim is true.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#76
post #3

Please please please, just keep telling Sundar and everyone, "don't be evil".

I like the idea of the "don't be evil" rule, but it always seemed overly naive / simplistic to me.

Even without factoring in self-justifying rationalizations, people can have significantly different ideas of what counts as evil.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#77
post #25

I see a few comments praising Sundar. As someone who doesn’t follow closely, but feels that Google has deteriorated dramatically under his watch, does someone mind explaining the reasoning for said praise?

They've maintained a strong market performance

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#80
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless it there is more behind the scenes, the letter is basically saying: We don't want to deal, or like/enjoy dealing with this pesky employee stuff. We don't have the time, energy, or enjoy it, and they'd rather do something else with their time and money. They are in a position where they either crack-down on their culture to more of a corp like, and appear to go full evil, or be even more lenient, and risk small…

I think that's a cynical view of the situation. These guys have grown a college startup into one of the world's most valuable companies. They're rich beyond imagination. More importantly, they're getting close to being 50. Would you want a day job if you could retire 15 years earlier than most, especially considering Google has served as a vehicle to explore a ton of other projects they've been interested in (since m…

I think they will regret it. Google was once a real special company. Their IPO filling, their stance on China, those were principled, courageous stands that came straight from Larry and Sergey. To see their beautiful baby turn into another mega-corp, as hypocritical as any, colonized by activists and careerists bent on distorting the social fabric to advance ideologies and profits? Contemplating that turn of events when you had the power to stop it but chose not to? That has to suck, even when you are doing the contemplation from your yacht.
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