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Tables: Tracking work for teams

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Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#231
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that with all the products? New teams that own the legacy code base, new PMs that need to show they are doing something... That's how all software products rot. It's normal lifecycle of products that we need to accept.

it shouldn't have to be that way

It gives an opportunity for newer, simpler and faster actors to come and replace the incumbents. Complex systems are hard to maintain. Nature spent billions of years perfecting the process, we can't be expected to learn it in couple of decades.

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#232

Tangentially related, but google nixed android chrome's "home"/"duet" feature which allowed having the url bar at the bottom of the screen and made navigating on a phone/tablet _much_ easier. I'm somewhat baffled how they can work on a tablet and be so unaware of what a good UI looks like.

I can't believe after years of fiddling with a bottom bar (Home/Duplex/Duet), they couldn't figure it out and just scrapped the whole thing. The killedbygoogle meme is probably exaggerated a bit but I feel like this whole saga just screams a lack of direction.

Also, like all google's mobile apps, the iOS version is just straight up better: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/google-chrome/id535886823

Looks like there's a new flag chrome://flags#enable-conditional-tabstrip [0]. Here we go again.

[0] https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/07/15/chrome-84/

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Googler, I'd just say it's a boring meme that shows little thought and just wastes time actually getting to interesting discussion here. It's almost akin to "first" from the old days of Slashdot or the race to mention generics whenever anything related to Go comes up. Products come and products go, this is not unique to Google. Killed By Google is cited as some sort of proof, but that goes back to _2003_, and do…

Really not helping the condescending Googler stereotype there bud. Or perhaps its OK for you to be this way as a tech "elite" that makes $450k a year.

I don't see any condescending language in that comment. But with my disclosure, you will be quick to say, of course I can't.

Not sure where the "elite" or "450k/year" is coming from as well in the parent comment. Perhaps give that comment another chance to see what they are actually saying?

Disc: Googler.

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are all these comments about the near and inevitable death of your new product at all soul-crushing? I'm a stranger on the internet and even I can feel the burn. Good luck.

As a Googler, I'd just say it's a boring meme that shows little thought and just wastes time actually getting to interesting discussion here. It's almost akin to "first" from the old days of Slashdot or the race to mention generics whenever anything related to Go comes up. Products come and products go, this is not unique to Google. Killed By Google is cited as some sort of proof, but that goes back to _2003_, and do…

There's that trademark Google arrogance we all know and love.

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#237
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aka we will kill this at any time.

"We exist only to design and launch products, which earns us huge bonuses, and not to actually maintain or improve them, which earns us nothing."

How is that different from the rest of Google?

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's going to be the common case; without knowing the end-target application, most data formats we would pick at random are useless to non-programmers. Even JSON is too complex for non-programmers.

Plaintext would not be too complex for non-programmers. Coupled with in-file tokens, it makes for an easy format to export into anything. That's why I am using it as the base format for my forum application. At any time, the entire forum content can be exported into plaintext, which is readable by most users on most platforms (except iOS) And also can be re-imported into just about anything with a quick Perl script.

Plaintext is too complex for programmers and likely drops semantic information that is needed to reconstruct the relations in the original data.

There's a reason plaintext is rarely used as the preferred method of semantic data exchange. What's our preferred method of representing images with plaintext? Audio files? Rich text, such as Google Docs? Spreadsheets (complete with formulae and attached macros)? Databases that contain bin-blob fields?

> And also can be re-imported into just about anything with a quick Perl script.

In your specific use case, I expect that works well. In the general case, my experience has been that plaintext can be imported into just about anything incorrectly with a quick Perl script. And when the data is MBs / GBs, the odds that such an error goes unnoticed until the data is needed and cannot be reconstituted are high.

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#239

Interesting that they would launch this as a totally separate product and not as a part of G Suite. Do you think they want to create some distance between them and the rest of Google because ofd Google's reputation of shutting down products? Or maybe they want to launch a product outside the usual bureaucracy?

"At Area 120, we work on 20% projects 100% of the time." It literally just has no backing by Google's corporate or business goals.

Google Maps was a 20% eons ago, wasn't it? So there is a chance that it becomes part of Google's corporate goals, e.g. making G Suite essential to businesses.

Re: Tables: Tracking work for teams

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are all these comments about the near and inevitable death of your new product at all soul-crushing? I'm a stranger on the internet and even I can feel the burn. Good luck.

As a Googler, I'd just say it's a boring meme that shows little thought and just wastes time actually getting to interesting discussion here. It's almost akin to "first" from the old days of Slashdot or the race to mention generics whenever anything related to Go comes up. Products come and products go, this is not unique to Google. Killed By Google is cited as some sort of proof, but that goes back to _2003_, and do…

Your dismiss response has made me even more confident Google plans to immediately abandon this (as well as other services I might be interested in, including end-user ones like Stadia), not less.

It's not a meme. It's a very real problem that prevents people from wanting to invest in Google services. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy too when people don't use these services, then they get shuttered for low usage.

Google has a huge amount of work to do to earn the trust they've burned, and responses like this damage the cause further. You've cemented firmly in my mind that staying the hell away from this and anything Google has to offer is the right choice, as they clearly don't take this problem seriously and won't even acknowledge it.

I really think you should reconsider.

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