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Google Internal Comics

goomics.net

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Re: Google Internal Comics

#41

Post by shadowgovt »

bscphil wrote: post #13

I'm not saying this with the intent of harshly criticizing the author, but I admit it's surprising to me that someone (who had other options) would work for 14 years at a company they clearly came to believe was making the world a worse place.

The ability Google has to make the world better is significant, and folks like Manu were (are) excited to be a part of that. For example, Google came up with a privacy-conscious way to surface enough data to track and address the COVID-19 spread, which was huge for US state governments trying to handle the disease by giving them signal to shape outbreak mitigation strategy (https://fpf.org/press-releases/fpf-issues-2021-award-for-res...).

But there have been a lot of changes in recent years, and Google is playing with fire in its military and government support projects (as well as struggling with the increased union consciousness that is permeating white-collar Silicon Valley culture at the FAANGs). I'm not profoundly surprised he finally decided the balance had swung too far.

Re: Google Internal Comics

#42

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

Xorlev wrote: post #38
magixx wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I don't find it that surprising. I mean the whole advertising industry does exist and will continue to do so. Plus, if they didn't directly hate doing the work itself I could see someone tolerating it especially knowing that google's compensation is pretty good.

Most of Google is not dedicated towards building Ads, surfaces where ads are displayed, or collecting data for ads, despite popular perception.

All that other stuff is a loss leader for selling ads.

Re: Google Internal Comics

#44

Post by bingidingi »

bscphil wrote: post #13

I'm not saying this with the intent of harshly criticizing the author, but I admit it's surprising to me that someone (who had other options) would work for 14 years at a company they clearly came to believe was making the world a worse place.

That's pretty normal for the advertising industry.

Re: Google Internal Comics

#45

Post by ocdtrekkie »

gravypod wrote: post #27
bscphil wrote: post #13

I'm not saying this with the intent of harshly criticizing the author, but I admit it's surprising to me that someone (who had other options) would work for 14 years at a company they clearly came to believe was making the world a worse place.

(Opinions are my own) An alternate way of looking at it: When you work at a place you can help influence the culture to move it in the right direction. When you aren't working there you can't .

Many people at Google have held this opinion over the past decade are now former Googlers because they've realized you can't fix it. They've realized this is an excuse people in the cult use to justify to themselves and their conscience still being there, when all evidence points to it being impossible to course correct Google from within as an engineer.

Re: Google Internal Comics

#46

Post by ekianjo »

bscphil wrote: post #13

I'm not saying this with the intent of harshly criticizing the author, but I admit it's surprising to me that someone (who had other options) would work for 14 years at a company they clearly came to believe was making the world a worse place.

Is there any human organization that is not making the world worse in one way or another? Its pretty much relative in any case, hardly purely evil or purely good unless you are very naive or very young.

Re: Google Internal Comics

#47

Post by colinmhayes »

Xorlev wrote: post #38
magixx wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I don't find it that surprising. I mean the whole advertising industry does exist and will continue to do so. Plus, if they didn't directly hate doing the work itself I could see someone tolerating it especially knowing that google's compensation is pretty good.

Most of Google is not dedicated towards building Ads, surfaces where ads are displayed, or collecting data for ads, despite popular perception.

Every google product exists to encourage people to see more ads, even if he product isn't showing the ads.

I encourage anyone to point to a google product that isn't either selling ads or trying to get people to spend more time on the internet so google can sell them more ads.

Re: Google Internal Comics

#48

Post by triactual »

refulgentis wrote: post #28
rawtxapp wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternatives aren't really all that better on the topics that he criticized. If you work at big tech, at that scale, it's inevitable there will be parts of the company you disagree with. From my experience there, as long as your criticism is legitimate and constructive, it'll be well received by Googlers/company, heck some of his criticism pales in comparison to the ones done with memes.

I don't have as thick a skin as you, and I get really dispirited when this sort of criticism is adopted as a personality trait / cause internally. It's barely criticism rather than hyperbolic rancor, and while every good community needs people pointing out the bad, as you note, people know they're working at a big company and should value how we avoid things like JEDI, etc. thanks to leadership.

I tend to agree. There are enough problem alerters without solutions in most organizations that it’s not necessary to amplify one’s lack of solutions or influence with comics.

Re: Google Internal Comics

#49

Post by powera »

Lots of good comics in there. A few I haven't seen highlighted yet:

https://goomics.net/127/ - poor, poor Google Plus. Somehow it wasn't a warning sign that the big executive-supported project to Win Social was a laughingstock internally.

https://goomics.net/202/ followed years later by https://goomics.net/294/ - everybody expected TGIF to get worse over time, and apparently it did.

https://goomics.net/118/ - the last of three TailGator comics. A more innocent time.

And last, https://goomics.net/106/ - not Google-specific at all, but an instant classic of the industry.

Re: Google Internal Comics

#50

Post by shadowgovt »

bla3 wrote: post #12

Dude was done with Google at around comic 280 and didn't notice for almost 100 more comics.

That's right around the time the sexual misconduct allegations at Google became public (well, the second set regarding Andy Ruben... The ones regarding Vivek Gundotra's behavior came out in 2015).

It was a tough pill to swallow for quite a few Googlers that the higher-ups knew about Ruben's behavior and golden-parachuted him instead of cutting him loose (especially because the story broke on the heels of the Damore memo fallout). Questions at All Hands became a lot more pointed, leadership responded by becoming significantly less welcoming to open discussion... It got ugly. Or, if you will, "normal corporate-y."

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