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Steve's Google Platform rant

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Re: Steve's Google Platform rant

#171

Post by monochromatic »

pitdesi wrote: post #120

It now 404's so I've posted it here: Stevey's Google Platforms Rant I was at Amazon for about six and a half years, and now I've been at Google for that long. One thing that struck me immediately about the two companies -- an impression that has been reinforced almost daily -- is that Amazon does everything wrong, and Google does everything right. Sure, it's a sweeping generalization, but a surprisingly accurate one.…

I haven't read this whole thing yet, but based on length, I am willing to assume it's a faithful reproduction of something Steve Yegge wrote.

Re: Steve's Google Platform rant

#172

Post by nextparadigms »

This post reminds of me of why I couldn't believe Google would launch Honeycomb with almost no apps optimized for it, when Microsoft managed to have 2000 apps at the launch of WP7.

Also, why they didn't try to bring the content owners on board for Google TV, and why I think they will be missing a huge opportunity to turn Google TV into a "console platform" . But I feared they won't "get" this, and this post is setting my expectations even lower for that.

I knew Google didn't have much experience with an OS, compared to Microsoft or Apple, and I think they are learning, but they need to learn much faster, and they really need to put some "design thinking" into everything they do, from the ground up. They are starting to learn about good design/polish on the surface, but it really needs to happen at the core of the product from day one.

Re: Steve's Google Platform rant

#173

Post by pitdesi »

pitdesi wrote: post #120

It now 404's so I've posted it here: Stevey's Google Platforms Rant I was at Amazon for about six and a half years, and now I've been at Google for that long. One thing that struck me immediately about the two companies -- an impression that has been reinforced almost daily -- is that Amazon does everything wrong, and Google does everything right. Sure, it's a sweeping generalization, but a surprisingly accurate one.…

For all those who are criticizing this public posting, first note that it is publicly available in several dozen other locations, including some tech rags. More importantly, STEVE HIMSELF SAID IT'S OK TO REPOST - https://plus.google.com/112678702228711889851/posts/eVeouesv...

Part of me feels that this is actually written to the general public, and the whole public/private thing is a cover up.

Re: Steve's Google Platform rant

#174

Post by 0x12 »

jsnell wrote: post #166
0x12 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve is a smart guy, and I'm pretty sure he realizes that copies have been made and will be available forever and then a bit longer still. The bit that I don't get: Even if Steve's release was accidental, if you write something like this even when it is for internal use only, you can still count on it being reposted in a public place. 'All of google' is a large number of people, all it takes is one copy and the geni…

There must have been thousands or tens of thousands Google-internal blog posts, Buzzes, emails and now Plus updates about people's perception of what's horribly wrong with some aspect of Google. AFAIK none of those leaked widely. Why would this be different?

Because Steve is very visible. Random googler 'x' giving his opinion is one thing, a guy with the stature of Steve Yegge doing the same is quite another.

Especially one where he pretty much writes that Google's #1 is not 'Steve Jobs'.

Really, I think that no matter what that this would have found its way to the general public somehow. That said, I think it's great that he speaks his mind like this, even if it is intended for an internal audience only.

Re: Steve's Google Platform rant

#175

Post by tuhin »

phillmv wrote: post #143
peterb wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing about "A players hire A players and B players hire C players" is that every company I have worked at that uses that mantra is full of B & C players from the top down.

What I don't get about that rule is what prevents A players from hiring B and C players, and what prevents B players from hiring A players. I'm more than capable of recognizing someone who is smarter than I am, and as a rule of thumb I prefer to work with people who are smarter than I am.

what prevents A players from hiring B and C players They know it will not end up good for anybody. Also they understand hiring another A player or if possible an A++ player is good for overall health of the company.

prevents B players from hiring A players Ego and in a big corporation, the fear of the hire going ahead of you.

Also another deadly combination is the B player who hires another A player thinking they themselves are A+ player and spoils the fun for everybody.

Re: Steve's Google Platform rant

#176

Post by cbs »

Jun8 wrote: post #161

Isn't this the second highly public data point (that I know of) of him slashing and burning G+ and Google and then backtracking and saying how Google is the best place to work for (the previous one: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2811818 ). That one, he claimed, was a misunderstanding, this one is a late night permissions error. I am sorry but for someone of his caliber these sound like made up excuses. I think…

>Isn't this the second highly public data point (that I know of) of him slashing and burning G+ and Google and then backtracking and saying how Google is the best place to work for

No its not, because thats not what happened this time. He is pretty clear that he likes google and but sees some flaws. Did you even read the post? Hes not backtracking, he was just being critical about something to an audience he thought would be able to understand him. I could trash aspects of the product I work on to my coworkers too, that doesn't mean I don't think that it isn't overall good.

Re: Steve's Google Platform rant

#177

Post by toyg »

ajtaylor wrote: post #66
jrockway wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interviewed at Amazon and got an offer recently, but I have to admit, it did kind of sound like this kind of job. I really liked the offer stage, where I asked for 4 weeks vacation (what I have now) instead of their standard 2 weeks. "That's not negotiable! It wouldn't be fair if you got better benefits just because you're better at negotiating than others on your team!" True. Offer rejected.

Europe and Australia have forever ruined me with their standard 4 weeks of vacation time. I can't fathom ever going back to anything less.

At Oracle UK I used to get up to 42 days, of which 10 could roll over to the following year. We were periodically overworked and under-compensated anyway (which is why I left). Our US colleagues hated were really envious.

Re: Steve's Google Platform rant

#178

Post by hollerith »

bambax wrote: post #12

What he says about Chrome doesn't seem to be really true? > And so we wind up with a browser that doesn't let you set the default font size You can set the default font size and zoom size in Chrome (chrome://settings/advanced then "Web Content"). But more to the point, although it's obvious Google Search is trying very hard NOT to be a platform, it would seem Chrome is already a platform. No other browser in history…

>You can set the default font size and zoom size in Chrome (chrome://settings/advanced then "Web Content").

Increasing the default font size makes some text a lot bigger while other text stays small. On Mailman archives, for example, the body of an email ends up smaller than all the other text on the page (maybe because the body is in a fixed-width font).

Specifically, if you set the default font size to "Very large", the text in the body ends up less than half the size of the other text.

On hacker news, the "reply" links, which are (rightfully IMHO) smaller than normal text, become much larger than normal text.

The other way to increase text size in Chrome, the Zoom In command in the View menu, is not useful to me either: when I use the Zoom In command to get the text size to where I want it, the text usually runs past the right end of the window, with the result that I have to scroll horizontally back and forth for every line of text I want to read.

On some pages, this problem occurs when I use the Zoom In command only twice (repeated uses continue to increase the text size) and the text is still pretty small after two uses of the Zoom In command.

I have not been able to find any usable way to have the text as big as I want it in Chrome.

Re: Steve's Google Platform rant

#179

Post by kabdib »

nirvana wrote: post #7

I worked at Amazon from before Steve left to sometime later. I remember being excited when Larry Tessler was hired, and dismayed at the way he was treated. Everything Steve says about Amazon is true, only, it was much worse. Amazon was, by far, the worst employment experience I've ever had. I'm not saying that lightly, I worked for a dozen startups, a couple of which crashed hard in the most gut wrenchingly painful w…

HR is not there for you. HR is there for the company.

Never forget that.

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