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Kevin Rose Will Join Google

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Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#171

Post by temphn »

PhrosTT wrote: post #82
samstave wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He had an idea and spent years working on it, iterating and improving until Digg finally hit the big time. I think he deserves credit for that. I don't think anyone has argued against this. He does deserve credit for this. The problem is that he has been given too much credit. I.E. that there were far more ideas of the same caliber. I am sure this must have been tough on him, to fail at producing again like the ear…

My main problem with Digg is it blew up largely because Rose got to shamelessly plug it on ScreenSavers. A LOT of ideas can succeed when you get to skip the whole network effect hurdle. I think he has some insightful thoughts once in a while (like predictions he makes on Diggnation), and he did a great job parlaying Digg into Rev3. I'm also pretty jealous he'll get a paycheck to say "Hey this feature would be cool" o…

But he got to plug it on ScreenSavers because he worked his way up from being the IT guy on the show to cameo appearances onscreen to actually having his own show. Major props on the hustle there.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#172

Post by seanp2k2 »

untog wrote: post #95
mikeryan wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He had an idea and spent years working on it, iterating and improving until Digg finally hit the big time Um he had an idea, paid someone to build it (ojbyrne on HN). Promoted it on air in his role at TechTV and had it take off. Its not like he toiled in his basement for years slaving over it. (Though he did seem to spend a lot of time on it once it became his day job, I don't want to discredit that) You can also say…

Um he had an idea, paid someone to build it (ojbyrne on HN). Promoted it on air in his role at TechTV and had it take off. Right, so he made it a success. I just find it disheartening sometimes that developers (and I am one) seem to think that good code is all that matters. It isn't. You can have the most functional, highly-tuned web site in the world and have no-one use it. Even if Kevin Rose is nothing but a giant…

>"Even if Kevin Rose is nothing but a giant hype machine then he deserves credit for being a giant hype machine. Digg would have failed if he wasn't."

Right, but what's he going to do for Google? Make me want to use that +1 button?

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#173

Post by ootachi »

beatle wrote: post #103
untog wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um he had an idea, paid someone to build it (ojbyrne on HN). Promoted it on air in his role at TechTV and had it take off. Right, so he made it a success. I just find it disheartening sometimes that developers (and I am one) seem to think that good code is all that matters. It isn't. You can have the most functional, highly-tuned web site in the world and have no-one use it. Even if Kevin Rose is nothing but a giant…

developers are a dime a dozen. I can hire ten people from India or China who are better than you (xpose2000). most developers hate successful people who don't have technical skills (Steve Jobs, MBAs, managers, non-technical founders, etc.) because they make the developers look a lot less important.

Developers are unimportant. I'd rather hire bad developers than good ones as long as they're cheap; product quality rarely matters if you have the right market fit.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#174

Post by untog »

beatle wrote: post #129
untog wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like your post is getting a mixed reaction. I think you're both right and wrong. You can outsource to a lot of cheap, technically talented developers (you can also very easily end up with awful developers, though). But they won't think on their feet or be able to make independent decisions- they are contractors, and they will make exactly what you tell them to. If you're technically minded yourself that might b…

ideas + execution. both are needed. execution is not limited to personal skills. if the "ideas guy" doesn't have the skills to implement his ideas, he can hire/partner with someone who can.

* if the "ideas guy" doesn't have the skills to implement his ideas, he can hire/partner with someone who can.*

Right. A developer.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#175

Post by [deleted] »

ootachi wrote: post #170
jayliew wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To quote pg: "A hacker who has learned what to make, and not just how to make, is extraordinarily powerful." As a developer, it is frustrating to see fellow developers place too much importance on being able to code as a necessary ingredient for startup success. As a hacker, I'd say that most hackers know how to make, but don't know what to make. That is to say, most startups from these type of hackers with the "if I…

In fact, I'd say you should do more. Stop being a programmer. It's hard to get a job as a developer these days, and it'll all be outsourced to India and China soon anyway. Instead, you should go into sales and marketing.

[deleted]

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#176

Post by untog »

ootachi wrote: post #170
jayliew wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To quote pg: "A hacker who has learned what to make, and not just how to make, is extraordinarily powerful." As a developer, it is frustrating to see fellow developers place too much importance on being able to code as a necessary ingredient for startup success. As a hacker, I'd say that most hackers know how to make, but don't know what to make. That is to say, most startups from these type of hackers with the "if I…

In fact, I'd say you should do more. Stop being a programmer. It's hard to get a job as a developer these days, and it'll all be outsourced to India and China soon anyway. Instead, you should go into sales and marketing.

* It's hard to get a job as a developer these days*

...uh, where exactly? Everywhere I know of is crying out for developers. The case for outsourcing is hugely overstated- having your entire development team half the world and a seven hour time difference away is a very real issue.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#177

Post by temphn »

xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

Kevin Rose worked his way up from being a behind the scenes IT guy to doing cameos to running the Screen Savers to founding Digg[1]. Is he a coder? No, but he's at least technical enough to find and recruit pretty good engineering talent. Moreover, he's also had strong angel investments and shown an ability to do it again with Oink (a solid product with good reviews on the App Store).

  As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more 
  often than not their ideas suck.
But Digg obviously did not suck as an idea. It did not achieve world domination, but it was pretty damn popular as a site for a while and the category (as exemplified by Reddit and even the Like Button) is still strong.

There are people out there to hate on, but Kevin Rose is not one of them. He would be a great product manager at Google.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Rose

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#178

Post by ootachi »

untog wrote: post #176
ootachi wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact, I'd say you should do more. Stop being a programmer. It's hard to get a job as a developer these days, and it'll all be outsourced to India and China soon anyway. Instead, you should go into sales and marketing.

* It's hard to get a job as a developer these days* ...uh, where exactly? Everywhere I know of is crying out for developers. The case for outsourcing is hugely overstated- having your entire development team half the world and a seven hour time difference away is a very real issue.

In the Bay Area.

Everyone claims to be crying out for developers, but they reject all the candidates they're presented with, so in practice it's hard to get a job as a developer.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#179

Post by samwise »

xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

let's give credit where credit is due.

Kevin is an successful angel investor and an influencer in the techs space. Not to mention that every company that he has worked with have nothing but good things to say about him.

Google currently employees more than 20,000 people. I'm sure at this point they have plenty of engineers. A couple guys with some sense of design will not hurt the bottom line but have huge potential to add some much needed polish to Google's social initiatives.

/2 cents

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#180

Post by lrobb »

jayliew wrote: post #163
xpose2000 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you: "Just because you can't code, doesn't mean you can't build a business - and vice versa - just because you can code, doesn't mean you can build a business." I have worked for start-ups where people told me what to do, and also have my own bootstrapped start-up. I prefer the later. I think it is important to be well rounded in abilities from coding to business development. That way, you can see throug…

This is a hits driven business. How many people do you see with a string of successes and zero failures? Kevin has had a few ventures, with varying degree of "success", which is more than most people can say. Consider the statistically typical case: it's complete failure and lost of time, money, and sweat. If you even break even, you're already way above average. So having even just a series of small wins is a big de…

Wow... A hits driven business?

I had never thought of it like that before, but it makes so much sense and explains so many things...

Like why google is willing to pay 1-2 million per developer... But half of the bay area companies on careers.stackoverflow don't offer relocation.

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