Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I quit Google to work for myself (2018)

mtlynch.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 250 posts

Re: I quit Google to work for myself (2018)

#131

Post by heresie-dabord »

phyzix5761 wrote: post #64

I think you learned the most important lesson of any career: the customer is not your customer. The person/people who control your raise, bonus, and promotion are your real customers. Think about it like this. A customer is the entity that exchanges money for something they value; like a good or service. That's usually your manager. Or in the case of OP the promotion committee. (Many times it's both your manager and…

> the most important lesson of any career: The person/people who control your raise, bonus, and promotion are your real customers.

Such is a "career" in a large hierarchy, where actual acquaintance with people hardly exists and is replaced by "process".

In short, your real customers are not even people anymore, they are a process.

Having enthusiasm for pursuing great ideas that help people is the sweet spot in both career and society.

From the Fine Article:

"Of course my fate should be in the hands of a mysterious committee who’s never met me. They wouldn’t be tainted by any sort of favoritism or politics. They’d see past all that and recognize me for my high-quality code and shrewd engineering decisions."

Re: I quit Google to work for myself (2018)

#132

Post by ratmeadow »

sangnoir wrote: post #110
nostrademons wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an interesting reality check that in 2023, six years into his journey as a bootstrapped founder, Tiny Pilot made $225K in profit on ~$1M on revenue. For 2021 and 2022, it made roughly a $5K profit; the rest was all losses. He quit Google because he couldn't get a promotion presumably from L4 to L5, but $225K is less than what an L4 makes. This might also be a microcosm of why the working class is pissed off in A…

> This might also be a microcosm of why the working class is pissed off in America I know it's topical, but I really don't think the working class on America is pissed because they are struggling to increase their annual income from $350,000 to $500,000 at their Big Tech job. That's an elites-problem; or whatever you choose to call anyone in the top 5% earning bracket.

I don't know about America, but keep in mind that having an income which is a large number doesn't necessarily mean you have tonnes of wealth (in most general sense of the word), due to cost of living. In my country, you could be in the top 5% of earners and still not be automatically set or life or anything like that, because tax and housing is so bloody expensive it's ridiculous. Even on $200k+ you're still stuck at that job for a decade or more to afford a low-to-mid tier house/apartment, unless you have generational wealth. No, you won't be homeless, which is a lot to be thankful for, but you're still pretty locked in to being a wage minion. In my country, I reckon the top 5% earning is more like where the average should be, in order for the average person to have a decent life.

Re: I quit Google to work for myself (2018)

#133

Post by arghnoname »

goalonetwo wrote: post #74
sickblastoise wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dealing with some ex googlers at my current (non tech company) now, Jesus Christ they are culture killers at regular companies.

exactly this. Working with a couple ex-google and ex-facebook. Without failing every meeting we hear at least once "At Google/Facebook we used to ..." for something that is completely not applicable here.

I work at one of the big companies and some people do that even here. People just talk about their experience or other systems that they know. It always feels conservative to me, as often it's said to suggest emulating what some other group or company did to solve an often superficially similar problem, but with entirely different constraints. I think some people with certain kinds of thought patterns just pattern match and try to apply past experience a bit too broadly.

Re: I quit Google to work for myself (2018)

#134

Post by solatic »

The conclusion I took away from this piece is just how heartless it is to depend on a promotion committee. I know Google put them in place because they wanted an Engineering-driven culture where people could do great Engineering work and still be recognized, even if their manager didn't. But it sure doesn't sound like these promotion committees are recognizing great Engineering work, especially when that work falls under difficult-to-quantify cultural improvements.

Life is better when you find counterparts (customers, leaders, etc.) who appreciate what you bring to the table and can demonstrate that appreciation via promotion decisions. Faceless committees relying on packets fundamentally, by design, cannot develop the relationship that allows for genuine appreciation to form. If you're in a company whose leadership doesn't appreciate you, then why are you forcing yourself to stay? Go find somewhere that does appreciate you. If Google doesn't learn that it's simply not possible to avoid the loss of good talent to bad management or process, then that's their loss. Take advantage of the good-enough performance reviews and take your time planning your exit. Life is too short to work in an organization that actively dissuades forming genuine, supportive, professional working relationships with colleagues.

Re: I quit Google to work for myself (2018)

#135

Post by lazide »

manmal wrote: post #125
ljm wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you are describing is contracting, self-employment, consultancy, and those are orthogonal to having a career.

Why are you adding this distinction? Having done both, I can’t say I disagree with GP. Maybe I‘ve overlooked something.

They probably prefer to believe they don’t have to do those things.

Re: I quit Google to work for myself (2018)

#137

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

indigoabstract wrote: post #109
alarge wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, your manager doesn't decide your promotion. The difference between before and now is that before, your manager was expected to make the case for your promotion. Now, the manager is expected not to be an advocate, but to provide their balanced input (ready now, ready soon, not yet ready). The promotion still goes to a promo committee - although now they try to locate it close enough to your org that they have hear…

Will Google turn into a university next? Because this sounds to me a bit like how things work in academia. I think the push there is to publish, but the essence is that, for every decision, committees rule.

I mean, it's always seemed pretty academic to me, due to the founders.

Re: I quit Google to work for myself (2018)

#138

Post by saagarjha »

ratmeadow wrote: post #132
sangnoir wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This might also be a microcosm of why the working class is pissed off in America I know it's topical, but I really don't think the working class on America is pissed because they are struggling to increase their annual income from $350,000 to $500,000 at their Big Tech job. That's an elites-problem; or whatever you choose to call anyone in the top 5% earning bracket.

I don't know about America, but keep in mind that having an income which is a large number doesn't necessarily mean you have tonnes of wealth (in most general sense of the word), due to cost of living. In my country, you could be in the top 5% of earners and still not be automatically set or life or anything like that, because tax and housing is so bloody expensive it's ridiculous. Even on $200k+ you're still stuck a…

That depends on how you live your life. Most of the people who are making even the top 1% of the salaries in the US are probably not set for life. They could be if they quit immediately and moved to Vietnam maybe, but otherwise their cash is probably locked up in a house or spent on things like their car or school for their kids.

Re: I quit Google to work for myself (2018)

#139

Post by saagarjha »

matwood wrote: post #129
teaearlgraycold wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really shouldn't quit Google if your plan is to get rich. You should quit if you don't care too much about money and want more interesting work than being a cog in a lucrative machine.

Yeah. Google or any of the big techs are the lowest risk paths to economic stability and independence. Anyone with the ability to work on one should absolutely take it.

Those who have the ability to take such a path often have other paths available to them that they can take with more risk–because the low risk path is always available to them as a fallback.

Re: I quit Google to work for myself (2018)

#140

Post by LightBug1 »

phyzix5761 wrote: post #64

I think you learned the most important lesson of any career: the customer is not your customer. The person/people who control your raise, bonus, and promotion are your real customers. Think about it like this. A customer is the entity that exchanges money for something they value; like a good or service. That's usually your manager. Or in the case of OP the promotion committee. (Many times it's both your manager and…

Sounds like hell.
Post reply on HN