Lessons from 14 years at Google

Post by dijit » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 6:28 PM UTC

hansmayer wrote: post #93

Not looking to dismiss the authors long tenure at a major tech company like Google, but the first point kind of stuck like a sore thumb. If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users, I wonder why Google UX always sucked so much and in particularly in the recent years seem to be getting even worse. Every single one of their services is a pain to use, with unnecessary steps, clicks - basically everythi…

Post by mjevans » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 6:29 PM UTC

kyrra wrote: post #47

trescenzi wrote: post #13

> At scale, even your bugs have users. First place I worked right out of college had a big training seminar for new hires. One day we were told the story of how they’d improved load times from around 5min to 30seconds, this improvement was in the mid 90s. The negative responses from clients were instant. The load time improvements had destroyed their company culture. Instead of everyone coming into the office, turnin…

This was well talked about in Hyrums Law, which came from a Googler as well. https://www.hyrumslaw.com/ > With a sufficient number of users of an API, it does not matter what you promise in the contract: all observable behaviors of your system will be depended on by somebody.

Post by jwr » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 6:30 PM UTC

hansmayer wrote: post #93

Not looking to dismiss the authors long tenure at a major tech company like Google, but the first point kind of stuck like a sore thumb. If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users, I wonder why Google UX always sucked so much and in particularly in the recent years seem to be getting even worse. Every single one of their services is a pain to use, with unnecessary steps, clicks - basically everythi…

Post by hansmayer » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 6:31 PM UTC

ignoramous wrote: post #117

hansmayer wrote: post #93

Not looking to dismiss the authors long tenure at a major tech company like Google, but the first point kind of stuck like a sore thumb. If the Google culture was at all obsessed about helping users, I wonder why Google UX always sucked so much and in particularly in the recent years seem to be getting even worse. Every single one of their services is a pain to use, with unnecessary steps, clicks - basically everythi…

> wonder why Google UX always sucked so much and in particularly in the recent years seem to be getting even worse UX? Google doesn't even bother helping folks locked out of their Gmail accounts. For people who use Android (some 3bn), that's like a digital death sentence, with real-world consequences. It is almost comical that anyone would think Google is customer-focused, but might if they were being paid handsomely…

Post by willi59549879 » Sun, Jan 04, 2026, 6:31 PM UTC

doublerabbit wrote: post #78

imiric wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, sure. But at the same time lessons aren't learned by reading what someone else has to say. They're learned by experience, and everyone's is different. An engineer with "14 years at Google" hardly makes them an expert at giving career advice, but they sure like to write like it does. This type of article reads more like a promotion piece from self-involved people, than heartfelt advice from someone knowledgeable.…

Mood. As someone who normally leaves after two years because the opportunity never raises to what was offered in the job spec these really don't for for me these bullet points as well wouldn't work for office culture in the EU. 15 Years worth of jobs and none gel. I'm a contractor now which feels more me. I have a contract length, don't have to deal with red tape political bullshit. Turn up, do work and leave when co…