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

Google just gave Sundar Pichai a $692M pay package

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 192 posts

Re: Google just gave Sundar Pichai a $692M pay package

#11

Post by rybosworld »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #9
crop_rotation wrote: post #4

Pichai has been a very poor CEO but Google's position was so strong that it is still doing fine. I am sure he is in the founder's good graces so as long as the company's stock takes a big dive he is gonna stay at the helm and keep raking in the big bucks.

> Pichai has been a very poor CEO Why do you say this? I’m not familiar with him, and really haven’t paid much attention to Google’s strategy beyond cultural awareness, but I think Google has done well with staying competitive in AI, is dominating the self driving battle with Waymo, and has mostly kept its good brand intact (no small feat when you are so big). Are there some big mis-steps I don’t know about?

Sundar was at the helm when the decision to worsen search results for the sake of ad revenue was made.

Previously, the two concerns were "firewalled" so as to prevent the money-generating side of the company from eroding the user experience.

This is a theme that's been at the core of every Titan of Industry's decline. That is: chasing of short-term results with disregard for the long term consequences. Alphabet is just so big and dominate in search that it will likely take quite a long time for the negative effects to appear. And they have other large businesses that haven't been as aggressively enshitified (Youtube, GCP).

See Intel, Boeing, GE etc.

Re: Google just gave Sundar Pichai a $692M pay package

#13

Post by dwa3592 »

crop_rotation wrote: post #4

Pichai has been a very poor CEO but Google's position was so strong that it is still doing fine. I am sure he is in the founder's good graces so as long as the company's stock takes a big dive he is gonna stay at the helm and keep raking in the big bucks.

>> Pichai has been a very poor CEO and then immediately follows with "but Google's position was so strong".

Isn't it a CEO's job to make sure the company's position is strong among other responsibilities?

Re: Google just gave Sundar Pichai a $692M pay package

#15

Post by ambicapter »

varispeed wrote: post #2

Regular IT workers should be grateful they earn substantially more than a teacher or a nurse /s. The fact that labour cost is disconnected from the value it generates is probably one of the greatest scams pulled on working class. 99% of his pay packet should be redistributed among workers.

> The fact that labour cost is disconnected from the value it generates

It's not disconnected from its value in the market, I don't think. I think the great scam is telling people that capitalist values are in any way attached to human values.

Re: Google just gave Sundar Pichai a $692M pay package

#17

Post by smt88 »

crop_rotation wrote: post #4

Pichai has been a very poor CEO but Google's position was so strong that it is still doing fine. I am sure he is in the founder's good graces so as long as the company's stock takes a big dive he is gonna stay at the helm and keep raking in the big bucks.

Pichai is being evaluated for his effect on stock price. His shareholders don't care if every product and service they offer has gotten worse for users in the meantime.

Gemini keeping pace with Claude and ChatGPT is clearly some kind of management victory, because Zuckerberg and Musk don't seem to be able to do it despite having limitless cash to spend.

Re: Google just gave Sundar Pichai a $692M pay package

#18

Post by smt88 »

laborcontract wrote: post #10

Can we please, please move past this generation of bean-counter CEOs. Google and Apple have done great things under Pichai and Cook, and yet I couldn't been less excited for what either is doing. Bring back experimental culture.

Gemini, Waymo, and Wing are very experimental

Re: Google just gave Sundar Pichai a $692M pay package

#19

Post by darepublic »

laborcontract wrote: post #10

Can we please, please move past this generation of bean-counter CEOs. Google and Apple have done great things under Pichai and Cook, and yet I couldn't been less excited for what either is doing. Bring back experimental culture.

Look to smaller more focused companies for that

Re: Google just gave Sundar Pichai a $692M pay package

#20

Post by turzmo »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #9
crop_rotation wrote: post #4

Pichai has been a very poor CEO but Google's position was so strong that it is still doing fine. I am sure he is in the founder's good graces so as long as the company's stock takes a big dive he is gonna stay at the helm and keep raking in the big bucks.

> Pichai has been a very poor CEO Why do you say this? I’m not familiar with him, and really haven’t paid much attention to Google’s strategy beyond cultural awareness, but I think Google has done well with staying competitive in AI, is dominating the self driving battle with Waymo, and has mostly kept its good brand intact (no small feat when you are so big). Are there some big mis-steps I don’t know about?

I would argue that Google has had declining quality in search results, bordering on completely unusable in the past few years, and that has resulted in people using LLMs for things that they would have searched for years ago. Although they are competitive in AI, I think it is surprising that their product continues to frustrate people and that they are a distant second place.
Post reply on HN