Why I left Google (2012) • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I left Google (2012)

#51

Post by brownbat » Tue, Mar 19, 2013, 3:57 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #13

This is from March of last year , BTW, and has been discussed numerous other times on HN. (Ironically, there have been so many other articles titled "Why I left Google" on HN that I can't actually find this one in the archives. But it's there :)

Eh, I'd give this particular repost a pass.

This bit:

> The Google I was passionate about was a technology company that empowered its employees to innovate. The Google I left was an advertising company with a single corporate-mandated focus.

I'd basically written that off a year ago as unfair, maybe someone with "everything used to be better" bias. Seeing it again in right after the Reader shutdown, it shifted my thinking a bit.

I know this hasn't really snuck up on many other people, there've been other great product deaths, and Google sells a lot of ads, but seeing this again, it just nudged me to consciously reevaluate it all...

Re: Why I left Google (2012)

#52

Post by mikelat » Tue, Mar 19, 2013, 4:00 PM UTC

chollida1 wrote: post #48

qompiler wrote: post #29

I don't like Google. But I don't like Microsoft either. And this guy has evil written all over him. He worked at Microsoft for 3 years prior to joining Google. He is now back working for Microsoft. Blogging on msdn.com. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/james-whittaker/13/878/229

> And this guy has evil written all over him. Can you explain what about him makes him "evil"?

I caught him munching on the bones of ethnic minorities once

Re: Why I left Google (2012)

#53

Post by meerita » Tue, Mar 19, 2013, 4:17 PM UTC

wslh wrote: post #2

Are Google's driverless car just a way to show more ads? Instead of driving a car you could be watching an ad.

And Google Glasses? Chromebook? Nexus? Jesus this guy is plainly wrong.

Re: Why I left Google (2012)

#54

Post by LukeShu » Tue, Mar 19, 2013, 4:18 PM UTC

Hitchhiker wrote: post #25

niggler wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Next time search by url: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jw_on_tech/archive/2012/03/13/why-i-... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3700277 was the previous discussion (910 upvotes, 370 days ago)

ironically, i did not mean for this to go through as I was trying to locate the discussion on it.. obviously the url regex ain't working for this corner-case.

The repost-detector has a bug that causes old posts to not conflict. Some view this as a feature to allow a new discussion after a good period of time.

Re: Why I left Google (2012)

#55

Post by kbouw » Tue, Mar 19, 2013, 4:20 PM UTC

meerita wrote: post #53

wslh wrote: post #2

Are Google's driverless car just a way to show more ads? Instead of driving a car you could be watching an ad.

And Google Glasses? Chromebook? Nexus? Jesus this guy is plainly wrong.

And don't forget to mention Google Shoes :P

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/google-shoes_n_2853...

Re: Why I left Google (2012)

#56

Post by lurker14 » Tue, Mar 19, 2013, 4:21 PM UTC

numbsafari wrote: post #17

niggler wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I look at it as a more public exit interview. I don't doubt that his expressed concerns were part of why he did leave (I also don't doubt that there are other factors)), and by making those concerns public there's a chance that more people may see it and try to rectify the problems.

Yeah, but in the entire history of people quitting and writing "letters to the editor", has any manager ever actually read it and thought anything other than "whatever, dude wasn't on board, glad he left"? Do you really think Sergey Brin or Larry Page or Eric Schmidt are going to read this and think "oh man, we better change what we're doing". Nope. People who are fans of MS are going to read it and say "yeah, see, I…

If they are hearing the same complaints murmured (muted, more anonymized and filtered) inside the company, but saying, "whatevs, they'll stay for the paycheck", and people start walking away from the paycheck and announcing it, it might sink in.

Of course, when leaving Google for Microsoft, it's hard to claim that culture/mission/vision are really the reason for leaving, as opposed to: MSFT offered $X,000, and GOOG managers said "you're not worth that to us"

Re: Why I left Google (2012)

#57

Post by lurker14 » Tue, Mar 19, 2013, 4:22 PM UTC

meerita wrote: post #53

wslh wrote: post #2

Are Google's driverless car just a way to show more ads? Instead of driving a car you could be watching an ad.

And Google Glasses? Chromebook? Nexus? Jesus this guy is plainly wrong.

My Chromebook and Nexus are full of ads.

Re: Why I left Google (2012)

#58

Post by 6cxs2hd6 » Tue, Mar 19, 2013, 4:23 PM UTC

criley wrote: post #30

VLM wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, as per the article, the response would most likely be: "sponsored suggestion to “Buy a restaurants are nearby at Wal-Mart.”"

You know, after using Google Now on my phone, I'm confident that Google can deliver context-sensitive results that make sense. Not always, not for everything, but I bet they could pull it off in a cab just fine. EDIT: I guess it's worth pointing out, however, that Google Now doesn't show ads.

> EDIT: I guess it's worth pointing out, however, that Google Now doesn't show ads.

Not yet.

Re: Why I left Google (2012)

#59

Post by lurker14 » Tue, Mar 19, 2013, 4:23 PM UTC

criley wrote: post #30

VLM wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, as per the article, the response would most likely be: "sponsored suggestion to “Buy a restaurants are nearby at Wal-Mart.”"

You know, after using Google Now on my phone, I'm confident that Google can deliver context-sensitive results that make sense. Not always, not for everything, but I bet they could pull it off in a cab just fine. EDIT: I guess it's worth pointing out, however, that Google Now doesn't show ads.

Google Now shows unsolicited restaurant recommendations. They might not be paid (I don't know), but they are certainly ads.

Re: Why I left Google (2012)

#60

Post by jere » Tue, Mar 19, 2013, 4:31 PM UTC

aviraldg wrote: post #21

I lost all interest in reading the article after looking at the msdn.com domain. EDIT: Downvoters, I don't see how this is wrong. Microsoft has a long history of spreading FUD about competitors (Florian Mueller/FOSSPatents, http://www.scroogled.com/ [when their own practices are very much the same], sponsoring fake studies that show that the TCO of Linux is much greater than that of Windows, and so on.) I certainly w…

The article is all about the difference between the innovation being created by low level employees and the stupid decisions by top level management who want to shut it all down. The author is among the former and even says he doesn't like ads, so I think your proposition that he is a Microsoft shill working in an elaborate anti-Google marketing campaign is misguided.

There's not much excuse for not reading things and then complaining about them.