very well written.
The Story Of Larry Page's Comeback
21–30 of 132 posts
Re: The Story Of Larry Page's Comeback
#22That was one of the best articles I've ever read, with regards to new information and excellent story telling.
Wow, i thought it was appalling!
"he expected he’d have to make a choice between becoming an academic and building a company. Choosing the former would mean giving up the opportunity to become the inventor of widely used applications. But building a company would force him to deal with people in a way he didn’t enjoy."
How overly simplistic and descriptive that is. Going academic, would, in it's most 2014'ish, pop-cultaral-way, mean that you probably wouldn't go on to make any cool apps. I mean, yeah, obviously? And how weird it is to have such a big life choice distilled down to the possibility of creating popular apps or not. Such black and white-ification with the intention of creating a conflict heavy narrative, with a healthy dose of current tech mindset splashed onto it.
And that whole "Page is the Jobs of Google" section was entirely grasping at reader-revelations, without actually creating any. It's lazy thinking to compare two iconic tech heads, especially if one of them is Jobs. Another one in the long row of heirs (cook, ive, musk etc etc).
"Forty-one years after those words were published, in 1985, a 12-year-old in Michigan finished reading Tesla's biography and cried.
This was Larry Page."
If you manage to get through the introductory number slalom, it reads like the script for a trailer to a new action flick!
I appreciated the info in the article, but the writing was so sloppy.
Re: The Story Of Larry Page's Comeback
#23Early Googler here. It's funny how often the story of the mass-firing is misreported. This article gets two basic facts wrong: 1) Larry was targeting engineering management, not project management. 2) Nobody was fired. The engineering managers shifted to pure engineering roles (an easy move, since they all had technical backgrounds). On many teams, the managers continued managing, but they did it more discreetly, tak…
I was at Google during the Eric Schmidt years and thought the author captured it pretty well, including:
* A basically coherent, well-run, thriving place to work; except:
* Lots of executive infighting, especially certain execs; and:
* Larry's eccentric, seemingly bored behavior during high-level reviews.
Larry definitely seemed frustrated and out of touch with the rest of the management team. And Eric seemed to see it as his responsibility to try to manage that dynamic while keeping the ship pointed in a safe direction.
Possibly there is a lot more source material about this phase of Google history for the author to draw from.
Re: The Story Of Larry Page's Comeback
#24Early Googler here. It's funny how often the story of the mass-firing is misreported. This article gets two basic facts wrong: 1) Larry was targeting engineering management, not project management. 2) Nobody was fired. The engineering managers shifted to pure engineering roles (an easy move, since they all had technical backgrounds). On many teams, the managers continued managing, but they did it more discreetly, tak…
Humans need their narrative. It doesn't make for good storytelling if a situation is muddled and people's changes of heart are only by a small degree.
Why not just call it what it is: sloppy journalism?
Ignoring the facts to further a pre-determined narrative would more commonly be called a lie.
Re: The Story Of Larry Page's Comeback
#25"With little emotion, speaking in his usual flat, robotic tone[...]As Page talked, he kept his gaze averted, resisting direct eye contact." Journalists have a tendency of portraying figures in tech circles as being on the spectrum, while very often that isn't the case.
Hi! Nicholas here. I'm not a doctor, and I don't diagnose Page in the story with any sort of disorder or condition. I just describe.
Re: The Story Of Larry Page's Comeback
#26There are some truly strange and incongruous turns of phrase in this article - "Google's human resources boss, a serious woman with bangs named Stacey Sullivan", "Finally Rosing, a bald man in glasses, began to speak", "Though he was an appealing presence with above-average height and nearly black hair", etc. It strikes me the author would far rather be writing Mills & Boon novels than articles for Business Insider.
I just deleted the comment about the bangs. Really does read awkwardly.
Re: The Story Of Larry Page's Comeback
#27There are some truly strange and incongruous turns of phrase in this article - "Google's human resources boss, a serious woman with bangs named Stacey Sullivan", "Finally Rosing, a bald man in glasses, began to speak", "Though he was an appealing presence with above-average height and nearly black hair", etc. It strikes me the author would far rather be writing Mills & Boon novels than articles for Business Insider.
I just deleted the comment about the bangs. Really does read awkwardly.
I should clarify that I didn't think the article badly written - just not quite in the style I'm used to from a publication like Business Insider. That said, I probably haven't read many other long-form pieces on there.
Others here clearly enjoyed the writing style very much!
Re: The Story Of Larry Page's Comeback
#2850, 100 years from now, Larry Page (if he's even dead yet) will be remembered as one of the more impactful people in human history.
He won't unless he builds libraries and other public institutions.
You need to build things with your name on it in big letters for people to remember you. Larry has not as of yet done this in a big way at least not given his present net worth.
Re: The Story Of Larry Page's Comeback
#29Are there any articles about Sergey's role in the company ? There have been a few since Larry took over as CEO, and I feel this article greatly downplays Sergey's role.
Re: The Story Of Larry Page's Comeback
#30"With little emotion, speaking in his usual flat, robotic tone[...]As Page talked, he kept his gaze averted, resisting direct eye contact." Journalists have a tendency of portraying figures in tech circles as being on the spectrum, while very often that isn't the case.
Larry has paralysis of part of his voice box, which explains the tone of his voice.