I don't understand the desire to do vague announcements. Why bother announcing at all until you have something more concrete? What does "time to get to work" even mean here? Doing what?
nice pun!
Google Launches Sidewalk Labs
41–50 of 188 posts
Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why should the government be doing it?
There's no reason the government actually needs to build the infrastructure itself—but since infrastructure is a natural monopoly (only room for one set of roads, one EM spectrum, etc) the government needs to "regulate it into existence", setting laws to incentivize cooperative building of neutrally-owned infrastructure by interested players, rather than the natural monopoly leading to a real monopoly/oligopoly.
The notion of natural monopoly, while superficially plausible, is an ahistorical ex post rationale for government intervention.[1]
Any day now some guy or gal will visit my home to hook up my Google Fiber. How can that be if if Time Warner Cable has a natural monopoly? Oops, I should say that TWC, AT&T, DIRECTV and Dish have an oligopoly. Before you protest that I lump guys who launch satellites together with guys who hang wire on poles, remember in a dynamic world supposed natural monopolies are not safe from substitutes.
Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
That also has been my experience. I've moved three times in five years and every time it's been because I heard about what a team was doing and wanted to join them.
Is switching really that easy? I'm a new hire, and I've been given the choice of working on one of two teams, neither of which particularly align with my interests.
I suspect you won't hear as much from the ones that had a hard time switching:
Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no reason the government actually needs to build the infrastructure itself—but since infrastructure is a natural monopoly (only room for one set of roads, one EM spectrum, etc) the government needs to "regulate it into existence", setting laws to incentivize cooperative building of neutrally-owned infrastructure by interested players, rather than the natural monopoly leading to a real monopoly/oligopoly.
The notion of natural monopoly, while superficially plausible, is an ahistorical ex post rationale for government intervention.[1] Any day now some guy or gal will visit my home to hook up my Google Fiber. How can that be if if Time Warner Cable has a natural monopoly? Oops, I should say that TWC, AT&T, DIRECTV and Dish have an oligopoly. Before you protest that I lump guys who launch satellites together with guys wh…
But you're comparing apples and oranges. Are you seriously suggesting that we could duplicate or triplicate all the roads in the country to allow competition between private road companies?
(and your example is a bad one - here in my area of NYC, Time Warner absolutely does have a monopoly, I have no other providers to choose from. So it makes sens that someone regulates them.)
Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know where you are getting this from - do you have any personal experience to draw from? It doesn't match my experience. In almost seven years at Google I've worked on amazingly interesting projects - from hardware to user-facing products. I've never once, in my entire time, had any level of management tell me that I should be worrying about selling ads or monetizing my projects. The consistent message has be…
I have the personal experience! I'm a new hire, and I got assigned to somewhere that doesn't align with my interests, at all... other than the fact that it's "not front end." Hoping switching is as easy as everyone says!
Former Googler here: After an epic blind allocation fail, my attempt to switch to a project that made use of my talents enraged my manager and he reported me to HR. I left for greener pastures shortly thereafter and HR has apparently banned me from ever returning now that there is relevant work for me.
Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
That also has been my experience. I've moved three times in five years and every time it's been because I heard about what a team was doing and wanted to join them.
Is switching really that easy? I'm a new hire, and I've been given the choice of working on one of two teams, neither of which particularly align with my interests.
Pick the team with the lowest attrition rate. The team to which I was assigned was losing someone every month and I was allocated as cannon fodder to stop the bleeding. It didn't end well.
Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
The notion of natural monopoly, while superficially plausible, is an ahistorical ex post rationale for government intervention.[1] Any day now some guy or gal will visit my home to hook up my Google Fiber. How can that be if if Time Warner Cable has a natural monopoly? Oops, I should say that TWC, AT&T, DIRECTV and Dish have an oligopoly. Before you protest that I lump guys who launch satellites together with guys wh…
But you're comparing apples and oranges. Are you seriously suggesting that we could duplicate or triplicate all the roads in the country to allow competition between private road companies? (and your example is a bad one - here in my area of NYC, Time Warner absolutely does have a monopoly, I have no other providers to choose from. So it makes sens that someone regulates them.)
But the reason that Time Warner has a monopoly because the city granted them a monopoly--not because of technology. Plus, politics and regulation make it difficult for new entry into their market.
Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs
#48So they targeting companies like Siemens now? They do not make public transportation systems, they do not make energy systems, they do not build houses. http://w3.siemens.com/topics/global/en/intelligent-infrastru... http://w1.siemens.com.cn/sustainable-city-en/sustainable-cit...
I think there's more than enough room in the market of making better cities for every company to thrive.
Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs
#49At what point is Google going to officially become a consulting company? Right now, they seem to be playing arbitrage with engineering talent. They buy up engineers with large salaries and fancy perks. Those people, who now span almost every industry, are then used on projects like these. This has nothing to do with Google's core business or any branch of it at all. It seems like Google is designing all sorts of prod…
That depends how you define Google's core competencies. Some of their main core competencies(where they lead the world probably) are AI/machine-learning and high-speed software development. Those skills are now the core of every business("software is eating the world"), so Google has lots of options. Another core competency is long-time investment in high-risk projects - which basically nobody does.
Also one criteria of choosing projects for X - is projects in areas where there's little competition. Once you start from that point, maybe the analysis framework of "core competencies" is less useful.
Re: Google Launches Sidewalk Labs
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
But you're comparing apples and oranges. Are you seriously suggesting that we could duplicate or triplicate all the roads in the country to allow competition between private road companies? (and your example is a bad one - here in my area of NYC, Time Warner absolutely does have a monopoly, I have no other providers to choose from. So it makes sens that someone regulates them.)
But the reason that Time Warner has a monopoly because the city granted them a monopoly--not because of technology. Plus, politics and regulation make it difficult for new entry into their market.
But the reason that Time Warner has a monopoly because the city granted them a monopoly
That isn't the case. Verizon have rolled out FIOS to areas in the city, but have decided to stop doing so.