I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left
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Re: I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left
#2Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21935446
Re: I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left
#3Who cares why you left.
Re: I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left
#4Who cares why you left.
he's running for senate in Maine. The blog post is probably a part of his campaign
Re: I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left
#5Google, in my mind, is the quintessential "You Either Die A Hero, Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain" story.
(To be fair, since this all is subjective, I do believe Google 2009 would consider this behavior counter to it's values and the values of the people it attracted.)
The question I have is are there ways to stay true to values (which in some cases might be in direct opposition to growth and profit taking) with the way our society is structured? Has any major company pulled this off? (This reminds me a bit of the Boeing story posted a few days ago where quality lost out to dangerous shortcuts for profit)
Re: I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left
#6Google, in my mind, is the quintessential "You Either Die A Hero, Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain" story. (To be fair, since this all is subjective, I do believe Google 2009 would consider this behavior counter to it's values and the values of the people it attracted.) The question I have is are there ways to stay true to values (which in some cases might be in direct opposition to growth a…
>> are there ways to stay true to values (which in some cases might be in direct opposition to growth and profit taking) with the way our society is structured?
Purism is trying to do exactly this by being Social Purpose Corporation: https://puri.sm/about/social-purpose/. However, I would not call them a "major company" yet.
Re: I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left
#7Google, in my mind, is the quintessential "You Either Die A Hero, Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain" story. (To be fair, since this all is subjective, I do believe Google 2009 would consider this behavior counter to it's values and the values of the people it attracted.) The question I have is are there ways to stay true to values (which in some cases might be in direct opposition to growth a…
It’s much easier to stay true to your values if you don’t take in as much investor money. Google shares are priced with an exception of rapid growth so management has to chase any profit possible. There are a lot privately held companies where the owners don’t demand continuous growth.
Re: I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left
#8>>> Is it in some way related to the corruption that has gripped our federal government? Is this part of the global trend toward “strong man” leaders who are coming to power around the globe, where questions of “right” and “wrong” are ignored in favor of self-interest and self-dealing?
Has the US federal government suddenly become more corrupt? Is he trying to tie this back to Trump?
Re: I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left
#9He left.... because he got fired.
I get that he could have sued to get some type of fake (reduced role) job back, but.... the blog would be better if he didn't make it sound it was 100% his choice.
Re: I Was Google’s Head of International Relations. Here’s Why I Left
#10I don't have firsthand knowledge, but my conjecture is that the old Google probably had a significant % of employees who held the belief "We shouldn't censor for China, even if that makes us lose money". But over a period of years, whatever they selected for in hiring led to enough people joining, who don't give a damn about human rights in China, so the censorship went ahead. The only thing that stopped it was bad press.
People with ethical sense leaving Google makes the balance worse. So the dealings with China will probably resume, at an even greater pace, when the public forgets about the first controversy. (edit: I should say first two controversies, since they stopped censoring in 2010, then tried to resurrect it as Dragonfly in 2018, then stopped again)