Paul Buchheit on Joining Google, How to Become a Great Engineer, and Happiness

Post by shanghaiaway » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 4:32 AM UTC

rococode wrote: post #8

mehrdada wrote: post #2

> Overall, the job wasn't exciting to me. I didn't have to work that hard, and one day I had this realization while sitting in my gray cubicle (I was in a sea of gray cubicles surrounded by gray walls, listening to white noise and all alone): I'm like, “Man I am so tired. I need to go home and take a nap.” I went home, but as soon as I got there I realized, “I'm not tired anymore.” Working at Intel was a draining env…

I was at a talk last week given by a startup founder and he said something similar that went along these lines: The bigger the company, the smaller your role's coverage. You get well-compensated and aren't worked too hard, but your job might effectively be "you're responsible for these two screens of this one component of this particular application". The conflict is that the bigger the company, the higher the bar fo…

Post by ilovecaching » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 4:36 AM UTC

rococode wrote: post #8

mehrdada wrote: post #2

> Overall, the job wasn't exciting to me. I didn't have to work that hard, and one day I had this realization while sitting in my gray cubicle (I was in a sea of gray cubicles surrounded by gray walls, listening to white noise and all alone): I'm like, “Man I am so tired. I need to go home and take a nap.” I went home, but as soon as I got there I realized, “I'm not tired anymore.” Working at Intel was a draining env…

I was at a talk last week given by a startup founder and he said something similar that went along these lines: The bigger the company, the smaller your role's coverage. You get well-compensated and aren't worked too hard, but your job might effectively be "you're responsible for these two screens of this one component of this particular application". The conflict is that the bigger the company, the higher the bar fo…

Post by toomuchtodo » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 4:39 AM UTC

mehrdada wrote: post #12

sjf wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, me too. But Google has more in common with Intel now than when it had 23 employees.

True. I have a new catchphrase that I use: Google does everything at scale. They waste talent at scale.

Post by ilovecaching » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 4:49 AM UTC

vadym909 wrote: post #9

mehrdada wrote: post #2

> Overall, the job wasn't exciting to me. I didn't have to work that hard, and one day I had this realization while sitting in my gray cubicle (I was in a sea of gray cubicles surrounded by gray walls, listening to white noise and all alone): I'm like, “Man I am so tired. I need to go home and take a nap.” I went home, but as soon as I got there I realized, “I'm not tired anymore.” Working at Intel was a draining env…

So, who's the new 'Google' now?

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 4:58 AM UTC

sanxiyn wrote: post #18

toomuchtodo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it’s such an utter shame with their resources; they could be the next Bell Labs or Xerox PARC.

That's like saying Microsoft could be the next Bell Labs. In reality, Microsoft is the next Bell, and Microsoft Research IS the next Bell Labs.