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Sergey Brin's Unretirement

inc.com

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Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#161

Post by jll29 »

phtrivier wrote: post #144

Considerations of a poor billionaire being bored apart - why is it that we still consider work and retirements as "black or white" things ? It might have made sense for physically exhaustive works, but for anything intellectual, wouldn't "progressive retirement" make much more sense ? As in, starting a certain age, provided you're physically and mentally able, of course, you get to work 80% of your time (in civilized…

Medically speaking, your proposal would perhaps prevent a lot of heart attack deaths. It has been shown that not working is not just unpleasant, it's a strong stressor [1,2].

[1] https://academic.oup.com/geronj/article-abstract/46/1/P9/638...

[2] https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/234818

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#162

Post by alex1138 »

lovich wrote: post #146
dang wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know how frustrating it is to have a contrarian opinion and get smacked with the majority's reaction to it (believe me, I know - it's an asymmetric experience in the worst way) - but lashing out is not a good way to react to that. It only makes things worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

It’s very frustrating for the bot’s reinforcement function. This is another account created after widespread access to LLM was available to the public that is pushing a political view that is somewhat coherent until pressed and then it falls apart like all chat bots Maybe it’s a real person and I’m being an asshole here, but it’s hard to tell. The fact that is hard to tell if they are real or not means we need to com…

[flagged]

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#163

Post by taneq »

mattlondon wrote: post #117

I too would very happily do just the bits of my job that I like, when and how I want, and have any requests or comments or complaints I make get immediate attention and responses. All in the knowledge that no one is going to be time-tracking me or doing performance reviews, and I can just not do work at any moment I don't feel like it or have something better to do that day, like go to my private island or take my pr…

Exactly. If you work in a field that’s close to your interests, there are probably parts of your job that you’d do for fun even if infinitely wealthy. It’s the other stuff, the boring annoying grind, that makes it a job and not a hobby.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#164

Post by taneq »

fragmede wrote: post #107
siliconc0w wrote: post #79

Sergey is brilliant but it's really the lightsaber that is super voting shares that make him uniquely empowered to slash through Google's immense bureaucracy.

I think being the founder of Google gives him more political capital at Google than anything on paper. As a controlling member of the board there's a variety of things he can do with that hammer, but just simply being who he is, not even just on the org chart, has got to be worth way more.

The very fact that he (or anyone in a similar position) holds the hammer is enough to guarantee that he will very seldom have to swing it.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#165

Post by taneq »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #118
fragmede wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think being the founder of Google gives him more political capital at Google than anything on paper. As a controlling member of the board there's a variety of things he can do with that hammer, but just simply being who he is, not even just on the org chart, has got to be worth way more.

this seems an idealistic view, my cynical view is that if King Lear gives up all his legal paper power he will find out nobody cares who the hell he is and take advantage of him without remorse.

In my experience (at a much smaller scale than these guys, of course) the legal papers power is more of a formality. It’s the soft power tied up in knowledge, relationships, trust and goodwill that really count.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#166

Post by kenty »

It is clear that Alphabet is his baby and neither he not Larry ever fully left. He is still in his 50s so maybe just too young to play golf and chill on superyachts all day. While him being a billionaire makes any lesson derived have to have an asterisk him enjoying technical work even after long having won the rat race is a pretty cool role model.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#167

Post by jll29 »

lionkor wrote: post #149

Do you think he can still spend time on his $450 million yacht or is he too busy writing prompts? Snark aside, good for him. Absolute non-news though, as is any extraordinary individual action during and contributing to a bubble. It'll be interesting to see what stays when, or if, the bubble ever pops.

You can very well write that prompt from the top deck or from one of the office cabins on said yacht (no, not speaking from experience).

I'm not envious of anyone's big yacht, but I wouldn't waste my money that way (you can probably rent one for special occasions) - as long as there are still children hungry or without schooling.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#168

Post by aatd86 »

mattlondon wrote: post #117

I too would very happily do just the bits of my job that I like, when and how I want, and have any requests or comments or complaints I make get immediate attention and responses. All in the knowledge that no one is going to be time-tracking me or doing performance reviews, and I can just not do work at any moment I don't feel like it or have something better to do that day, like go to my private island or take my pr…

He was in your spot at some point I've heard. Nothing is impossible.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#170

Post by jacquesm »

elictronic wrote: post #147
leoc wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brin wasn’t bothered to wield any of that power to try to arrest the decline in Google’s search quality. He wasn’t bothered to direct the Chrome team to support MathML, or to bring back Google Reader, or do anything about a hundred small insults like, say, the deletion of YouTube comments with URLs to keep the rubes inside the casino. But he was able and willing to come back and wield his clout because he was bored a…

Everything you are mentioning are user issues. AI search myspacing googles ad business is an investor issue.

User issues have an annoying habit of eventually becoming investor issues so you better deal with them while they are still 'just' user issues.
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