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An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google

bradfitz.com

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Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google

#31

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

nostrademons wrote: post #25
xyst wrote: post #8

It’s amazing how this is the first time I have heard his name. Great people basically disappear under the Google name.

It's interesting how fleeting software fame is. Perhaps that's just a special case of how fleeting fame is. Folks who came of age in the early 2000s certainly remember him - he founded LiveJournal; wrote memcached, MogileFS, Gearman, and a bunch of other prominent software packages; authored the first version of the OpenID spec (which eventually became OAuth, which you see all over the web); and was one of the early…

> Don't hear about them much these days

I hear about Brad every single day because I follow him on Twitter. It's just a question about where you consume your information from.

Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google

#32

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

bradfitz wrote: post #15
xyst wrote: post #8

It’s amazing how this is the first time I have heard his name. Great people basically disappear under the Google name.

Brad here. I wrote about this when I first joined Google, having noticed the same prior to joining: https://brad.livejournal.com/2409049.html That was my big fear of joining Google, being sucked into the black hole. (Ignore the later part of the post about the App Engine app that I couldn't keep running because App Engine kept breaking me all the time.)

I'm really curious though where you end up now :)

Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google

#33

Post by biomcgary »

tribby wrote: post #17

bradfitz’s career is inspirational because he has succeeded in prioritizing curiosity. never would have guessed a perl guy who wrote memcached to solve livejournal problems would move on to go - only to walk away for something more interesting. can’t wait to see what comes next.

I've followed Brad Fitz over the years because I also started in Perl and ended up in Go. His intellectual curiosity and interest in doing cool things well shines through. He is a great example of the leader-by-example category.

Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google

#34

Post by bradfitz »

NhanH wrote: post #26

To Brad: What is your plan with regard to perkeep? My understanding is that it is your 20% project, and seems like you are one of the main force keeping it alive. Just asking since I have multiple servers running it right now, and will need to migrate if it is going to be abandoned.

See:

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/perkeep/Kqvh2dJVmoo/9N4YXAuX...

I no longer pay Mathieu to work on it full time, and my time is tempered by 2.5 and 0.5 year old kids.

I still use it, but don't have time to add to it much. Others work on it a bit. Mathieu and I did work on https://github.com/perkeep/gphotos-cdp just recently, to fix the Google Photos importer. So it's still moving a bit. Others still work on it too.

I'll pick up my involvement again as kids get a bit older. (One is almost potty trained and starting preschool soon! :))

We have no plans to abandon it.

Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google

#35

Post by eterm »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #3

To me, the most surprising thing about this post was a) his low number of managers, and b) his low number of desk changes. In under half that time at another, comparable tech company I hit well over half his number of desk changes.

Have I misunderstood what a desk is? 25 desk changes in 10 years is low?

Moving desk at least twice a year is low?

Where do you work so I never try to apply?

Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google

#37

Post by zellyn »

bradfitz wrote: post #15
xyst wrote: post #8

It’s amazing how this is the first time I have heard his name. Great people basically disappear under the Google name.

Brad here. I wrote about this when I first joined Google, having noticed the same prior to joining: https://brad.livejournal.com/2409049.html That was my big fear of joining Google, being sucked into the black hole. (Ignore the later part of the post about the App Engine app that I couldn't keep running because App Engine kept breaking me all the time.)

I mean, that Smoke Detector thing was pretty notable… although to be fair, I was inside Google at the time :-)

Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google

#39

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

eterm wrote: post #35
disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #3

To me, the most surprising thing about this post was a) his low number of managers, and b) his low number of desk changes. In under half that time at another, comparable tech company I hit well over half his number of desk changes.

Have I misunderstood what a desk is? 25 desk changes in 10 years is low? Moving desk at least twice a year is low? Where do you work so I never try to apply?

In general, in "high-growth" companies you tend to move desk a lot. I was part of a very small team (2 people for most of it), so I got moved a lot.
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