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Eric Schmidt Says Google Is Falling Behind on AI–and Remote Work Is Why

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Re: Eric Schmidt Says Google Is Falling Behind on AI–and Remote Work Is Why

#41

Post by JumpCrisscross »

nemothekid wrote: post #22

This seems extremely self-serving on behalf of Schmidt in order to avoid any serious self-reflection of what seems to be going on at Google. I've never looked a at a Google product and thought "this sloppy product is the result of people who were more concerned about going home". I don't really care about the remote work argument, but this fight is the rug that covers the real problem. Google products are _the_ defin…

> amazing quagmires built by geniuses

You’re describing Google 10 years ago.

My recent visits to its campuses have left me unimpressed. There are plenty of geniuses. But there are also many morons, and the mix is maybe a degree or two away from median corporate America.

Re: Eric Schmidt Says Google Is Falling Behind on AI–and Remote Work Is Why

#42

Post by anonymoushn »

Prior to the pandemic, my roommate who works at Google would generally be at home playing FFXIV most of the day for like 2 weekdays per week. It sounded like a good gig. I don't think this outcome has much to do with whether remote work is allowed or not. In some other orgs it might not be possible to convince management that this is fine to do.

Re: Eric Schmidt Says Google Is Falling Behind on AI–and Remote Work Is Why

#43

Post by grecy »

novok wrote: post #34
pluc wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because people being self-disciplined and self-motivated annihilates the management layer. What do you manage when people manage themselves? You can be a project manager or you can be out of a job. They don't like that.

I'm guessing you've never been a software engineering manager, or was one at a crappy place? The more self managing they are, the better! It turns into a coach/mentorship role at that point.

> turns into a coach/mentorship role at that point.

Sure, if the managers have any experience at all doing the actual work. These days that is rare, middle management are all just MBAs who don’t have a clue how to do the work.

Re: Eric Schmidt Says Google Is Falling Behind on AI–and Remote Work Is Why

#44

Post by dogsledsleddog »

nemothekid wrote: post #22

This seems extremely self-serving on behalf of Schmidt in order to avoid any serious self-reflection of what seems to be going on at Google. I've never looked a at a Google product and thought "this sloppy product is the result of people who were more concerned about going home". I don't really care about the remote work argument, but this fight is the rug that covers the real problem. Google products are _the_ defin…

Google invented very little AFA actual products. They invented mind sets to make copying existing things with one questionably clever idea and turning it into the origin story of the world.

Re: Eric Schmidt Says Google Is Falling Behind on AI–and Remote Work Is Why

#45

Post by bachmeier »

blue2u wrote: post #8

The entire video was on youtube and has since been taken private. The media are taking his relatively tame opinion on work ethics and blowing it up into click-bait. His comment wasn't targeting remote work or WFH specifically - but general work ethic of companies. He praised TSMC and Musk - who are notorious for poor treatment of workers. That's all you need to know about this. If WFH or remote work to blame - why is…

Once again Jamie Zawinski's 2011 blog post (which I won't link from HN) nails it:

> He's telling you the story of, "If you bust your ass and don't sleep, you'll get rich" because the only way that people in his line of work get richer is if young, poorly-socialized, naive geniuses believe that story! Without those coat-tails to ride, VCs might have to work for a living. Once that kid burns out, they'll just slot a new one in.

> I did make a bunch of money by winning the Netscape Startup Lottery, it's true. So did most of the early engineers. But the people who made 100x as much as the engineers did? I can tell you for a fact that none of them slept under their desk. If you look at a list of financially successful people from the software industry, I'll bet you get a very different view of what kind of sleep habits and office hours are successful than the one presented here.

> So if your goal is to enrich the Arringtons of the world while maybe, if you win the lottery, scooping some of the groundscore that they overlooked, then by all means, bust your ass while the bankers and speculators cheer you on."

Re: Eric Schmidt Says Google Is Falling Behind on AI–and Remote Work Is Why

#46

Post by mvdtnz »

theropost wrote: post #27
guessmyname wrote: post #10

I work at Apple in the Apple Services Engineering (ASE) organization and am required to go to the office at least three days a week. I don’t see the point, given that the majority of my interactions are with employees located in Cupertino or London. Often, I have to wake up very early or stay in the office after hours to join meetings with people in the London office. As a non-Cupertino Apple employee, I am excluded…

[flagged]

Please don't post ChatGPT output on HN.

Re: Eric Schmidt Says Google Is Falling Behind on AI–and Remote Work Is Why

#47

Post by eltoxo »

novok wrote: post #34
pluc wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because people being self-disciplined and self-motivated annihilates the management layer. What do you manage when people manage themselves? You can be a project manager or you can be out of a job. They don't like that.

I'm guessing you've never been a software engineering manager, or was one at a crappy place? The more self managing they are, the better! It turns into a coach/mentorship role at that point.

I am guessing you have never worked at a giant corporation with 5 levels of useless middle managers that have no purpose if there are no office politics to manage?

Those are the managers that hate work from home. Not managers actually doing productive management.

Re: Eric Schmidt Says Google Is Falling Behind on AI–and Remote Work Is Why

#48

Post by bluGill »

endemic wrote: post #17
blue2u wrote: post #8

The entire video was on youtube and has since been taken private. The media are taking his relatively tame opinion on work ethics and blowing it up into click-bait. His comment wasn't targeting remote work or WFH specifically - but general work ethic of companies. He praised TSMC and Musk - who are notorious for poor treatment of workers. That's all you need to know about this. If WFH or remote work to blame - why is…

I'll put in my 8 hours for sure -- but I'm not going to burn the midnight oil to make my capitalist overlords richer.

I only have about 6 hours of producivity per day in me. The res, better be mindless meetings or such or I go negative value.

Re: Eric Schmidt Says Google Is Falling Behind on AI–and Remote Work Is Why

#49

Post by steveBK123 »

riehwvfbk wrote: post #23
throwaway29812 wrote: post #19

Eric Schmidt works remotely.

And COVID let everyone try working the way VCs always have. Unsurprisingly everyone liked it.

Precisely my observation of the capital vs labor aspect of COVID.

We all got a taste of the flexibility the C-suite has always exercised, and they don't like that. Now that the job market has turned enough they are trying to take it away as hard & fast as possible.

It would take a serious downturn to kill it completely and even then I doubt it. While you don't see a lot of arcade games in offices anymore, they didn't get people back to wearing suits...

As soon as you get into competition for talent, in-office 2~3-day vs 4-day, or hybrid vs full in-office will quickly become a selling point again.

Re: Eric Schmidt Says Google Is Falling Behind on AI–and Remote Work Is Why

#50

Post by jayd16 »

tra3 wrote: post #11

I dont get it. Study after study seems to indicate that remote work is more efficient all around. What is it that makes management so bearish towards remote? When Microsoft "lost the mobile war" everybody was in the office still, no? Is it conceivable that google is behind on AI for reasons other than wfh?

> When Microsoft "lost the mobile war" everybody was in the office still, no?

If WFH magically solved all problems or prevented failure everyone would do it but lets be real...it doesn't. No one is going to be convinced by an argument like this.

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