Reflecting on 18 Years at Google • Hacker News Board

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#421

Post by danielmarkbruce » Wed, Nov 22, 2023, 8:36 PM UTC

antupis wrote: post #373

miohtama wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is called Scumpeter's creative destruction (to be distinguished from other creative destruction) and why large companies may lose the ability to be innovative and compete https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_destruction However. it's hard to see Google's core business dominance, search and ad, to be destroyed very easily. It's also super confusing that no other entity has been able to create a matching service…

5 years ago it was hard to see , now I ampersonally using more chatgpt than Google.

Hard agree. Sold Google stock after realizing I'd more or less replaced Google Search with chatgpt...

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#422

Post by paxys » Wed, Nov 22, 2023, 8:37 PM UTC

bane wrote: post #395

paxys wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are getting "beat badly" only if you read tech blogs and not their financial statements.

Microsoft under Balmer did great financially IIR.

Their stock price was flat for a decade, so no. The company was a wreck financially under Ballmer.

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#423

Post by surgical_fire » Wed, Nov 22, 2023, 8:39 PM UTC

3seashells wrote: post #403

sage76 wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Idk why you are downvoted. It's become a cultural trope to use "I did it for my family" as an excuse to justify absolutely heinous stuff.

To close to home for many? Then again this is what life is about from moralphilosophical view. A body horror show with a "what have I become" at the end? Spoilers not welcome?

This presumes that people with no children are somehow less horrible.

In truth, all humans are equally worthless.

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#424

Post by 3seashells » Wed, Nov 22, 2023, 8:39 PM UTC

starcraft2wol wrote: post #293

3seashells wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's people having families that is the ultimate corrupt or. If worst comes to worst thy values come first on the chopping block.. One of the reasons old people can't look each other in the eye, is that they all have seen what they are willing to do to each other to get junior a good start in life.

This is a very strange comment. Yes people often get territorial about their kids. This is long shot to evil, corruption, or not looking each other in the eye.

Really? What about people not in the in-group, not in your tribe?

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#425

Post by emodendroket » Wed, Nov 22, 2023, 8:39 PM UTC

throwboatyface wrote: post #412

emodendroket wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some companies do something like this with some success, but this was also the theory of the guy who drove Sears into the ground.

The guy who drove Sears into the ground also did the classic private-equity self-dealing to carve off all the valuable bits and saddle the company with debt. Berkshire Hathaway is an example of a company that owns lots of businesses which are mostly independent

I’d theorize it has something to do with whether the separation actually makes sense. Berkshire Hathaway owns separate businesses that have zero to do with each other and may spin off or bring in new ones anytime. Sears had different departments of the same store trying to beggar each other which is counterproductive.

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#426

Post by politelemon » Wed, Nov 22, 2023, 8:40 PM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #273

kens wrote: post #6

That post is a very good description of Google and matches my experience at Google (2004-2016), both the good and bad. There is a lot of cynicism and misunderstanding of Google on HN, so hopefully this post will help. (Note: you need to scroll down a bit on the page to get the post.)

> There is a lot of cynicism and misunderstanding of Google on HN Is there, though? I mean, yes, I am very cynical about Google (and never worked there, so I have no insider information), but this article lines up very well with my assumptions about the company and what happened there over time. (Of course I can't speak for all HNers...)

Having spent a vast amount of time reading comments, there certainly is. HN can frequently become an echo chamber, though pretends not to be; and has very clear favorite tech darlings and near-immovable, predefined villains (Google being one of them).

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#427

Post by Krontab » Wed, Nov 22, 2023, 8:41 PM UTC

> Her understanding of what her teams are doing is minimal at best; she frequently makes requests that are completely incoherent and inapplicable. She treats engineers as commodities in a way that is dehumanising, reassigning people against their will in ways that have no relationship to their skill set.

I worked under a VP at a job once who was exactly like this when I was a manager. Truly one of the most demoralizing experiences; always trying to do the best for the people under you and sheild them from this kind of nonsense, but in middle management you can only do so much sigh.

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#428

Post by miguno » Wed, Nov 22, 2023, 8:43 PM UTC

miohtama wrote: post #319

eslaught wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was an intern at Google circa 2010, there was a guest lecture from a business professor who described exactly this process. At the end of it, he made a comment like, "Of course none of this will happen to Google. You're too innovative." But literally every single prediction of his came true, and I witnessed some of them happening in front of my own eyes even in just the months that I was there (and certainly i…

This is called Scumpeter's creative destruction (to be distinguished from other creative destruction) and why large companies may lose the ability to be innovative and compete https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_destruction However. it's hard to see Google's core business dominance, search and ad, to be destroyed very easily. It's also super confusing that no other entity has been able to create a matching service…

That's what the AI robots will use as an explanation when they have f*cked us up. :-)

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#429

Post by ska » Wed, Nov 22, 2023, 8:45 PM UTC

LudwigNagasena wrote: post #416

pyb wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 18-year veteran like OP shouldn't be complaining about their manager's lack of vision ; they should have realised by now that it's also their job to enact the vision. He was probably paid too much to behave as a passenger.

What is a problem with being an IC?

Nothing wrong with being an IC. A senior IC role includes some responsibility for this sort of thing, that's most of what makes it senior...

Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google

#430

Post by AlbertCory » Wed, Nov 22, 2023, 8:45 PM UTC

Slight change of company name for anyone interested:

I'm currently finishing this book by an unabashed fan boy:

https://www.amazon.com/Bill-Dave-Hewlett-Packard-Greatest/dp...?

about how HP went from the coolest company in the world (50's and 60's) to dorky old mediocre place that Fiorina/Hurd/Apotheker/Whitman just finished the destruction that was already underway.

Like a lot of Valley folks, I blamed Carly, but some other long time HP'ers said it was already in process of destroying itself. And while people like to hold up IBM as the canonical bad example for Microsoft and then Google, HP could equally well play that role.

I think. Still pondering this one.