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Eric Schmidt Steps Down from Alphabet’s Board of Directors

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Re: Eric Schmidt Steps Down from Alphabet’s Board of Directors

#51

Post by omarchowdhury »

trophycase wrote: post #26
nostrademons wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember that Larry was CEO twice: 1998-2001 and 2011-2015. During the first period Google was exceptionally innovative. During the second, Google attempted to be exceptionally innovative but largely fell flat on its face. I'd blame size and market position more. Google was left as one of very few profitable giants standing when the dot-com crash hit, and yet they were young enough to not have the institutional inert…

Yes it is quite amazing how they have almost complete browser dominance and video content creation/hosting dominance as well as search dominance but are unable to come up with even a simple in browser tipping system to hedge against the downfall of their almost entirely ad based revenue.

You're assuming that an "in browser tipping system" is a viable hedge to the also assumed downfall of their ad based revenue.

Re: Eric Schmidt Steps Down from Alphabet’s Board of Directors

#53

Post by vl »

neves wrote: post #41

I'm starting to read "When Google Met WikiLeaks" by Assange. In this book Schmidt is the villain. It will be nice to match Assange's point of view with all the eulogies that we will read about Schmidt now.

Schmidt's involvement with US's politics is strange, especially for the business leader: he met with Assange, he went to North Korea.

There was a hilarious moment at the company meeting when rank-and-file learned from the news that Eric and Larry met with Trump. Somebody demanded explanation, as if it is something strange that business leaders meet with the president. Sundar mumbled something like "yes, I didn't know they are going to meet, but this was a single meeting and many business leaders attended...". Eric rushed on stage and said "To clarify: I met with President Trump more than once, bla bla".

Re: Eric Schmidt Steps Down from Alphabet’s Board of Directors

#54

Post by [deleted] »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #16
behnamoh wrote: post #11

Somehow it's strange seeing these tech giants being handed over to a new generation. Microsoft has long been associated with Gates and Balmer, Steve's DNA still runs in Apple, and Google still reminds me of Schmidt. The newer generation of executives and board directors in these companies has a very difficult task to do: stick to the past or redefine the company for the future.

Steve Jobs of course famously left Apple (not on the friendliest of terms), then returned several years later to "redefine the company for the future" (very successfully of course). His return marked a major new period for Apple, with major changes in direction and execution.

[deleted]

Re: Eric Schmidt Steps Down from Alphabet’s Board of Directors

#55

Post by Zigurd »

neves wrote: post #41

I'm starting to read "When Google Met WikiLeaks" by Assange. In this book Schmidt is the villain. It will be nice to match Assange's point of view with all the eulogies that we will read about Schmidt now.

Schmidt is a defense establishment insider, since, at least, his time at Sun. Having just finished Trillion Dollar Coach I can reaffirm that I am no fan of Schmidt as pop business book guy. But he's less wrong than Assange.

Re: Eric Schmidt Steps Down from Alphabet’s Board of Directors

#56

Post by DonHopkins »

gen220 wrote: post #40
human20190310 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never understood why Bismarck doesn't get more blame for creating a system of alliances that could only be safely operated by himself.

Ever since I've first learned about his story in-depth, this idea has also fascinated me – but I've never seen anybody else raise it unprompted! The analogy with software is right-on, in my view. He crated a system that was complex, sure, but very manageable and powerful if you understood it in sufficient detail. For a fast-and-loose comparison, he was running foreign policy in Vim/Emacs, while his contemporaries wer…

Fascinating analogy, but you're being intriguingly vague. Come on, be honest, take your comparison one step further, a little faster and looser, and tell us what you REALLY think: do you believe Eric Schmidt is more like a Vim user or an Emacs user? And which text editor would Bismarck have used? ;)

Re: Eric Schmidt Steps Down from Alphabet’s Board of Directors

#57

Post by jbattle »

gen220 wrote: post #12
ergothus wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not well-enough versed in history to follow the analogy. Are you saying Schmidt is being asked to leave because of internal differences? Did Bismarck leaving have good/bad implications after the fact that you are alluding to here?

Bismarck was a whiz of foreign policy, who had successfully juggled the alliances surrounding the (relatively nascent by European standards) German state throughout his time as a diplomat and Chancellor. His contemporary Hohenzollern monarch (Wilhelm's II predecessor) largely allowed Bismark to take free reign over diplomacy, recognizing him as a generational talent. If Bismarck was an ideological juggler, capable of…

I always read that time in history as Wilhelm wanting to be "The Decider" and feeling too much under Bismark's long shadow. Young leader of a young country, striving for a place in the sun.

Re: Eric Schmidt Steps Down from Alphabet’s Board of Directors

#58

Post by mancerayder »

Google seems to be falling flat on its face growth-wise. Its ad revenue is down, its Pixel 3 platform fell completely flat, it shuttered Google + and had a security breach?

How can you have a large scale security breach with a brutal tech hiring process, sky high salaries and a whitepaper-producing workforce? Hell, when you interview at much smaller firms, the tech groups copycat the Google hiring techniques, that's the extent of the influence. Google is a reference implementation that everyone copycats.

Then is the Pixel 3's lack of creative innovation symbolic of a strong tech culture that seems to prize science and tech over creativity? For reference, they copied the iPhone in numerous ways aesthetically and marketing-wise: the size is identical, glass replaced metal, the price was pumped up to make it appear premium, even the color names have goofy Apple-y names, etc.

Re: Eric Schmidt Steps Down from Alphabet’s Board of Directors

#59

Post by nostrademons »

patejam wrote: post #45
nostrademons wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jumping into a new thing regardless of its potential is a necessary, not sufficient, component of innovation. If you wait until it's obvious to everyone that something's a good idea, you're not being innovative, you're just an opportunist. Similarly, if it turns out that it's not actually a good idea, you're not being innovative, you've just wasted a whole lot of time. Innovation happens at the intersection of contra…

I'm confused by all the assumptions in this thread, including 1. That Google didn't research crypto internally and purposely decide not to pursue it. 2. That crypto is worth staking Google's time, energy, and ego on. 3. That crypto involvement is a direct reason a company is or is not innovative.

Hard lesson learned from a couple of research projects within Google and then again from my first couple years as an entrepreneur:

Internal research is useless.

The only way to know whether a new idea will work is to try it: put some minimal form of it in front of people and see if they actually get use it. People are complex; sometimes they do things that all rational thought says they shouldn't (buying Bitcoin and investing in ICOs would both fit into that category, IMHO), and many times they don't do things that all rational analysis says they should (I participated in research projects while at Google for both micropayments for content and for labeling trustworthy sources on the results, both of which most people would agree are good goals but neither of which has ever worked, and I founded a startup afterwards to provide career guidance to undergrads, which every adult we talked to said "I love what you're doing, and totally wish that existed when I was a student" and every student said "I love that idea and would totally use it", and then promptly never looked at it again once we built it.)

There's no guarantee that external research works either, but at least you've learned something applicable to the next idea.

Re: Eric Schmidt Steps Down from Alphabet’s Board of Directors

#60

Post by trophycase »

omarchowdhury wrote: post #51
trophycase wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it is quite amazing how they have almost complete browser dominance and video content creation/hosting dominance as well as search dominance but are unable to come up with even a simple in browser tipping system to hedge against the downfall of their almost entirely ad based revenue.

You're assuming that an "in browser tipping system" is a viable hedge to the also assumed downfall of their ad based revenue.

Well Patreon is proving to be somewhat successful, I don't see why something similar, or donation/tipping shouldn't be easy to incorporate.
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