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Eric Schmidt deleted Stanford interview

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Re: Eric Schmidt deleted Stanford interview

#51

Post by pknomad »

dangus wrote: post #43
pknomad wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a googler, but my take would be that Google was a smaller ship with technical founders at the helm who understood the problem and acted accordingly with first mover benefits. I remember when I started to use search engines in grade school (AskJeeves, AltaVista, etc) and Google just had the most relevant answers. Google is now a behemoth that seems to just chuck money and promo packets at problems (Stadia, Goo…

I don’t think startup aficionados and hustle culture members realize that the world runs on C-players. You’re right, startup people have a drive to build great things and they burn the midnight oil and they get divorced during the development of the original iPhone, etc. But the people who keep the lights on at most companies especially big ones like Google are a sea of average, steady, stable employees who do their…

> But the people who keep the lights on at most companies especially big ones like Google are a sea of average, steady, stable employees who do their tasks and not much else, go home at 5 or maybe earlier and have no interest in burning themselves out so that the CEO can have a second private jet.

This was my moment of clarity during the pandemic. I was working insane hours and it just occurred to me then - why am I working so hard and sacrificing my health? So what if I don't work another 10 hours on top of the 90 I was already working? Is my CEO working this hard (numbers-wise)?

For me - I knew then I was content with being a C-level (probably even a D) player.

Re: Eric Schmidt deleted Stanford interview

#52

Post by [deleted] »

panarky wrote: post #40
tialaramex wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you're not going to let people work from home and only come in one day a week Huh, I guess I dreamed the first start-up I worked for (a couple of decades ago) where indeed I only came in one day a week. Yes of course you "work like hell". We had a nasty leak bug and I set things up so that day or night if the leak was detected my stereo would go maximum volume and play "Straight Outta Compton". How does commuting c…

People who sit in their cars an hour every morning, stressed by traffic and pollution before they even set foot in the office, who then attend back-to-back meaningless meetings and email and slack, and then get back in the goddamn car again for another hour if they're lucky, think everyone who doesn't perform this unhealthy and destructive ritual is a slacker.

[deleted]

Re: Eric Schmidt deleted Stanford interview

#53

Post by PostOnce »

gorgoiler wrote: post #17

> Brynjolfsson: ”I asked Sundar [about Google losing the initiative]. He didn't really give me a very sharp answer. > Schmidt: Google decided that work life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning. The reason startups work is because the people work like hell. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but the fact of the matter is if you go found a company and compete against the other star…

At some point, someone is going to realize that people are not going to slave away for the privilege of living in a rental and drinking meal replacement shakes because they're too busy to eat.

People who worked at Google early on were always going to get rich, people who bust ass for Google now might wake up to a 10,000 man layoff in the morning.

/me shrugs

Re: Eric Schmidt deleted Stanford interview

#54

Post by pierrefermat1 »

congulio wrote: post #47

Really fascinating to see such a mix of blind spots, insecurity and, yet, good insights on full display here. It’s almost as if he’s a normal human being at the end of the day, despite his circumstances.

The biggest difference between him and a "normal smart person" is they realize they have blind spots and choose not to publicly spout opinions on them.

Re: Eric Schmidt deleted Stanford interview

#55

Post by hiddencost »

thrdbndndn wrote: post #18
Spartan-S63 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I understand, it’s over the controversy in his statement about Google losing competitive advantage because they chose work life balance over in-office collaboration.

Genuine question: what would be the refutation of this opinion, if any? Out of options like "Google are not actually losing", "Google are losing but not because they chose work life balance", "Google are, indeed, but so be it", etc.

Small company gets big, gets taken over by MBAs who all hire McKinsey to help themselves take over more of the company. The people at the top become professional ladder climbers, eventually too much of the leadership got their for the wrong reasons and the company is unable to insulate themselves from corporate's bad decisions.

Kinda like Goodheart's law but for promotion criterion.

The number of fairly senior people I've encountered who spend their whole career presenting things that have never been built as if they exist is exhausting.

Re: Eric Schmidt deleted Stanford interview

#56

Post by goshx »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #41
tialaramex wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you're not going to let people work from home and only come in one day a week Huh, I guess I dreamed the first start-up I worked for (a couple of decades ago) where indeed I only came in one day a week. Yes of course you "work like hell". We had a nasty leak bug and I set things up so that day or night if the leak was detected my stereo would go maximum volume and play "Straight Outta Compton". How does commuting c…

If I'm sat in a car There are other ways to commute. Commuting via train gave me a chance to go for a walk through parts of the city I'd otherwise not spend a lot of time in. Being stuck in suburban hell currently, working 100% from home is a nightmare scenario for me. Asshole neighbors. Constant noise (far worse than e.g. Oakland). Shit infrastructure (electric, telecom, whatever). And, in my experience, collaborati…

> There are other ways to commute.

There are better places to live.

See what I did there? Not everyone has better options to commute.

Re: Eric Schmidt deleted Stanford interview

#57

Post by pierrefermat1 »

pknomad wrote: post #51
dangus wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think startup aficionados and hustle culture members realize that the world runs on C-players. You’re right, startup people have a drive to build great things and they burn the midnight oil and they get divorced during the development of the original iPhone, etc. But the people who keep the lights on at most companies especially big ones like Google are a sea of average, steady, stable employees who do their…

> But the people who keep the lights on at most companies especially big ones like Google are a sea of average, steady, stable employees who do their tasks and not much else, go home at 5 or maybe earlier and have no interest in burning themselves out so that the CEO can have a second private jet. This was my moment of clarity during the pandemic. I was working insane hours and it just occurred to me then - why am I…

Your CEO may very well be working those hours too except for good reason since he's value aligned+ highly leveraged and able to capture the benefits from the extra work

Re: Eric Schmidt deleted Stanford interview

#58

Post by shombaboor »

metadat wrote: post #2

Why was it deleted? Are there non-youtube hosted copies out there, perhaps an archive.org or torrent link?

it was too truthful from what I can ascertain. Always interesting when you get to hear what someone actually thinks. Most tech talk/interviews are access / pr fluff.

Re: Eric Schmidt deleted Stanford interview

#59

Post by aaron695 »

gorgoiler wrote: post #17

> Brynjolfsson: ”I asked Sundar [about Google losing the initiative]. He didn't really give me a very sharp answer. > Schmidt: Google decided that work life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning. The reason startups work is because the people work like hell. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but the fact of the matter is if you go found a company and compete against the other star…

[dead]

Re: Eric Schmidt deleted Stanford interview

#60

Post by hiddencost »

proc0 wrote: post #15

I'm surprised Eric Schmidt would do this. A celebrity or someone who doesn't know tech, ok, but this guy? c'mon bro.

Eric Schmidt has always sucked he negotiated the compensation fixing scheme https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust...
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