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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

#81

Post by nashadelic »

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…

It's also very strange to throw the average worker under the bus for what is clearly a leadership failure at practically all levels but obviously coming from the top. Google has a ton of innovation; the current AI race has deep Google roots but needs to capitalize the opportunity. Google needs leadership change, Sundar is no Satya and while he's done reasonably well, the market is too aggressive to let that retain leadership.

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

#83

Post by mrkramer »

nemothekid wrote: post #76
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> You’re describing Google 10 years ago. The Google of 10, or 15 years ago did not build quagmires. Google's interview process is so rigorous that I do not doubt the caliber of talent that even currently works there. I think people don't have enough perspective when they criticize something like the Pixel Phone or Gemini. I don't think those are products that could be built by "morons". There is a lack of risk or com…

>Stadia was an great product - afaik it worked with acceptable latency and the hardware was good. Morons could not have executed it that well.

Stadia was early in the game, cloud gaming will maybe take off in the next 10 years....it's still too early.

Google has brilliant programmers but I think product managers and business managers are the problem.

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

#84

Post by wasteduniverse »

cfcfcf wrote: post #77
er4hn wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a recent post on here ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41239520 ) where someone noted that people at Google tend not to use their own products. When it was posted on X a Google Director said that they use Google software because it's a software company. Which does show part of the dysfunction - you have a lot of hardware being built by people who aren't using it. I have no idea if similar things happe…

There might be some truth to this, but under Ballmer's leadership, Microsoft's inflexibility re: the use of competing hardware came with its own problems. Since Nadella relaxed this policy, it's unclear to me whether you could say HW quality is worse. In any case, the significance of this policy may be overstated one way or the other.

[dead]

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

#85

Post by ryandrake »

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…

He admired "how much Elon Musk got out of his employees," as if employees are some kind of copper mine that you're supposed to extract as much from as fast as you can. He kind of said the quiet part out loud. The leadership class measures other leaders by how much they can "get out of" people.

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

#86

Post by icedchai »

grecy wrote: post #43
novok wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They sure know how to send emails and slack messages though.

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

#87

Post by conor- »

mrkramer wrote: post #83
nemothekid wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You’re describing Google 10 years ago. The Google of 10, or 15 years ago did not build quagmires. Google's interview process is so rigorous that I do not doubt the caliber of talent that even currently works there. I think people don't have enough perspective when they criticize something like the Pixel Phone or Gemini. I don't think those are products that could be built by "morons". There is a lack of risk or com…

>Stadia was an great product - afaik it worked with acceptable latency and the hardware was good. Morons could not have executed it that well. Stadia was early in the game, cloud gaming will maybe take off in the next 10 years....it's still too early. Google has brilliant programmers but I think product managers and business managers are the problem.

Maybe they just need to invent LeetCode interviews for PM and BA roles

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

#88

Post by leptons »

dboreham wrote: post #72
leptons wrote: post #53

It's management's attempt at cargo-culting success. But success has more to do with good ideas combined with talent than anything else. It has nothing to do with where the talent rests their butts during the day. I remember the office days - it was a room full of silent people, all chatting away on Slack. We can do that literally from anywhere.

I haven't had much same-room interaction with my colleagues since 1996. In fact it was an observation that even though colleagues were on the same campus, I generally never saw them, interacting only via phone and email, that led me to conclude that remote work should be feasible, in 2000.

I was WFH in 1997, using a 56k modem, uploading huge Photoshop print-ready files. I made it work.

I was tired of driving 3 hours a day (which equals a full month per year) in traffic. I told my boss "I'm not coming in to the office anymore in two weeks" without really having a plan for what comes next - either I'd quit or ???. He suggested I could work from home (they didn't want to lose me), and I jumped at the chance. It worked great for 6 months until that company went out of business. I was the only one working from home, so the company going out of business definitely wasn't because of WFH.

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

#89

Post by novok »

grecy wrote: post #43
novok wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Again, signs you are working at a crappy place. Those places are incompetent and you should move to somewhere where it is competent.

I have actually been a manager at a big tech and a small start up, and yes there is politics at all sizes, but its extremely rare for an engineering manager to not have been an engineer previously. I was that manager, being the mentor.

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