Reflecting on 18 Years at Google
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Reflecting on 18 Years at Google
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Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google
#2I think this link should point to the post at https://ln.hixie.ch/?start=1700627373&count=1
Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google
#3> Take Jeanine Banks, for example, who manages the department that somewhat arbitrarily contains (among other things) Flutter, Dart, Go, and Firebase. Her department nominally has a strategy, but I couldn't leak it if I wanted to; I literally could never figure out what any part of it meant, even after years of hearing her describe it. 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. She is completely unable to receive constructive feedback (as in, she literally doesn't even acknowledge it).
As someone who's very invested in Dart, this really pisses me off to hear.
I guess that's what this tweet is alluding to: https://twitter.com/timsneath/status/1727192477264974273
Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google
#4[flagged]
Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google
#5Thanks for the post. I for one would love to experience the early Google culture. I'm not competent enough but as a middle-aged man I believe I have more fire than many of my peers.
Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google
#6That 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.)
Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google
#7> one of the most annoying is the prevalence of pointless cookie warnings we have to wade through today.
Hey if you're cool with me using your hardrive to store data I have a bunch of chia coins that need mining. Its weird how getting somebody's permission before using their stuff is considered unnecessary.
Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google
#8A lot of glorified companies are completely filled with corrupt, inept management. I hope this recession destroys this management culture and brings back the ethos of innovation in engineering and product.
Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google
#9> one of the most annoying is the prevalence of pointless cookie warnings we have to wade through today. Hey if you're cool with me using your hardrive to store data I have a bunch of chia coins that need mining. Its weird how getting somebody's permission before using their stuff is considered unnecessary.
I think you might be confusing cookies and local storage.
Re: Reflecting on 18 Years at Google
#10As a current Googler of approximately the same tenure, I can't speak to the comments on Jeanine Banks (never met her), but I agree with every other word of this.
It's frustrating to continue to see both the level of genuinely well-intentioned work that the public is unfairly (and often viciously) critical of the motives of, and also the (at this point) complete absence of concern for the user, the long term, and the company culture at the highest levels of Google.
I care about my team and believe in their skills and intents. But the Google I joined in early 2006, as a whole, is fractured, reeling, and has been pushed to the brink of extinction by the importing of "business focus" and the "bottom line" (read: short term share price) to Google's management structure wholesale.