To be fair, the creator of a bit of software that is widely used may not necessarily be a good fit for Google. For many reasons. I find some creators put a lo

To be fair, the creator of a bit of software that is widely used may not necessarily be a good fit for Google. For many reasons. I find some creators put a lot of ego into their products, not that they are egoists so much, but doing something on your own can be emotionally challenging. I don't mean 'ego' in a negative way - just that when you are on your own you have to make so, so many decisions. APIs, compatibility, etc. etc. you're often a little overwhelmed, you often have to 'just do it' and 'go with your gut' in many areas. Which may or may not be a good practice/attitude for a Google employee. They might have a stronger sense of the 'outcome' (i.e. what it does) than the capacity for the underlying code. Maybe it 'does the job' but is poorly written? Which again, might not work in Google environment. ... and working on a very large team is night-and-day from working on your own. I think we all want to 'feel it is unfair' that such an important contributor somehow 'can't get a job at Google' ... maybe he's worthy, maybe not, but I can totally grasp someone mighn't be a good contributor at Google. Maybe it's easier to see it from a non-technical standpoint: it's often very difficult for founders of their own companies to get along in a place like Google. I think that's easier for us grasp. The same thing can apply in the technical domain.