4 ms·

I think the analogy breaks down a bit when you consider that, if the company didn't anticipate that the other businesses (the self driving cars business, for ex

I think the analogy breaks down a bit when you consider that, if the company didn't anticipate that the other businesses (the self driving cars business, for example) wouldn't eventually turn a profit, they would be shut down. You make it sound like search finances all these other endeavors which will lose money forever.

freeone3000 9y ago
Any individual endeavor could lose money forever. They could be scooped by Waymo. Their super-popular RSS software could be cancelled. The future of communication could be WhatsApp, not Wave. But they're able to invest in the future because they have the spare resources. Maybe one of these random side projects will become immensely popular. Maybe one of these crazy side projects will become the most popular email interface ever. And even if they don't, the people are still valuable. I'm not saying that some people won't just coast, but the potential for innovation shouldn't be locked away because "we can't afford it" - we obviously can.