I can understand author’s motives very well. I also started off in a corporation, it wasn’t google but it was a large organization where politics played a majo

I can understand author’s motives very well. I also started off in a corporation, it wasn’t google but it was a large organization where politics played a major role in one’s carreer. I had a very good friend, an architect who worked there for over 10 years, he was excellent in corporate politics and taught me a whole lot about it. The bottom line is that unless you have metrics to back up your claims (whatever they are), your claims mean nothing. Unfortunately, corporate culture encourages this kind of selfish attitude, where in order to get promoted you have to lick asses heavily, and the rest is just a background noise, even your performance. If you know the right people and if you have a good realtionship with them (also, if you are ‘famous’ within the company), then you will almost certainly succeed. This is how it works, almost everywhere, not just corporate environments. It may appear that the author recklessly quit Google without having another job or even idea for a business, and I did the same thing, I had to leave, because I simply couldn’t bear the fact that I was doing better (this, obviously, is subjective) than people 2-3 levels above and my promotion was put on hold just because there were corporate rules that forbid promoting employees that have been already promoted once within 2 years time period. When I informed my manager that I am leaving, he almost panicked, as he did not see that coming and they heavily relied on my experience and skills. They offered me a promotion and over 90% raise but I simply did not care anymore, I could not work there any longer. I also quit without having another job on the horizon. As a consequence my depression and insomnia almost disappeared, I am less nervous and feel generally a lot better. Do not judge the author for leaving Google, he did the right thing for himself, even though it exposes him to a serious risk.