4 ms·

This article relies on a single former (disgruntled) employee as its source. We should definitely not be making inferences about the top priorities of Google's

This article relies on a single former (disgruntled) employee as its source. We should definitely not be making inferences about the top priorities of Google's management based on his claims.

riyadparvez 8y ago
Is there any single day goes by without a negative article against Google on HN?
- briandear 8y ago
  Well the shoe seems to be fitting quite nicely lately.
- Veen 8y ago
  If it's true that there is a negative article every single day, do you take that as evidence of: 1) A bias in the media and on Hacker News against Google? 2) Evidence that Google is doing a lot of bad things?
  - Spooky23 8y ago
    My “3” is Facebook opposition PR. There’s certainly a cadence of stories that appear which seem to assert that Google’s practices are as scummy as/ equivalent to Facebook. It feels like farming “whataboutism” and fud. That may be a coincidence, but I doubt it.
  - skybrian 8y ago
    I won't get into whether they deserve it, but it's quite clear that a lot of people on HN are very happy to hate on Google, because we see lots of perfunctory, low-information comments here. It's mostly not about sharing new evidence, it's about people expressing opinions they already have. Certain things become popular clichés, such as complaining about Go generics or Atom's alleged slowness, and so they get repeated in the comments about about that entity. The tipping point seems to be when low-information comments start getting upvoted rather than downvoted. At some point people stop seeing anything wrong with them as long as they're on the same side.
bitL 8y ago
Funny how the word "disgruntled" always appears in attempts to negate unpleasant statements. Must be in some common algorithm... Ad hominem is not really a good strategy for this these days. While we need to be cautious about veracity of any statement, using "disgruntled" is disqualifying anyone who uses it.
- marricks 8y ago
  Replies on Facebook articles had the same style of attack on anything negative, go after the source. They probably do it because it still works. Muddy the waters, suggest there’s another side, play to people’s desire for a middle ground. Then the dust will settle and they’ll get to set the narrative again. Media coverage really needs to be relentless to get through their tactics.
- xibalba 8y ago
  I think the "disgruntled" characterization in this case is quite accurate. I'm not sure how the ad hominem fallacy would apply since Jack Poulson is actually the source and subject of the article and thus the object of discussion. But the real point of my original comment was that this article is subpar journalism. The implication of the article, at least to my reading, is that there is a trend of declining morale at Google and dissatisfaction amongst the rank-and-file with the company's senior leadership. As evidence we are given... one guy's opinions.
rutenspitz 8y ago
Not just any former employee, but one who has been the hero of numerous recent big media profiles. My reaction was "not that guy again". He's having a good run giving the media what they want.

This article relies on a single former (disgruntled) employee as its source. We should definitely not be making inferences about the top priorities of Google's management based on his claims.

riyadparvez 8y ago

Is there any single day goes by without a negative article against Google on HN?

briandear 8y ago
Well the shoe seems to be fitting quite nicely lately.
Veen 8y ago
If it's true that there is a negative article every single day, do you take that as evidence of: 1) A bias in the media and on Hacker News against Google? 2) Evidence that Google is doing a lot of bad things?
- Spooky23 8y ago
  My “3” is Facebook opposition PR. There’s certainly a cadence of stories that appear which seem to assert that Google’s practices are as scummy as/ equivalent to Facebook. It feels like farming “whataboutism” and fud. That may be a coincidence, but I doubt it.
- skybrian 8y ago
  I won't get into whether they deserve it, but it's quite clear that a lot of people on HN are very happy to hate on Google, because we see lots of perfunctory, low-information comments here. It's mostly not about sharing new evidence, it's about people expressing opinions they already have. Certain things become popular clichés, such as complaining about Go generics or Atom's alleged slowness, and so they get repeated in the comments about about that entity. The tipping point seems to be when low-information comments start getting upvoted rather than downvoted. At some point people stop seeing anything wrong with them as long as they're on the same side.

bitL 8y ago

Funny how the word "disgruntled" always appears in attempts to negate unpleasant statements. Must be in some common algorithm... Ad hominem is not really a good strategy for this these days. While we need to be cautious about veracity of any statement, using "disgruntled" is disqualifying anyone who uses it.

marricks 8y ago
Replies on Facebook articles had the same style of attack on anything negative, go after the source. They probably do it because it still works. Muddy the waters, suggest there’s another side, play to people’s desire for a middle ground. Then the dust will settle and they’ll get to set the narrative again. Media coverage really needs to be relentless to get through their tactics.
xibalba 8y ago
I think the "disgruntled" characterization in this case is quite accurate. I'm not sure how the ad hominem fallacy would apply since Jack Poulson is actually the source and subject of the article and thus the object of discussion. But the real point of my original comment was that this article is subpar journalism. The implication of the article, at least to my reading, is that there is a trend of declining morale at Google and dissatisfaction amongst the rank-and-file with the company's senior leadership. As evidence we are given... one guy's opinions.

rutenspitz 8y ago

Not just any former employee, but one who has been the hero of numerous recent big media profiles. My reaction was "not that guy again". He's having a good run giving the media what they want.