3 ms·

I wasn't really aware of what was going on at Microsoft in 1984, but if what is claimed in that is true then if helps contextualizes for me what is currently go

by brett 19y ago

I wasn't really aware of what was going on at Microsoft in 1984, but if what is claimed in that is true then if helps contextualizes for me what is currently going on at Google because they've been making similar claims in recent years. If the beast that I know as Microsoft used to be a forward thinking awesome place to work then there's a lot of reason to people Google will eventually morph into a similar beast. Get enough people together and bureaucracy and mediocrity will carry the day. You can get creative and take longer to get to that point, but ultimately unless you halt employee growth or create something so loosely federated that it cannot really be thought of as a single company you're driving toward Microsoft.

vlad 19y ago
It works like this. Every startup company has programmers who actually create things and shape the world. Replacing any of such people is a bit hit. Switching from one person's vision to another is difficult if there were only two or three people in the company to begin with. Once you have thousands of employees, each one is now given a role that is replaceable. Do this specific task, every day. If you quit, we find somebody else. The job becomes boring, just so the company can easily replace you. In other words, startups just care about the product. But big companies have the same mentality towards their own employees. They no longer limit a system to product development, but systemize employees as well. Employees are no longer there to innovate, but to be a cog. That's why the same companies that start out being created by visionaries, suck to work at when they are huge, because now they are looking for cogs. Hiring is just part of a system to replace some previous cogs.
jey 19y ago
I already keep hearing of Googlers jumping ship because the company is now a "big company" with the associated bureaucracy and overhead. They still have the nifty perks and all, but apparently the culture isn't what it once was, and this is probably unavoidable as a company grows.

by brett 19y ago

vlad 19y ago

It works like this. Every startup company has programmers who actually create things and shape the world. Replacing any of such people is a bit hit. Switching from one person's vision to another is difficult if there were only two or three people in the company to begin with. Once you have thousands of employees, each one is now given a role that is replaceable. Do this specific task, every day. If you quit, we find somebody else. The job becomes boring, just so the company can easily replace you. In other words, startups just care about the product. But big companies have the same mentality towards their own employees. They no longer limit a system to product development, but systemize employees as well. Employees are no longer there to innovate, but to be a cog. That's why the same companies that start out being created by visionaries, suck to work at when they are huge, because now they are looking for cogs. Hiring is just part of a system to replace some previous cogs.

jey 19y ago

I already keep hearing of Googlers jumping ship because the company is now a "big company" with the associated bureaucracy and overhead. They still have the nifty perks and all, but apparently the culture isn't what it once was, and this is probably unavoidable as a company grows.