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Interesting comment from Bill Maris from Axios. Bill Maris, who founded Google's venture capital arm and reported directly to Drummond before quitting in 2016,

by bhaile 7y ago

Interesting comment from Bill Maris from Axios. Bill Maris, who founded Google's venture capital arm and reported directly to Drummond before quitting in 2016, tells Axios... "The news of David Drummond leaving Google today brings to mind a quote from one of my most favorite creatures. 'At an end, your rule is. And not short enough, it was.' I had been asked in the past why I left Google in 2016, and I have never really commented on that. David Drummond is the reason I left Google. I simply could not work with him any longer. It’s that simple. We have very, very different ideas about how to treat people, and this was a long time coming."[1] [1]https://www.axios.com/alphabet-david-drummond-departure-7572e49b-0f5b-4c72-95eb-24fce0cd82aa.html https://www.axios.com/alphabet-david-drummond-departure-7572...

godzillabrennus 7y ago
I met Bill years ago and he was insanely helpful to me at the time. Google lost an incredible person when he walked away.
kcanini 7y ago
I worked for Bill for about a year at GV. He was one of the friendliest managers I've ever met at Google. I randomly met Dave Drummond once at a coffee shop in Sausalito (I didn't know who he was at the time... he just commented on my Google shirt), and he gave me an inexplicably uncomfortable feeling.
- aluminussoma 7y ago
  I think it is a bad idea to say this about him without providing a concrete example on how he made you uncomfortable. I'm sure I have accidentally made someone uncomfortable before. Does that make me a bad person? I hope not.
  - lostcolony 7y ago
    Of course it doesn't make you a bad person. In fact, there's a good chance you're a good person, and if you have accidentally made someone uncomfortable, it was through something they could easily put their finger on; you said something, you reminded them of something, etc. This doesn't sound like it's that. He does, after all, call it 'inexplicable'; literally unable to be interpreted or expanded upon. It was a 'gut' feeling, a combination of all the things you pick up quickly and instinctively, the summation of which is discomfort. That _also_ doesn't mean the guy is bad, or that it's necessarily fairly representative of him. Just that he gave the OP a feeling of discomfort.
    - roenxi 7y ago
      It is totally unreasonable to go around commenting on third parties giving off creepy vibes of no consequence based on no evidence. Not to be too personal because a comment isn't the measure of a commentator but kcanini is basically saying nothing with as much negative allusion as can be put into a comment. It is a comment with no consequences, no relevant context, no observations and no argument. Gut feelings are often surprisingly accurate, sometimes we all pick things up a lot earlier than our consciousness cottons on. But that is no standard to hold in public discourse. There are a bunch of people who give off creepy vibes who are great and a bunch of people who give off positive vibes who are creepy. Binning people like that should ideally be done with evidence or at the very least an argument to give the comment some substance. We've figured out that good looking people are not more upstanding than ugly people. Truly the next step is to avoid comments like that. Truth is no defence for a comment like that; a comment that says nothing is automatically truthful but also meaningless.
      - zozbot234 7y ago
        > Gut feelings are often surprisingly accurate, sometimes we all pick things up a lot earlier than our consciousness cottons on. ... We've figured out that good looking people are not more upstanding than ugly people. There, see the difference? You said it yourself - as it turns out, being good looking vs. ugly is not meaningful evidence as to whether you're going to treat others fairly. Being actively disdainful of others to the extent that you're giving off huge "creeper" vibes (perhaps unwittingly, perhaps intentionally!) can be evidence of sorts - at least in a very loose, "more likely than not" sense. Of course, this is not to say that it should be considered anywhere close to OK to spread wild rumors about "the creeper vibes that this creepy guy gave me once", or anything like that - just think about how open this would be to abuse! But OP wasn't doing that, at all. He/she was seeking to confirm the assessment that others had already, independently come up with, and that can be a very good thing.
        roenxi 7y ago
        Drummond is black. I'm not one for political correctness, but there is pretty conclusive evidence that a lot of non-blacks people think black people give off creepy vibes. The in-group favoritism bias is a very real thing and it is very reasonable that it manifests as a vague unsubstantiated feeling. Somebody saying they ran into him at a coffee shop and got what amounts to a feeling of bad vibes is literally not evidence or conformation of anything about the man's character. It is quite likely to be run of the mill background racism. We know nothing about the commentator, nothing about the situation. And it looks like the standard outcome of racism. Even if it isn't the commentator can do a lot better than that with minimal effort. Now if there were any evidence of any kind proffered that would be a different story. You are fabricating some notion of some sort of 'active ... disdain' here that isn't mentioned in the objectionable comment. If they don't mean unsubstantiated they shouldn't be saying unsubstantiated. They should be substantiating their claim. The standard should be higher than that comment.
  - meesterdude 7y ago
    > I think it is a bad idea to say this about him without providing a concrete example on how he made you uncomfortable. They don't have to justify themselves to you. He saw what he saw, and felt what he felt. if you have any problem with that, that's on you.
    - AmericanChopper 7y ago
      I read a comment made by meesterdude once, and he gave me an inexplicably uncomfortable feeling.
    - celticmusic 7y ago
      the need for offense is strong with this one, yes?
      - meesterdude 7y ago
        not here to people please, just being authentic.
        celticmusic 7y ago
        keepin' it real! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfz0tDQZhqs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfz0tDQZhqs
- wmeredith 7y ago
  So what? This comment is nonsense.
  - Supermancho 7y ago
    The majority of human communication is nonverbal. I saw this same kind of commentary about Epstein's "assistants". Humans can read humans to an extent that should impact behavior (but rarely does). Get over it.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
throw7 7y ago
is that a star wars quote???
- asimpletune 7y ago
  Yes I believe that’s what Yoda says to palpatine in episode III.
  - leetcrew 7y ago
    which is a weird quote to use, considering palpatine went on to rule for a couple more decades after the big fight.
joering2 7y ago
> Drummond was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2005 with causing Google to violate securities law because he failed to advise the company's board that the company was required to register $80 million in stock options used as compensation for employees.[1] Do you know anyone who would hire someone after making a $80MM mistake?? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Drummond_(businessman) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Drummond_(businessman)
- LanceH 7y ago
  Not entirely sure about the date, but wasn't everyone backdating options and/or marking them as zero cost to the company?
  - rlucas 7y ago
    In the late 1990s "everyone" was doing so -- and then a nonzero percentage of "everyone" went to jail for it. By 2005 people were on notice.
- swedish_mafia 7y ago
  And this https://medium.com/@jennifer.blakely/my-time-at-google-and-after-b0af688ec3ab https://medium.com/@jennifer.blakely/my-time-at-google-and-a...

by bhaile 7y ago

godzillabrennus 7y ago

I met Bill years ago and he was insanely helpful to me at the time. Google lost an incredible person when he walked away.

kcanini 7y ago

I worked for Bill for about a year at GV. He was one of the friendliest managers I've ever met at Google. I randomly met Dave Drummond once at a coffee shop in Sausalito (I didn't know who he was at the time... he just commented on my Google shirt), and he gave me an inexplicably uncomfortable feeling.

aluminussoma 7y ago
I think it is a bad idea to say this about him without providing a concrete example on how he made you uncomfortable. I'm sure I have accidentally made someone uncomfortable before. Does that make me a bad person? I hope not.
- lostcolony 7y ago
  Of course it doesn't make you a bad person. In fact, there's a good chance you're a good person, and if you have accidentally made someone uncomfortable, it was through something they could easily put their finger on; you said something, you reminded them of something, etc. This doesn't sound like it's that. He does, after all, call it 'inexplicable'; literally unable to be interpreted or expanded upon. It was a 'gut' feeling, a combination of all the things you pick up quickly and instinctively, the summation of which is discomfort. That _also_ doesn't mean the guy is bad, or that it's necessarily fairly representative of him. Just that he gave the OP a feeling of discomfort.
  - roenxi 7y ago
    It is totally unreasonable to go around commenting on third parties giving off creepy vibes of no consequence based on no evidence. Not to be too personal because a comment isn't the measure of a commentator but kcanini is basically saying nothing with as much negative allusion as can be put into a comment. It is a comment with no consequences, no relevant context, no observations and no argument. Gut feelings are often surprisingly accurate, sometimes we all pick things up a lot earlier than our consciousness cottons on. But that is no standard to hold in public discourse. There are a bunch of people who give off creepy vibes who are great and a bunch of people who give off positive vibes who are creepy. Binning people like that should ideally be done with evidence or at the very least an argument to give the comment some substance. We've figured out that good looking people are not more upstanding than ugly people. Truly the next step is to avoid comments like that. Truth is no defence for a comment like that; a comment that says nothing is automatically truthful but also meaningless.
    - zozbot234 7y ago
      > Gut feelings are often surprisingly accurate, sometimes we all pick things up a lot earlier than our consciousness cottons on. ... We've figured out that good looking people are not more upstanding than ugly people. There, see the difference? You said it yourself - as it turns out, being good looking vs. ugly is not meaningful evidence as to whether you're going to treat others fairly. Being actively disdainful of others to the extent that you're giving off huge "creeper" vibes (perhaps unwittingly, perhaps intentionally!) can be evidence of sorts - at least in a very loose, "more likely than not" sense. Of course, this is not to say that it should be considered anywhere close to OK to spread wild rumors about "the creeper vibes that this creepy guy gave me once", or anything like that - just think about how open this would be to abuse! But OP wasn't doing that, at all. He/she was seeking to confirm the assessment that others had already, independently come up with, and that can be a very good thing.
      - roenxi 7y ago
        Drummond is black. I'm not one for political correctness, but there is pretty conclusive evidence that a lot of non-blacks people think black people give off creepy vibes. The in-group favoritism bias is a very real thing and it is very reasonable that it manifests as a vague unsubstantiated feeling. Somebody saying they ran into him at a coffee shop and got what amounts to a feeling of bad vibes is literally not evidence or conformation of anything about the man's character. It is quite likely to be run of the mill background racism. We know nothing about the commentator, nothing about the situation. And it looks like the standard outcome of racism. Even if it isn't the commentator can do a lot better than that with minimal effort. Now if there were any evidence of any kind proffered that would be a different story. You are fabricating some notion of some sort of 'active ... disdain' here that isn't mentioned in the objectionable comment. If they don't mean unsubstantiated they shouldn't be saying unsubstantiated. They should be substantiating their claim. The standard should be higher than that comment.
- meesterdude 7y ago
  > I think it is a bad idea to say this about him without providing a concrete example on how he made you uncomfortable. They don't have to justify themselves to you. He saw what he saw, and felt what he felt. if you have any problem with that, that's on you.
  - AmericanChopper 7y ago
    I read a comment made by meesterdude once, and he gave me an inexplicably uncomfortable feeling.
  - celticmusic 7y ago
    the need for offense is strong with this one, yes?
    - meesterdude 7y ago
      not here to people please, just being authentic.
      - celticmusic 7y ago
        keepin' it real! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfz0tDQZhqs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfz0tDQZhqs
wmeredith 7y ago
So what? This comment is nonsense.
- Supermancho 7y ago
  The majority of human communication is nonverbal. I saw this same kind of commentary about Epstein's "assistants". Humans can read humans to an extent that should impact behavior (but rarely does). Get over it.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

throw7 7y ago

is that a star wars quote???

asimpletune 7y ago
Yes I believe that’s what Yoda says to palpatine in episode III.
- leetcrew 7y ago
  which is a weird quote to use, considering palpatine went on to rule for a couple more decades after the big fight.

joering2 7y ago

> Drummond was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2005 with causing Google to violate securities law because he failed to advise the company's board that the company was required to register $80 million in stock options used as compensation for employees.[1] Do you know anyone who would hire someone after making a $80MM mistake?? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Drummond_(businessman) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Drummond_(businessman)

LanceH 7y ago
Not entirely sure about the date, but wasn't everyone backdating options and/or marking them as zero cost to the company?
- rlucas 7y ago
  In the late 1990s "everyone" was doing so -- and then a nonzero percentage of "everyone" went to jail for it. By 2005 people were on notice.
swedish_mafia 7y ago
And this https://medium.com/@jennifer.blakely/my-time-at-google-and-after-b0af688ec3ab https://medium.com/@jennifer.blakely/my-time-at-google-and-a...