16 ms·
Ask HN: What Happened to Larry Page?
I can't find any news about him since he left Google.
- throwaway45349 6y agoRetired, I presume. Sometimes people just want to spend time with their kids and not have to work all the time. And I'm sure he talks to Sundar Pichai all the time, Alphabet/Google was his baby afterall.
- jdm2212 6y agoHe also probably has a lot more time to think about interesting problems now as opposed to 24/7 managing what's basically a giant utility.
- throwaway45349 6y agoIsn't that the whole point of branching off with Alphabet? Seems like a failed experiment if it didn't create a model for new startups to exist under GOOG.
- dumbfoundded 6y agoGoogle has created/acquired many useful products other than search. Useful doesn't mean interesting though. Especially if you have essentially infinite money.
- paxys 6y agoAlphabet failed because it was clear that despite what Page & Brin initially assumed, shareholders/leadership were not okay with dumping billions of dollars into projects with no clear ROI.
- ChrisCinelli 6y agoYou are probably right in some way here. But it was also Larry that started killing a few product at Google after talking with Steve Job that said "Focus!"
- ci5er 6y agoMay I ask? In English: "I presume" means that "I have no data and am speculating". I that correct? If that is correct, why would you give an answer? My query should not imply any criticism - just that I don't understand. Could you explain to an (Sincerely, From: obvious problematic person, who does want to learn)
- shalmanese 6y agoIf we restricted discussion forums to only people who had any idea what they were talking about, you could fit all of internet discourse onto a floppy disk.
- ci5er 6y agoWell played. Still - sometimes I would like to rank answers somehow, like: 1) I was there, 2) My best friend was there, 3) I have a PhD in that theory, 4) I built something from theoretical blocks, 5) My friends and I got high in college, and thought about building something, 6) ....
- throwaway45349 6y agoSpeculating, but more of an "assumption".
- softwaredoug 6y agoHaving had a high profile in a much smaller community, it can be nice to be forgotten for a while :)
- ilamont 6y agoHe used Google+ a lot. Somewhere there's an archive of his old posts.
- jacquesm 6y agoOh? What happened to the originals?
- indigochill 6y agoGoogle+ died.
- CarCooler 6y agoFacebook and Instagram killed it!
- AnonHP 6y agoMy guess, which is just a guess, is that the founders got tired of Google Search and advertising and Android and mobile hardware and privacy issues and regulatory issues so much that the “don’t be evil” motto was glaring at their faces and made them uncomfortable enough to step aside and let others run the show (or run things into the ground). This must have allowed them to enjoy their riches in relative peace. Sometimes the things you create grow way beyond your capacity to handle and become soul crushing endeavors that bear little resemblance to the early years of adventure, fulfillment and satisfaction in serving others, and the wise thing to do would be to step aside and preserve your sanity and peace of mind.
- yNeolh 6y agoYes, that's was exactly the point made by Notch after the Microsoft acquisition of Minecraft isn't? Only that in a lower (not that low) grade... It has to be soul crushing having almost infinite money and not being able to "fix" your brain or buy time...
- chesterbr 6y agoLast paragraph is the reason why I don't have kids
- cheonic729 6y agoexactly.
- stickfigure 6y agoI entered into parenthood with similar trepidation, but my fears turned out to be unjustified. It definitely means having different experiences, but it's waaaay more fun than I thought it would be.
- chesterbr 6y agoGlad to hear. That comment was in jest, of course!
- 6y ago
- jppope 6y agoHe's still a board member, and if I remember correctly he moved over to the Moonshot factory (X).
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoIt's funny how Larry Page very much seems to like his privacy these days... after taking it from everyone else.
- xd_dino 6y agothis must be the classic Oxymoron in the dictionary!
- chabad360 6y agoIIRC, Google's respect for privacy only took a significant downturn only once Page left the company.
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoPage still runs the company. He and Sergey have unassailable voting power over the board. The lack of official title not withstanding, they are still in charge.
- CalChris 6y agoLarry didn't take it from anyone. We gave it to him. He just monetized it.
- ogre_codes 6y agoYou cannot give something away without realizing it. Google's collection of shadow data on people is not "Given" to them. Most people don't know when and how they collect it. I didn't "Give" Google data any more than I gave data to the guy who drove by my car and collected the plate number when I went to the store a few weeks ago.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- ry_co 6y agoAlternatively, data could be considered not to exist until it is collected. In this way Larry is neither stealing it nor are you giving it. I personally find this interpretation more compelling. Otherwise you'd get weird conclusions, like Darwin stealing evolution from nature, rather than being the creator of the idea and the data that supports it.
- paxys 6y agoIt was clear years ago that neither he nor Brin were interested running Google day-to-day anymore. I'm actually surprised that every billionaire doesn't do the same after reaching a certain point of success. Like..is calling the shots at Facebook really that big a deal that Zuckerberg spends his life being dragged from one mess to another, put in front of Congress every other week, criticized across the political spectrum (which is an achievement in itself)? Does he really not want to take his $110B and do...literally whatever he wants in peace for the rest of his life? Or is it just that he cannot bring himself to trust anyone enough to hand over the reins of Facebook?
- redisman 6y agoHe has a lot more power as the CEO of Facebook than "just" a retired billionaire. Which is what humans have craved since the dawn of time.
- paxys 6y agoNot necessarily. Bill Gates has a lot more "power" today than he did as Microsoft CEO. And I bet his life is a lot easier as well.
- cyberlurker 6y agoHe has a very strong reputation but does he have more power now? Being CEO of Microsoft when he was was powerful enough to get congress interested...
- paxys 6y agoHis foundation has massive political clout, especially in developing countries. And he has no shareholders to answer to.
- cyberlurker 6y agoI didn’t say he wasn’t powerful now, but he was CEO of Microsoft before they were investigated for violations of anti trust law. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_C....
- benatkin 6y agoI wondered why he doesn't have a personal website and saw that Sergey Brin, Tim Cook, and Elon Musk don't either. Ended up at gatesnotes.com and signing up for Bill Gates' mailing list.
- Sebb767 6y agoProbably because its a lot of work and risk. With such a high profile, controversial points quickly become a lot of trouble. Also, there's a lot of overhead with running and securing the site. So, why bother if you don't have anything interesting to say on there? They are big enough to have Wikipedia host their CV.
- benatkin 6y agoTim Cook and Elon Musk each have twitter accounts. All those points apply except running the site. There's WordPress VIP for that.
- corwin7 6y agoI don't think Wordpress and VIP belong in the same sentence. There are vastly superior PHP CMS's such as Grav or OctoberCMS that don't make PHP look like a garbage language.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago> there's a lot of overhead with running and securing the site Not really. Especially not if you have Google at your disposal.
- Sebb767 6y agoIt's surely possible, I don't meant to suggest otherwise . But still - why bother when you have nothing to say? A personal website tends to serve as either self promotion or to voice your opinion. I don't think he needs promotion, so unless he wants to start blogging, it's only risk and timesink with no upsides.
- 6y ago
- mjfl 6y agoWasn't there was some sort of metoo thing that happened with Page, Brin, and Schmidt right before they all stepped down?
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- dariusj18 6y agoHanging out with his neighbor Richard Branson I imagine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustatia_Island https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustatia_Island
- sixty4bit 6y agoHe has two "flying car" startups that he is working on: https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/19/17586878/larry-page-flying-car-opener-kitty-hawk-cora https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/19/17586878/larry-page-flyin... Considering the relative secrecy that he is building these companies in, I'd guess he has other companies going as well.
- CarCooler 6y agoWondering for almost two years after this news we haven't seen a single flying car demo from these companies. Of course Larry Page's money is a good financial support but Elon Musk has repeatedly rejected the VTOL idea, it can pummel populated areas.
- tehjoker 6y agoNotch is said to be a deeply unhappy person, or at least he was a few years ago. He also made a hard right-wing turn. https://money.cnn.com/2015/08/31/technology/minecraft-creator-tweets/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2015/08/31/technology/minecraft-creato... https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/online-conduct-leaves-markus-notch-persson-out-of-minecraft-10th-anniversary/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/online-conduct-leaves...
- zanmat0 6y ago>He also made a hard right-wing turn. Is that problematic in and of itself?
- scarface74 6y agoHe still believes in the QAnon and PizzaGate conspiracy. That is kind of “problematic”.
- solarkraft 6y agoUnfortunately this doesn't seem as unfounded as I had initially thought: https://web.archive.org/web/20200118060902if_/https://twitter.com/notch/status/901192994971410433 https://web.archive.org/web/20200118060902if_/https://twitte... Yet I couldn't clearly claim that he does on the basis of this, as it's just confusing to me, no sure whether that's his flavor of irony. Do you have some more evidence to prove that he believes these things? I had previously seen him as weird and provocative, but not definitely right-wing.
- brokensegue 6y agohttps://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Notch https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Notch
- Yetanfou 6y agoIt isn't problematic, just silly. There is no need to police other people's thoughts as long as they keep within the bounds of the law. He is even free to express those thoughts, within the bounds of the law, just like people are free to hollder 'death to America' during demonstrations in Oakland. One of the pillars of a well-functioning state is that things which are not forbidden by law are allowed. It might not be wise, it might not be smart, it might sound stupid (Qanon) or reprehensible (death to America) but it is allowed.
- pknerd 6y agoMust be busy checking server logs[1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9138814 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9138814
- gumby 6y agoHe’s in the Caribbean a lot of the time and seemingly spent a lot of time there when he still had the CEO title. I didn’t see him much around google in those days (not that we move in the same circles, so this is purely anecdotal). One of my friends lives on the same block and said a little while ago that he never sees him any more (they aren’t friends so it’s a “see the neighbors” kind of thing, also not something authoritative).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- thecolorblue 6y agoBuilding his Ex Machina home assistant. Watch your inbox closely and you can win the contest to visit his compound.
- synaesthesisx 6y agoRumor has it Larry Page has already uploaded himself to the cloud, leaving behind his abandoned, lifeless husk inside a closet in a Google data center somewhere.
- rreichman 6y agoHuge if true
- jboggan 6y agoHe's someone that can ensure that there is no news about him.
- ilamont 6y agoMaybe he's one of the regulars here on HN using an anonymous handle, taking part in these conversations without anyone judging him or his actions. Well-known people have used pseudonyms for ages to preserve their privacy (for instance, when staying in hotels) or sometimes to manipulate public opinion -- writing letters to the editor under various names and personalities was a favorite tactic of Ben Franklin, even to the newspapers he owned! More recently, Mitt Romney's alt Twitter account "Pierre Delecto" was uncovered after he gave away too many clues: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/mitt-romney-has-a-secret-twitter-account-and-it-sure-looks-like-its-this-one.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/mitt-romney-has-...
- username90 6y agoHe got sick with an incurable disease which makes him sound like a 80 year old chain smoker, I heard he got a lot less active since then. I bet it made him realize how little money and power can actually do for him so he is focusing more on stuff that matters in his life.
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- nabla9 6y agoHis paralyzed vocal cords make public speeches hard. He is still Alphabet board member and employee. His interest has always been futurism and moon-shot projects.
- ChrisCinelli 6y agoMy feeling is that the paralyzed vocal cords are more an effect of the root cause. I think Larry did not like anymore most of what he had to do in his role and created so much stress to him that his body ended up helping him to get out of that role. From what I heard on some videos Larry and Sergey were still actively involved in the creation of new things in Google X etc. They are engineers and they love to build and create new ambitious things. But if you are high in the management of a big public company that is not your role anymore. I think they hoped the creation of Alphabet would have given them the opportunity to go back to work on new products with an impact for good in the world instead of having to keep focussing on the dull and stressful management of Google itself. But in the end they probably realized that it was not the case and they left. I know they do angel investing. I guess that with their experience and money, it is more effective to help younger enterpronurs to make the world a better place.
- mrkramer 6y ago"I can't find any news about him since he left Google." Not even Google can find him.
- netsharc 6y agoHah, creating your own search engine has its advantages doesn't it. Or if you don't own Google, you can just claim something related to the search term to hide what you want to hide: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-model-google-news https://www.wired.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-model-google-n...
- renierbotha 6y agoSo many cans of worms
- antognini 6y agoNo idea about Page, but I do remember walking by Sergey Brin in a microkitchen about two years ago when I was at Google. He was evidently playing around with Tensorflow in Colab. I actually didn't know it was him when I walked by, someone told me who it was after I left the room.
- tomcam 6y agoHe’s reading this at the moment since it hit the top of HN, but for the last few hours it was all about Animal Crossing.