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He sounds kind of toxic and out of touch, and didn't really mention why he stayed so long despite that being the title of the article. You know someone is Up T

He sounds kind of toxic and out of touch, and didn't really mention why he stayed so long despite that being the title of the article. You know someone is Up To Something when they rant about HR restricting their speech. It's weird to me that he's now a free agent, rants about how people complained that "I used a four letter word, my analogy was not PC, my language was not PG", and yet doesn't indulge in his blog post. Maybe he learned something about communicating effectively through discussions with HR? He mentions not getting free distribution on Android phones. It baffles me that he couldn't negotiate some sort of deal. I am sure someone's end goal was to put all of Waze in Maps, and I don't think anyone would have prevented him from doing that. I feel like there was some emotional attachment to his baby that he couldn't get over, and it hurt the distribution of the product. You aren't acquired by a big tech company to be nurtured and grow -- you're there to be assimilated, for better or for worse. I'm surprised that he's surprised. (You can get bought by Google and grow your brand, of course. Android is still called Android, not Google Phone. Maybe Andy Rubin was just a better CEO? Though quite a piece of human garbage, as I understand it.) Finally, the rest of the rant is about how those dang employees don't work hard enough and want too much money. I can see why that irritates the CEO type -- they risked everything to get where they are today. But, that's not the game the employees are playing. They took a more conservative course and ended up at the top of their field, they're there to make your ideas come to life efficiently and effectively. If you want naive worker bees who will work 80 hours a week for $20,000 a year, you got acquired by the wrong company, plain and simple. For someone who claims to be savvy, he seems to have a lot of blind spots. I guess it's nice to get it all out into the open, as a warning to people who might choose to work with him on his next adventure.

guyzero 6y ago
At the risk of being not politically correct myself, I think there are significant cultural gaps between the west coast American standard and people from Israel (Bardin is Isralei). With the caveat that this is my experience only, Israelis are more blunt, direct and often openly critical vs Americans, especially Californians. They're often right and all the ones I've worked with have been very smart, but the way a message is communicated is sometimes more important than the message itself. I think that in this global age people think that the notion of intercultural communication issues has gone away, but IMO it still exists.
- titanomachy 6y ago
  > at the risk of not being politically correct I don't think it's so controversial to claim that different cultures have different default communication styles. Israelis aren't the only ones who tend to be more direct than the average Californian. I usually appreciate it: corporate speech tends to dance around the point a bit, and bluntness saves time and clarifies where people stand. That said, I can also understand how some people would be taken aback or intimidated by excessive bluntness, especially from a superior.
- guytv 6y ago
  Israeli here. cultural gaps are very much alive and kicking During my career I've worked with people around the world, all in the Tech industry. Israeli-Californian cultural gap is huge. It is made worse by the fact that Israelis usually have a good English level, some even have an okay accent - which makes their US counterpart expect them to use the same communication etiquette they are used to. Californians will go out of their way to avoid any overt conflict. Israelis see conflict as a valid form of day to day communications. An Israeli can go out of a meeting thinking he was just being told "yes", while he was given a glaring "no" delivered in the All-American-speak.
  - TulliusCicero 6y ago
    This is interesting to me, because you hear the same thing when discussing Japanese vs American culture, with the Americans being the more direct ones in that comparison. I wonder what happens when Israelis work with Japanese people.
    - mgbmtl 6y ago
      Without getting too much into the politics of it, I think a key factor is how polarized people are. Another one is how litigious Americans are, or at least are perceived to be. (Quebec person here, we're not exactly known for our table manners, but you'll always get a direct answer) ;-)
    - guytv 6y ago
pid_0 6y ago
Echoing what others said about a difference in culture, I find it really ironic that its important to be globalist and "inclusive" except when its inconvenient. Israelis are extremely blunt its just how the culture is. It has nothing to do with being toxic, mean, etc. Shouldn't we be inclusive and understand that people from other cultures can't be expected to act the way others do? Especially people from California.
JabavuAdams 6y ago
God, the game industry must have wrecked my brain. I read TFA and was like "Hells yes, I want to work with this guy!" ... but reading some of the criticisms ... huh interesting. Then again, there's a real high to being part of a team of 10 people who are shipping a product that people love all across the globe. Interesting. I'm definitely not a big-co guy.

guyzero 6y ago

At the risk of being not politically correct myself, I think there are significant cultural gaps between the west coast American standard and people from Israel (Bardin is Isralei). With the caveat that this is my experience only, Israelis are more blunt, direct and often openly critical vs Americans, especially Californians. They're often right and all the ones I've worked with have been very smart, but the way a message is communicated is sometimes more important than the message itself. I think that in this global age people think that the notion of intercultural communication issues has gone away, but IMO it still exists.

titanomachy 6y ago
> at the risk of not being politically correct I don't think it's so controversial to claim that different cultures have different default communication styles. Israelis aren't the only ones who tend to be more direct than the average Californian. I usually appreciate it: corporate speech tends to dance around the point a bit, and bluntness saves time and clarifies where people stand. That said, I can also understand how some people would be taken aback or intimidated by excessive bluntness, especially from a superior.
guytv 6y ago
Israeli here. cultural gaps are very much alive and kicking During my career I've worked with people around the world, all in the Tech industry. Israeli-Californian cultural gap is huge. It is made worse by the fact that Israelis usually have a good English level, some even have an okay accent - which makes their US counterpart expect them to use the same communication etiquette they are used to. Californians will go out of their way to avoid any overt conflict. Israelis see conflict as a valid form of day to day communications. An Israeli can go out of a meeting thinking he was just being told "yes", while he was given a glaring "no" delivered in the All-American-speak.
- TulliusCicero 6y ago
  This is interesting to me, because you hear the same thing when discussing Japanese vs American culture, with the Americans being the more direct ones in that comparison. I wonder what happens when Israelis work with Japanese people.
  - mgbmtl 6y ago
    Without getting too much into the politics of it, I think a key factor is how polarized people are. Another one is how litigious Americans are, or at least are perceived to be. (Quebec person here, we're not exactly known for our table manners, but you'll always get a direct answer) ;-)
  - guytv 6y ago

pid_0 6y ago

Echoing what others said about a difference in culture, I find it really ironic that its important to be globalist and "inclusive" except when its inconvenient. Israelis are extremely blunt its just how the culture is. It has nothing to do with being toxic, mean, etc. Shouldn't we be inclusive and understand that people from other cultures can't be expected to act the way others do? Especially people from California.

JabavuAdams 6y ago

God, the game industry must have wrecked my brain. I read TFA and was like "Hells yes, I want to work with this guy!" ... but reading some of the criticisms ... huh interesting. Then again, there's a real high to being part of a team of 10 people who are shipping a product that people love all across the globe. Interesting. I'm definitely not a big-co guy.