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Google Internal Comics
- rammer 5y agoNot good resolution, hard to read some of the text
- city41 5y agoClick on a comic to load a higher res version.
- Black101 5y agoIf you right click and click View Image, you can then zoom in.... helpful for https://goomics.net/img/2018-01-25_mk_cookbook.png https://goomics.net/img/2018-01-25_mk_cookbook.png
- ALittleLight 5y agoYou can also click on an image to open it in a larger viewer and then use the arrow keys to navigate through the gallery.
- ChuckMcM 5y agoCertainly a somewhat limited audience but as a xoogler I found a lot of those hilarious.
- disgruntledphd2 5y agoI worked at another FAANG and some of it just read incredibly true.
- re 5y agoRelated: Google's “court jester” quits, releases 14 years of previously-internal comics https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27773253 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27773253
- briefcomment 5y agoAh, I now understand the latest comic.
- lrem 5y agoThat comic can be read as Sundar finally getting rid of the pain in his shoe. This is not what happened. Manu described in his goodbye the reasons he left (mostly being tired by all the things he's complaining about in his comics and wanting to go somewhere that is remote-friendly) and I have not noticed being pressured out among them.
- mattowen_uk 5y agoSeems he's now at Twitter. Looking forward to Twitcomics.
- DonHopkins 5y agoMakes me wonder if awsgeek has drawn any scathingly brutal internal cartoons about Amazon. https://www.awsgeek.com/ https://www.awsgeek.com/
- echelon 5y agoHow has the author not been fired from Google for such snark? Their Github shows them still employed at the company. Props to this person.
- joshuamorton 5y agoHe quit this week, hence them now being public.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- throwaway3699 5y agoHe left a few days ago, but as far as I'm aware, nobody is going to get fired for a comic at a well functioning company.
- compiler-guy 5y agoManu Cornet left Google earlier this month, but no one has any problem with snark like this. Not management, not HR and not every day Googlers. Some things can’t be said, mostly personal attacks, but the freedom to say critical things very snarkily is completely there and no one thinks anything about it. Compared to some things that are said and published internally, Goomics are quite tame.
- compiler-guy 5y agoTo throw in a little bit more: This freedom to criticize, and management support thereof is one of the reasons many people find Google a good place to work.
- refulgentis 5y agoI went from 100% sure I was taking the Apple offer to a contest when my Google interviewer told me there was an internal meme site with people roasting Google Plus strategic decisions daily. My favorite part of the culture is allowing conversation instead of partitioning and stifling
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- bla3 5y agoDude was done with Google at around comic 280 and didn't notice for almost 100 more comics.
- shadowgovt 5y agoThat's right around the time the sexual misconduct allegations at Google became public (well, the second set regarding Andy Ruben... The ones regarding Vivek Gundotra's behavior came out in 2015). It was a tough pill to swallow for quite a few Googlers that the higher-ups knew about Ruben's behavior and golden-parachuted him instead of cutting him loose (especially because the story broke on the heels of the Damore memo fallout). Questions at All Hands became a lot more pointed, leadership responded by becoming significantly less welcoming to open discussion... It got ugly. Or, if you will, "normal corporate-y."
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- gorwell 5y ago$X00k/yr, free food, lots of pampering, don't have to work hard... might as well stay and make comics.
- bscphil 5y agoI'm not saying this with the intent of harshly criticizing the author, but I admit it's surprising to me that someone (who had other options) would work for 14 years at a company they clearly came to believe was making the world a worse place.
- refulgentis 5y agoThe only disappointing part of Google, for this former Apple aficionado, is how self-flagellating the internal and external culture are. (ex. we see other Googlers/ex-Googlers in this thread noting how funny these are) Thank you for sharing that, I was uncertain if it was my own bias that was making me think similar things
- bb88 5y agoWho knows about bias? Im largely pro Google, and laughed anyway.
- refulgentis 5y agoA non-Googler replying with the same take I was worried that was biased simply by being a Googler, rules out that the take can only be had if you have bias due to being a Googler (as does your take: we're both Googlers and have different opinions!)
- rawtxapp 5y agoThe alternatives aren't really all that better on the topics that he criticized. If you work at big tech, at that scale, it's inevitable there will be parts of the company you disagree with. From my experience there, as long as your criticism is legitimate and constructive, it'll be well received by Googlers/company, heck some of his criticism pales in comparison to the ones done with memes.
- refulgentis 5y agoI don't have as thick a skin as you, and I get really dispirited when this sort of criticism is adopted as a personality trait / cause internally. It's barely criticism rather than hyperbolic rancor, and while every good community needs people pointing out the bad, as you note, people know they're working at a big company and should value how we avoid things like JEDI, etc. thanks to leadership.
- gravypod 5y ago"Don't focus too much on promotion" - A Billionaire Google Exec https://goomics.net/228/ https://goomics.net/228/
- marcosdumay 5y ago"Exercise sheets to practice quickly spotting other contributor names and easing them" If the place looks like a Paranoia game, is it evidence that an AI has already took over the place?
- gravypod 5y ago(Opinion is my own) It's very different between teams. My personal experience: everyone I've worked with is trying really hard to put me in a position where I can succeed. I've been put on very visible projects (from day one) and I'm getting constant help from my TL to keep me on a track to get promoted. Everyone I work with directly is amazing. Google is a magical place but the standard deviation in experiences are large. I've personally been very happy with my experience/team.
- shadowgovt 5y agoAgreed. I never got the sense Google knows how to train managers... It favors a very self-organizing approach, and the feedback loops seem structured to deal with under-performing management by freezing them out of promotion (and hoping they either fix the problem or quit), not replacing them. The consequence is that teams are fiefdoms, and the experience varies wildly based on whether a manager knows what the hell they're doing.
- mattzito 5y agoAs the other respondent said, that's not my generalized experience at Google. I am aware of one situation where I heard that someone who was planning to go up for promo was recreating important documents with only their name on it and then soliciting feedback from people in leadership to beef up their packet. It was not great, but it was successful. But that was the only one of those that I've seen - after 14 years, I would imagine I would have seen more. In general, the big weakness in Google's promo process is that projects that are visible to leadership get more attention than those who are grinding it out behind the scenes. There's been genuine attempts to address that, but it's hard from a practical standpoint. (Obligatory: opinion is my own)
- barbazoo 5y agoI love inside jokes. I hope to be a part of one someday.
- teraflop 5y agoA lot of these comics are self-explanatory, but I'm curious about the story behind this one: https://goomics.net/308/ https://goomics.net/308/
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- throwaway3699 5y agoGoogle used to give away phones as part of the "holiday gift". Basically the suggestion is to give the phones away if they're not sold.
- rawtxapp 5y agoIt's when they stopped the holiday gift tradition (which was a nexus 5 in the last year they actually gave them out iirc).
- mjg59 5y agoA 5x, which ended badly when they mostly died due to a hardware design issue.
- bookofsand 5y agoGuess. Ruth Porat + Google employee count.
- rkagerer 5y agoD̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶e̶v̶i̶l̶ D̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ Pray that nobody notices https://goomics.net/314/ https://goomics.net/314/
- exikyut 5y ago[The entire Internet notices]
- chrisweekly 5y agoThese are great!! Thank you for sharing. :)
- anigbrowl 5y agoPretty strong collection in the aggregate.
- powera 5y agoLots of good comics in there. A few I haven't seen highlighted yet: https://goomics.net/127/ https://goomics.net/127/ - poor, poor Google Plus. Somehow it wasn't a warning sign that the big executive-supported project to Win Social was a laughingstock internally. https://goomics.net/202/ https://goomics.net/202/ followed years later by https://goomics.net/294/ https://goomics.net/294/ - everybody expected TGIF to get worse over time, and apparently it did. https://goomics.net/118/ https://goomics.net/118/ - the last of three TailGator comics. A more innocent time. And last, https://goomics.net/106/ https://goomics.net/106/ - not Google-specific at all, but an instant classic of the industry.
- flowerlad 5y agoWhat's TGIF at Google? Is it a weekly event where you can ask exec questions in an open forum?
- dudus 5y agoThat was the original intent
- malwarebytess 5y agoBit like that. After hard questions starting being asked the execs locked that shit right down. Not much of substance goes on there anymore. Just fake shit and platitudes.
- tolbish 5y agoWell that doesn't sound very Google-y.
- fossuser 5y agoHard to know without being there - but honest/nuanced answers require in-good-faith questions and not political posturing or using the opportunity to attack/leak. Though I think Zuckerberg has done a good job continuing this despite the leaks (at least that's what it seems like externally). It might not be just the company that changed, but the employees too (which may have forced Google to change policy as a result).
- umvi 5y agohttps://goomics.net/329/ https://goomics.net/329/ This one has a lot of meme opportunity. Imagine a third pane ("Oracle" or something) with guns pointed both inward and outward!
- saurik 5y agohttps://readwrite.com/2013/07/11/microsoft-reorganziation-tries-again-to-point-all-its-guns-outside-the-company/amp/ https://readwrite.com/2013/07/11/microsoft-reorganziation-tr... edit: (I failed to realize this was in the same archive ;P. I now see someone else posted that link)
- chrismorgan 5y agoRelated: https://goomics.net/62/ https://goomics.net/62/ (probably his best-known one).
- lostmsu 5y agoConsidering number of chat apps by Google, they should adopt former MS's one.
- projectsforlife 5y agoFYI: the author of that comic has just left Google: https://twitter.com/bysarahkrouse/status/1412771753466732545?s=21 https://twitter.com/bysarahkrouse/status/1412771753466732545...
- scrollaway 5y agoWow, that was his? I had no idea. Saw it way back, never knew it was a Google comic.
- ikiris 5y agonot sure how accurate it is these days either
- fossuser 5y agoI think Oracle would still have a bouquet of roses, but they'd only go to Larry Ellison.
- bawolff 5y agoFor all the comments here, i thought the criticism in these comics would be a lot more biting.
- twirlock 5y agoProbably the funniest part is the revelation that this is what passes for "scathing critique" from the "jester" in the "googler" bubble.
- lxe 5y agoTons of these are relevant to tech industry in general.
- gorgoiler 5y agoSome fun here but wow do these get negative. I can relate to a lot of this stuff and I hope the artist is ok. If a relationship is bringing you sadness and negativity all the time then it either needs some nurturing or a nuclear option. The nice thing with employer relationships is you can literally walk away. Relationships with people are worth fixing but no job is worth the sadness, even if it’s with someone as prestigious as Google.com.
- marricks 5y agoUS’s culture has a lot of focus on one’s self and the steps one should take to get themselves better. Little focus on how awful systems or companies coughlike Googlecough are the one’s with the issues, not us.
- xtc303sqrt 5y agoThis is not my experience working for Bay Area tech companies at all. A significant number of employees seem to think criticizing their employer is their primary job function. If there’s nothing to complain about at the moment, they’ll manufacture it. They need a constant outlet to express how awful and oppressive their employer is, and if they don’t get enough attention internally, they’ll turn to Twitter and try to drum up outrage externally. If a company has crossed an ethical (not political) line, I’m all for taking a stand. But this goes far beyond that.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- wnevets 5y agohttps://goomics.net/366/ https://goomics.net/366/ some much about I what dislike about google these days can be traced backed to this comic
- jacinda 5y agoOther work from the same author (has been a public site for a while): https://bonkersworld.net/ https://bonkersworld.net/
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- jostyee 5y agopity the RSS feed is dead: https://goomics.net/feed.xml https://goomics.net/feed.xml
- juloo 5y agoThere's https://bonkersworld.net/ https://bonkersworld.net/ with a working feed. Last entry Nov 2020.
- chizhik-pyzhik 5y agoYou can use the 'j' and 'k' keys to navigate between comics.
- rtpg 5y agoAnyone know the story behind "Code Mega"?
- brainwad 5y agoIt was a nightmare migration that went super over-deadline and people were dragooned into working nights/weekends.
- Donckele 5y agoGood one: https://goomics.net/361/ https://goomics.net/361/
- q3k 5y agoI know it's poking fun at the amount of SCREAMING_SNAKE annotations and checkers and overhead to submit a simple CL... but man oh man do I miss Critique.
- gcatalfamo 5y agoIs it me or the site navigation makes it really annoying to go through the comics? Comic sites (e.g. xkcd) usually allow users to navigate sequentially without having to go back a page after each comic.
- matsemann 5y agotry j and k
- CrystalCuckoo 5y agoThere are arrows on each side of the comic. They're transparent, but they're there.
- carlsborg 5y agoLaunch and run warrants the brag. Shipping is hard.
- Lammy 5y agoBraised https://goomics.net/347/ https://goomics.net/347/
- matsemann 5y ago> https://goomics.net/347/ https://goomics.net/347/ Rules for thee, not for me.
- BossingAround 5y agohttps://goomics.net/17/ https://goomics.net/17/ > Size of the pool of candidates for a position at Google <image of the world here> Yea, no. It's kind of funny that the image of the world is centered at North America. That's how I feel about Google (and a lot of other big tech) hiring practices. I'm not saying you can't work for Google from the UK, Germany, India, or other places, but it gets a lot harder.
- hoteltree 5y agoIsn’t this true of most companies?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- BossingAround 5y agoI don't know to be honest. Realistically speaking, the bigger the company the easier it should be to hire elsewhere. Google has legal representation pretty much everywhere in the world, yet when I see engineering positions, they are mostly "anywhere in the US". For example, I feel like Oracle, IBM, or Accenture will be happy to hire you in a country like Slovenia, while companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc. are more likely to force you to relocate to a place where they've got a large office. All of the above is my subjective perspective of course, I haven't worked for Google, MS, nor Apple. I'd love to know which big tech companies are happy to hire a remote-only engineer and let them work from their own country.
- mqus 5y agoThey are great! But some (most?) could really benefit from a creation date/year being visible, especially when referencing years that are made out to be "far in the future" but are in the past now
- 0x456 5y agoHopefully someday this will have a companion site, like https://www.explainxkcd.com/ https://www.explainxkcd.com/
- notacoward 5y agoThe fact that you could rebrand at least 70% of these as Facemics or about a hundred other Xyzmics says a lot about how much Google drives tech-industry culture. Worth pondering whether that's a good thing.
- y3sh 5y agoXoogler here, I loved these too... I wish I could find the internal comic about Intellij and Eclipse both as big floating messes -- similar in style to https://goomics.net/364/ https://goomics.net/364/. It might have been an internal meme.
- ta988 5y agoIt is interesting to see people complaining about google getting into military and immigration. And not complaining about universities doing the exact same thing. I don't see much opposition in the academic and they work on the same kind of "problems".
- spywaregorilla 5y agohttps://goomics.net/348/ https://goomics.net/348/ This one is fantastic. Seems a little strange that they're wearing an apple shirt when google does the same thing though and its a google comic that seems generally self-scathing.
- miga 5y agoLooks like Dilbert is now working for a real company... And there are 30 thousands of him.
- brainwad 5y agohttps://goomics.net/239/ https://goomics.net/239/ needs a few more darts ;)
- ur-whale 5y agohttps://goomics.net/237/ https://goomics.net/237/ Haha, so true.
- throwaway894345 5y ago365. Oof.
- Liskni_si 5y agoI made a comic book archive out of it for easier reading on phones/tablets/e-inks: https://store.lisk.in/tmp/goomics.cbz https://store.lisk.in/tmp/goomics.cbz