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It's not impossible to "focus" Google but lets not pretend Google is making these decisions to focus on something or not. It's small groups of people or singula

It's not impossible to "focus" Google but lets not pretend Google is making these decisions to focus on something or not. It's small groups of people or singular people who make these decisions and those visionaries can easily change their focus or be offered a more compelling role at a start up doing the same thing after they spend 12 months learning how to do it at Google. I don't love Facebook/Meta but it looks like they put a lot of eggs into the Metaverse bucket. Google has never really done that. They have dabbled and because its Google people assume its going to be big or meaningful. But once people internally make enough progress to get promoted and move around internally its not going to continue to be supported without guidance from the top and the top doesnt care about AR/VR/Metaverse. Or at least they havnt until now.

gonehome 5y ago
I’m a little confused by your first sentence because it sounds like we’re mostly in agreement? Google does a bunch of random things kind of haphazardly. Whether this is caused by incentive problems around promo or something else I don’t know. I don’t think they compare favorably to Apple, Zuckerberg, or modern Microsoft. I’d guess it comes from the top.
potatolicious 5y ago
The two statements don't really work together: > It's small groups of people or singular people who make these decisions and those visionaries can easily change their focus or be offered a more compelling role True! All companies face this problem. Smart, capable people have options and frequently will decide to leave and do something else/go somewhere else. > but lets not pretend Google is making these decisions to focus on something or not This is where the disconnect is. As a company you decide what things are priorities, and you build teams to pursue those priorities in a way that is resilient to people leaving - even extremely senior leadership individuals. If a project withers and dies because a key player leaves, then it never had the company's focus. Part of effectively managing a company is to ensure your most important things don't have a low bus factor (or in Google's case, a bug factor of exactly one). MS, FB, Apple, etc, all have a record of being able to relentlessly pursue a particular goal despite being subject to the same workforce attrition forces that affect Google.
jfim 5y ago
> I don't love Facebook/Meta but it looks like they put a lot of eggs into the Metaverse bucket. Google has never really done that. They did with Google Plus, and they eventually killed it.

gonehome 5y ago

I’m a little confused by your first sentence because it sounds like we’re mostly in agreement? Google does a bunch of random things kind of haphazardly. Whether this is caused by incentive problems around promo or something else I don’t know. I don’t think they compare favorably to Apple, Zuckerberg, or modern Microsoft. I’d guess it comes from the top.

potatolicious 5y ago

The two statements don't really work together: > It's small groups of people or singular people who make these decisions and those visionaries can easily change their focus or be offered a more compelling role True! All companies face this problem. Smart, capable people have options and frequently will decide to leave and do something else/go somewhere else. > but lets not pretend Google is making these decisions to focus on something or not This is where the disconnect is. As a company you decide what things are priorities, and you build teams to pursue those priorities in a way that is resilient to people leaving - even extremely senior leadership individuals. If a project withers and dies because a key player leaves, then it never had the company's focus. Part of effectively managing a company is to ensure your most important things don't have a low bus factor (or in Google's case, a bug factor of exactly one). MS, FB, Apple, etc, all have a record of being able to relentlessly pursue a particular goal despite being subject to the same workforce attrition forces that affect Google.

jfim 5y ago

> I don't love Facebook/Meta but it looks like they put a lot of eggs into the Metaverse bucket. Google has never really done that. They did with Google Plus, and they eventually killed it.