> Brian writes very succinct and clear descriptions of problems encountered inside google, breaks them down to “what worked, what didn’t work”, and then would s

> Brian writes very succinct and clear descriptions of problems encountered inside google, breaks them down to “what worked, what didn’t work”, and then would summarize a design seed in a github comment (of which several such subsystems subsequently were implemented that have been fairly successful). I would keep mental track of some of these comments and assign a score based on how much R&D investment at google was compressed into a 200-300 word comment Most places I have seen, architects seem to spend most of their time writing out overly verbose documents, detailed specifications, making presentations etc etc. There is pressure to show you are in charge of the project and accountable for it so you end up with all these ceremonies where you create heaps of content and dump it onto the teams. Whereas the sort of situation you described is really where the role of an architect shines, in making sense of the chaos and showing light to the teams. You often don't need more than a short message or a brief meeting to convey these ideas, but such things don't lend upward visibility to what you're doing. I've always wondered if the life of an architect in Google involves these things or is quite different from most organizations?