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I sometimes wonder how so many intelligent people in one company can't figure out their chat app strategy. At one moment there were 7 competing messenger apps f

I sometimes wonder how so many intelligent people in one company can't figure out their chat app strategy. At one moment there were 7 competing messenger apps from Google. For the last few years I don't even bother opening any of them. (And I'm thankful that it is possible to turn off "Chat" tab shoehorned into their Gmail app - even though you have to do it separately for every account!)

n8cpdx 4y ago
The Google-style interview (not just Google but big tech in general) selects for a very specific kind of tactical narrow-focus intelligence. Thinking big picture or strategically doesn’t come up at all in an algorithms interview. And thinking big picture really is a detriment to succeeding in a leetcode grind unless the only picture you’re looking at is total comp. The type of person who works at Google probably isn’t well equipped to make good products, even if they’re great at writing software.
- throwaway821909 4y ago
  Surely devs have very limited influence over this? I can't imagine everyone else also does leetcode?
  - phist_mcgee 4y ago
    Devs become managers, ever met a manager who seemed to not want to be there, but somehow was in charge? Same thing happens at google and perhaps has an ever bigger impact compared to at other companies based on the scale of the projects they work on.
    - UncleMeat 4y ago
      I believe that eng managers are also not the ones making this call.
unity1001 4y ago
> I sometimes wonder how so many intelligent people in one company can't figure out their chat app strategy. Lack of social empathy in understanding their user base. Over-emphasis in engineering and treating it as if it was a religion causing omission of human-factor inherent in the Internet product and user ecosystems. Resulting in them not giving a zit about their users. https://steve-yegge.medium.com/dear-google-cloud-your-deprecation-policy-is-killing-you-ee7525dc05dc https://steve-yegge.medium.com/dear-google-cloud-your-deprec...

n8cpdx 4y ago

The Google-style interview (not just Google but big tech in general) selects for a very specific kind of tactical narrow-focus intelligence. Thinking big picture or strategically doesn’t come up at all in an algorithms interview. And thinking big picture really is a detriment to succeeding in a leetcode grind unless the only picture you’re looking at is total comp. The type of person who works at Google probably isn’t well equipped to make good products, even if they’re great at writing software.

throwaway821909 4y ago
Surely devs have very limited influence over this? I can't imagine everyone else also does leetcode?
- phist_mcgee 4y ago
  Devs become managers, ever met a manager who seemed to not want to be there, but somehow was in charge? Same thing happens at google and perhaps has an ever bigger impact compared to at other companies based on the scale of the projects they work on.
  - UncleMeat 4y ago
    I believe that eng managers are also not the ones making this call.

unity1001 4y ago

> I sometimes wonder how so many intelligent people in one company can't figure out their chat app strategy. Lack of social empathy in understanding their user base. Over-emphasis in engineering and treating it as if it was a religion causing omission of human-factor inherent in the Internet product and user ecosystems. Resulting in them not giving a zit about their users. https://steve-yegge.medium.com/dear-google-cloud-your-deprecation-policy-is-killing-you-ee7525dc05dc https://steve-yegge.medium.com/dear-google-cloud-your-deprec...