Hewlett-Packard should get credit for what the author calls “open culture.” They laid the foundations back in the 1940s. Google did not invent any of the cultur

Hewlett-Packard should get credit for what the author calls “open culture.” They laid the foundations back in the 1940s. Google did not invent any of the culture or perks now common in tech workplaces, though they scaled it up and out to almost comical extremes. Sundar Pichai asked employees to focus and minimize distractions. That implies he sees Google employees derailed by distractions and focusing on non-productive things. That could mean arguing about politics or ideology on work time, or spending one day a week on some personal project, or writing articles about transhumanism. It also implies Google has clear missions communicated to employees, and effective management in place to execute. I don’t know, never worked there (I have friends who have and still do), but anecdotally it’s hard to work at 100% in an adult kindergarten environment that encourages entitlement. The author repeats the seemingly profound assertion “The fastest way to do something is to do it right, no matter how long it takes” several times. A moment’s reflection shows the hubris of that statement. To do something “right” usually means iterating several times just to figure out what “right” looks like. No one knows how to do programming “right.” Programmers may delude themselves and others that they do know, but they don’t. In the real world productivity does not equal excellence. More often it means getting something useful, if imperfect, out the door. It means gaining first to market advantage and network effect. In business terms what programmers think of as “excellence” may have little value, and so the productivity has no meaning or effect. Holding out to do something the right way — as one person defines “right” — doesn’t lead to more productivity, but rather the opposite. If only we knew in advance what products will turn out “great” or “excellent,” and the one “right” way to develop those products.