4 ms·

Interesting preface I thought. What's the benefit of leaving google to maintain something he could have maintained while still working at google? Just wondering

by keyle 4y ago

Interesting preface I thought. What's the benefit of leaving google to maintain something he could have maintained while still working at google? Just wondering, not questioning. I imagine he had his reasons... But quitting to continuing what you were doing being paid for in such a large org sounds strange. Maybe I misread the preface.

rrdharan 4y ago
He covers his thinking pretty well here: https://words.filippo.io/professional-maintainers/ https://words.filippo.io/professional-maintainers/ > Being employed as a full-time maintainer by a big company pays better but is not much healthier, both organizationally and individually. Executives and promotion committees start asking "what is it that we pay you for exactly?", and suddenly you're spending more and more time proving your work is important, and less and less time doing it. The workload increases as the project grows, but the team struggles to get more resources, no one gets promoted, and people burn out and leave or change roles. I've seen this play out across multiple companies and ecosystems, over and over.
- varispeed 4y ago
  If I can be cynical, they I'd say that it's quite clever strategy of Google to get people who actually care about the product and who can bring meaningful contributions, to work for free.
  - rrdharan 4y ago
    > I've seen this play out across multiple companies and ecosystems, over and over. I don’t see what’s Google specific about any of this? Certainly one can argue that it’s a massive global conspiracy coordinated across the multiple companies alluded to…
LVB 4y ago
A key reason from the "I'm leaving Google" tweets [1]: I believe Open Source will change one way or another, so I'm putting my (lack of) money where my mouth is, and doing what I think can best catalyze the change I want: becoming a professional, independent Open Source maintainer myself. [1] https://twitter.com/FiloSottile/status/1522671407636877315 https://twitter.com/FiloSottile/status/1522671407636877315

by keyle 4y ago

rrdharan 4y ago

He covers his thinking pretty well here: https://words.filippo.io/professional-maintainers/ https://words.filippo.io/professional-maintainers/ > Being employed as a full-time maintainer by a big company pays better but is not much healthier, both organizationally and individually. Executives and promotion committees start asking "what is it that we pay you for exactly?", and suddenly you're spending more and more time proving your work is important, and less and less time doing it. The workload increases as the project grows, but the team struggles to get more resources, no one gets promoted, and people burn out and leave or change roles. I've seen this play out across multiple companies and ecosystems, over and over.

varispeed 4y ago
If I can be cynical, they I'd say that it's quite clever strategy of Google to get people who actually care about the product and who can bring meaningful contributions, to work for free.
- rrdharan 4y ago
  > I've seen this play out across multiple companies and ecosystems, over and over. I don’t see what’s Google specific about any of this? Certainly one can argue that it’s a massive global conspiracy coordinated across the multiple companies alluded to…

LVB 4y ago

A key reason from the "I'm leaving Google" tweets [1]: I believe Open Source will change one way or another, so I'm putting my (lack of) money where my mouth is, and doing what I think can best catalyze the change I want: becoming a professional, independent Open Source maintainer myself. [1] https://twitter.com/FiloSottile/status/1522671407636877315 https://twitter.com/FiloSottile/status/1522671407636877315