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well in this case it seems like Alphabet is finally getting more disciplined around spending when it comes to all these unprofitable “moonshots” that have large

by tempsy 4y ago

well in this case it seems like Alphabet is finally getting more disciplined around spending when it comes to all these unprofitable “moonshots” that have largely gone nowhere. i don’t think Google has announced layoffs yet.

chrisweekly 4y ago
Verily is not a moonshot.
- tempsy 4y ago
  it’s an experimental business that doesn’t make meaningful money for Google.
- cocoman 4y ago
  [dead]
munk-a 4y ago
I think being more disciplined about moonshot investments is actually a terrible thing. Tech in our modern society has some absolutely ridiculously profit margins - since those margins aren't being taxed in a sane manner it'd be nice if they at least went to far out there research and development that occasionally produced interesting and novel tools for us to use. Tech companies are also in a really unique situation when it comes to layoffs as a way to appear economically healthy. Outside of critical infrastructure like ops and a few other key tasks required to maintain tool quality - development can pretty much be full stopped for a few months without seriously degrading the quality of the product or expected revenue - yes, continued feature development and maintenance is needed to keep a company relevant in the long term but in the short term nobody is going to notice if the maintenance patch that would've been released this week is delayed until June. Our (as in customers, even power users like HN folks) ability to comprehend code rot in the products we're using is extremely weak - sure you might subscribe to the git repo of a tool or two that you're specifically interested in, but it's infeasible to track the good news about every single application that passes through your hands on a daily basis. And, while this isn't true for everyone, I think it's reasonable to assume that even most of us tech literate HN users only really notice software patches when they break things. Humans are very biased to noticed negative changes.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

by tempsy 4y ago

chrisweekly 4y ago

Verily is not a moonshot.

tempsy 4y ago
it’s an experimental business that doesn’t make meaningful money for Google.
cocoman 4y ago
[dead]

munk-a 4y ago

I think being more disciplined about moonshot investments is actually a terrible thing. Tech in our modern society has some absolutely ridiculously profit margins - since those margins aren't being taxed in a sane manner it'd be nice if they at least went to far out there research and development that occasionally produced interesting and novel tools for us to use. Tech companies are also in a really unique situation when it comes to layoffs as a way to appear economically healthy. Outside of critical infrastructure like ops and a few other key tasks required to maintain tool quality - development can pretty much be full stopped for a few months without seriously degrading the quality of the product or expected revenue - yes, continued feature development and maintenance is needed to keep a company relevant in the long term but in the short term nobody is going to notice if the maintenance patch that would've been released this week is delayed until June. Our (as in customers, even power users like HN folks) ability to comprehend code rot in the products we're using is extremely weak - sure you might subscribe to the git repo of a tool or two that you're specifically interested in, but it's infeasible to track the good news about every single application that passes through your hands on a daily basis. And, while this isn't true for everyone, I think it's reasonable to assume that even most of us tech literate HN users only really notice software patches when they break things. Humans are very biased to noticed negative changes.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]