> because Brin and Page enjoy keeping engineers around like pets. Funny, but inaccurate. First, Brin has stopped giving a damn about Google a very long time a

> because Brin and Page enjoy keeping engineers around like pets. Funny, but inaccurate. First, Brin has stopped giving a damn about Google a very long time ago to go and enjoy his life. I suspect from around the time of the "China incident" where both he and Page realized that having ethical positions at the scale Google had reached back then was just not possible anymore. Second, Page held on for a while longer, but eventually followed Brin in not giving two f*cks any more and just enjoying their billions. Page then proceeded to pick the most milquetoast personality in his entourage as his successor (Sundar Pichai), probably because he thought he was the candidate most likely to inflict the least amount of damage with the mighty thing he was handing over (by doing nothing with it). No, I think the explanation is very simple: Google believes that acquiring top talent is the path to further success. They're correct but fail to see that it is only a tiny first step on a very long road. Namely: once you've got the talent, you must: a. Not spoil them rotten by throwing oodles of money at them b. Direct them towards worthy goals c. Focus on execution by actually *managing* them d. Not allow them to play the "hire me for 3M USD a year, I'm an AI diva" musical chair games and actually deliver tangible value. These days, Google is simply incapable of these four things.