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ex-googler here, who has had similar criticisms but was able to recognize their own flaws and mistakes, chipping in. Doesn't the culture, as described, exacerb

ex-googler here, who has had similar criticisms but was able to recognize their own flaws and mistakes, chipping in. Doesn't the culture, as described, exacerbate certain flaws in certain people while hiding flaws of a different kind in others? At google it's easy to see how a flawed engineer might suffer from impatience, lack of tact, inability to read the room, poor social skills, not being attentive to details or to everyone's needs. It's easy to ascribe flaws to someone who makes mistakes and, instead of writing a lengthy postmortem and installing a process, goes ahead and fixes them while pleading for everyone to move on and keep shipping. Yet at the same time, the sins of complacency, cowardice, inability to make decisions or take calculated risks, rigidity, and aversion to hard, uncomfortable work remain well-hidden. Sometimes, they are even elevated to praise! At Google, it's better to waste everyone's time or do nothing, than take a risk and ruffle some feathers (and I'm not even talking about taking externally visible risks here--a decision to build a certain piece of infra or shut down a project). And the cycle repeats. A brilliant but "flawed" engineer realizes they can't work in that culture. They blow up and move on. Everyone says "eh, they make mistakes, can't read the room, and are difficult to work with. Poor culture fit". Well, for them, a bunch of complacent do-nothings is also extremely difficult to work with. But the do-nothings are in charge, and they are not. So they leave. Rinse and repeat.

timmg 4y ago
In every failed relationship there are two sides. Maybe one is entirely at fault, maybe the other, maybe both share blame of maybe there's just a basic incompatibility. This is true for work just like it is for marriage. In each case, it is easy for one to point out flaws in the other. And in some cases, "the other" is the only one that has flaws. But in most cases it is probably a combination. Just because a company has culture issues doesn't mean that every employee is blameless or perfect. When someone doesn't work out for a job it is hard to disentangle how much of the blame belongs on each party. In this case, I'm fairly familiar with a lot of the facts on the ground. As I said above the article makes a good critique of the real problems Google has. But it also blames some of those problems for mistakes/failures the author himself made (in my opinion).
- thorwagoog 4y ago
  You make good points. I'm not in a rush to ascribe blame to anyone. It's just that sometimes certain culture prompts people of certain mindset to make certain mistakes. Repeatedly and predictably. Is the culture to blame, or is that person to blame (each and every time)? And is it productive to even use the word "blame" in this situation, or should other concepts be used? Since you're more familiar with the facts of the case, I can contribute nothing more than to offer a different angle to look at this. And I'll leave the author's self-improvement journey to the author.

timmg 4y ago

In every failed relationship there are two sides. Maybe one is entirely at fault, maybe the other, maybe both share blame of maybe there's just a basic incompatibility. This is true for work just like it is for marriage. In each case, it is easy for one to point out flaws in the other. And in some cases, "the other" is the only one that has flaws. But in most cases it is probably a combination. Just because a company has culture issues doesn't mean that every employee is blameless or perfect. When someone doesn't work out for a job it is hard to disentangle how much of the blame belongs on each party. In this case, I'm fairly familiar with a lot of the facts on the ground. As I said above the article makes a good critique of the real problems Google has. But it also blames some of those problems for mistakes/failures the author himself made (in my opinion).

thorwagoog 4y ago
You make good points. I'm not in a rush to ascribe blame to anyone. It's just that sometimes certain culture prompts people of certain mindset to make certain mistakes. Repeatedly and predictably. Is the culture to blame, or is that person to blame (each and every time)? And is it productive to even use the word "blame" in this situation, or should other concepts be used? Since you're more familiar with the facts of the case, I can contribute nothing more than to offer a different angle to look at this. And I'll leave the author's self-improvement journey to the author.