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Thank you Sundar for getting rid of the frivolous, Silicon-Valley-esque things like coding competitions for kids, extricating all of the humanity and decency th

Thank you Sundar for getting rid of the frivolous, Silicon-Valley-esque things like coding competitions for kids, extricating all of the humanity and decency that made Google so inefficient with money, and for doubling down on your focus to turn Google into the next iteration of Cisco, Oracle and IBM. It's exactly what this world needs, so you are the perfect leader for this.

mouse_ 4y ago
Sundar is a scapegoat.
- MetaverseClub 4y ago
  I'm offering to play the scapegoat for him and only asking for half of his compensation.
  - geodel 4y ago
    Great idea! Reach out to Google board. They'd be thrilled to see double the talent at half the price.
  - agentwiggles 4y ago
    I'll be his scapegoat for a mere 10th of what he makes! You can blame me for anything you dislike that Google does. As a matter of fact, I think we could crowdfund this. Watch this space for a link to my Patreon, where you can pay a mere $10 per month to blame me for things that upset you. If you'd like to sign up for my special High Flyers VIP pricing, you can even call me and rant at me for the decisions of companies and governments that bother you. I can take it! The buck stops here!
- whatshisface 4y ago
  Aside from the fact that most of Google's upper levels want this to happen, isn't it true that Sundar wants it to happen too?
- VHRanger 4y ago
  He's CEO. Responsibility falls on him at the end of the day to get this stuff right. If internal politics are in the way of achieving high level goals it's the CEO's job to address those internal power games.
- echelon 4y ago
  Sundar is Leslie Nielsen when the pilots (Larry, Sergey, Eric) decide to get sick on dirigibles, parties, trying to become government tech czar, etc. Nobody's flying the plane. It's on search ad autopilot and slowly crashing into the ground. Could make for one of the most catastrophic value destruction stories of our time.
- red-iron-pine 4y ago
  Corporate Executive Officers exist to take responsibility. That's the point.
random314 4y ago
They should merge IBM and Oracle and make Sundar the CEO. Apart from plastering ads in every nook and cranny and a stupid attempt to enter China, he has achieved nothing.
- AndrewKemendo 4y ago
  If Kurian promotes into the Global CEO role then it would immediately be complete
nemo44x 4y ago
He's such a bad CEO that I can't believe he's still in the seat. Just the way he let the employees revolt and embarrass him. If he had any dignity or pride he would have resigned then. He may know all the facts on how businesses should be run and is a good guy, but he has 0 leadership skills. Just an awful, terrible leader. The ChatGPT fiasco is further evidence the place has been mismanaged the last 8 years.
- roncesvalles 4y ago
  If a person is in a $200m per year job, they're primarily incentivized to keep the job for as long as possible. This one objective dwarfs any other consideration in every decision that the person makes. And sure, 99% of his compensation is Google stock, but at those magnitudes the marginal utility of the dollar is zero. What's the difference between $100m and $200m anyway?
  - realslimjd 4y ago
    $100,000,000
    - QuercusMax 4y ago
      OK, so you can buy 10 mega yachts instead of only 5. You've got 30 vacation homes instead of just 10. How does this actually impact your life?
      - Gigachad 4y ago
        Because they don’t buy 30 vacation homes, they buy companies. Where the extra 100m goes a long way. I’m sure he is quite comfortable on 100m though.
        QuercusMax 4y ago
        Again - what difference does it make to your life, aside from empire-building, to have an extra $100m? Nothing. It's just greed.
sien 4y ago
That's hardly fair. Cisco, Oracle and IBM actually have some customer service.
- red-iron-pine 4y ago
  Cisco does -- if you pay for it. As for Oracle -- never dealing with them again if I can help it.
  - mrguyorama 4y ago
    If you spend a million dollars on Oracle hardware they at least give you a human being who is authorized to fix things for you and diagnose your problems. Meanwhile in google land, you can literally be bring in millions of dollars worth of advertising revenue on your channel and asking for help from your dedicated Youtube contact/representative can get your entire channel retroactively demonitized https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRsVDZvmaAE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRsVDZvmaAE
    - leereeves 4y ago
      That creator seems to have found some help eventually, because their channel isn't age-restricted now and they're still posting videos on YT.
      - snerbles 4y ago
        It looks like it took social media shaming and backchannels, similar to the occasional desperate post on HN for support for locked accounts and such.
      - mrguyorama 4y ago
        If you watch the video, they explain how 1) none of the videos that they pulled clips from to make the highlight reel were age restricted, 2) this exact situation occurred last year, and the youtube rep assured them this was a mistake and it wouldn't happen this time, 3) the Youtube rep once again reassured them that this was absurd, 4) after reaching out to the rep and being told their complaint was being reviewed, videos that were years old suddenly became age restricted, 5) the rep apologized and explained that the new age restrictions were as intended. This means that even if you have 2 million subscribers and a youtube rep for support, asking google for help is just as likely to ruin you as actually fix anything.
lwneal 4y ago
Sundar is the Steve Ballmer of Google. And that's fine! Ballmer was a competent if uninspiring CEO: Microsoft under his leadership missed many new opportunities, but still made lots of money. Most importantly, Ballmer's tenure is what made it possible for Satya Nadella to pivot Microsoft into what it is today. Realistically, Windows Phone was never going to beat Apple, Bing was not going to beat Google, Yammer was not going to be the next Facebook, but Microsoft had to try and fail in order to learn those lessons. The real question is who- if anyone- will be the Satya Nadella of Google, bringing the company back for a third act in the post-AI world. And maybe, in this new world, the limiting factor of human progress is not the number of CS grads who can solve coding puzzles.
- bsaul 4y ago
  Fully disagree with windows phone. It never reached enough maturity to be a true competitor to ios, but it absolutely could have won over android. the gui was truely innovative (with the « tiles » system), and the general feeling and smoothness was absolutely better than android. Microsoft missed a huge opportunity there. It never was a technical problem, MS knows how to make operating system. It was only a strategical one. Ballmer is 100% to blame for that.
  - 8note 4y ago
    The windows phone would never win over android. Google is the web monopolist, and would never build apps like YouTube or Maps for a Windows phone product, since it would compete with Android, and not have the market share of the iphone. Microsoft tried making their own YouTube app, which Google had taken down. Without access to the Google web products, a new phone ecosystem is going to be dead on arrival
    - charcircuit 4y ago
      Microsoft added back the YouTube app a few months later.
  - dashundchen 4y ago
    In terms of UI, Windows Phone was so far ahead of Android and iOS at the time (and in many areas still beats both of them. Android is still a mess). The Nokia Lumia series of phones also were solid with great cameras in an era of plastic Android phones. I agree Microsoft flubbed the strategy, same with Zune where they had a technically superior product but no commitment. Platform reboots killed any developer momentum they built - Windows Phone 8 apps were not backwards compatible with Windows Phone 7 which itself was a clean break with Windows Mobile. A lot of trending apps like Instagram and Snapchat never released apps on the platform, so you had to use third party knock-offs that chased private APIs. Microsoft did build some great social media integrations that tied your contacts into a single local profile across platforms (Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook). They also kept rebranding and shuffling services on the phones - for example Zune became Xbox Music became Groove.
AndrewKemendo 4y ago
There are two possible outcomes for a publicly traded company that has figured out how to make a lot of money over a long period 1. Continue to accrete new revenue sources and pivot slightly forever until you eventually do a bit of everything, "diversifying" to the point where you become in effect a small nation 2. Stick to your plan and go out of business These are the two possible outcomes as a public company
- Spooky23 4y ago
  3 - Split up and create value. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, etc are offensive companies in that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Microsoft in particular is held back by having to support the platforms. Office as a standalone company would be worth more than Microsoft.
  - noncoml 4y ago
    Have you tried Office lately? Feels like all coding is done by 14yo olds that just discovered programming. Also feature wise, why do I need a LinkedIn option on Excel. But that’s what you get when there is 0 competition. What we need in competition and anti-monopolistic policies. Not splitting up companies. For starts let’s get rid of the fucking patents for all software.

mouse_ 4y ago

Sundar is a scapegoat.

MetaverseClub 4y ago
I'm offering to play the scapegoat for him and only asking for half of his compensation.
- geodel 4y ago
  Great idea! Reach out to Google board. They'd be thrilled to see double the talent at half the price.
- agentwiggles 4y ago
  I'll be his scapegoat for a mere 10th of what he makes! You can blame me for anything you dislike that Google does. As a matter of fact, I think we could crowdfund this. Watch this space for a link to my Patreon, where you can pay a mere $10 per month to blame me for things that upset you. If you'd like to sign up for my special High Flyers VIP pricing, you can even call me and rant at me for the decisions of companies and governments that bother you. I can take it! The buck stops here!
whatshisface 4y ago
Aside from the fact that most of Google's upper levels want this to happen, isn't it true that Sundar wants it to happen too?
VHRanger 4y ago
He's CEO. Responsibility falls on him at the end of the day to get this stuff right. If internal politics are in the way of achieving high level goals it's the CEO's job to address those internal power games.
echelon 4y ago
Sundar is Leslie Nielsen when the pilots (Larry, Sergey, Eric) decide to get sick on dirigibles, parties, trying to become government tech czar, etc. Nobody's flying the plane. It's on search ad autopilot and slowly crashing into the ground. Could make for one of the most catastrophic value destruction stories of our time.
red-iron-pine 4y ago
Corporate Executive Officers exist to take responsibility. That's the point.

random314 4y ago

They should merge IBM and Oracle and make Sundar the CEO. Apart from plastering ads in every nook and cranny and a stupid attempt to enter China, he has achieved nothing.

AndrewKemendo 4y ago
If Kurian promotes into the Global CEO role then it would immediately be complete

nemo44x 4y ago

He's such a bad CEO that I can't believe he's still in the seat. Just the way he let the employees revolt and embarrass him. If he had any dignity or pride he would have resigned then. He may know all the facts on how businesses should be run and is a good guy, but he has 0 leadership skills. Just an awful, terrible leader. The ChatGPT fiasco is further evidence the place has been mismanaged the last 8 years.

roncesvalles 4y ago
If a person is in a $200m per year job, they're primarily incentivized to keep the job for as long as possible. This one objective dwarfs any other consideration in every decision that the person makes. And sure, 99% of his compensation is Google stock, but at those magnitudes the marginal utility of the dollar is zero. What's the difference between $100m and $200m anyway?
- realslimjd 4y ago
  $100,000,000
  - QuercusMax 4y ago
    OK, so you can buy 10 mega yachts instead of only 5. You've got 30 vacation homes instead of just 10. How does this actually impact your life?
    - Gigachad 4y ago
      Because they don’t buy 30 vacation homes, they buy companies. Where the extra 100m goes a long way. I’m sure he is quite comfortable on 100m though.
      - QuercusMax 4y ago
        Again - what difference does it make to your life, aside from empire-building, to have an extra $100m? Nothing. It's just greed.

sien 4y ago

That's hardly fair. Cisco, Oracle and IBM actually have some customer service.

red-iron-pine 4y ago
Cisco does -- if you pay for it. As for Oracle -- never dealing with them again if I can help it.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  If you spend a million dollars on Oracle hardware they at least give you a human being who is authorized to fix things for you and diagnose your problems. Meanwhile in google land, you can literally be bring in millions of dollars worth of advertising revenue on your channel and asking for help from your dedicated Youtube contact/representative can get your entire channel retroactively demonitized https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRsVDZvmaAE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRsVDZvmaAE
  - leereeves 4y ago
    That creator seems to have found some help eventually, because their channel isn't age-restricted now and they're still posting videos on YT.
    - snerbles 4y ago
      It looks like it took social media shaming and backchannels, similar to the occasional desperate post on HN for support for locked accounts and such.
    - mrguyorama 4y ago
      If you watch the video, they explain how 1) none of the videos that they pulled clips from to make the highlight reel were age restricted, 2) this exact situation occurred last year, and the youtube rep assured them this was a mistake and it wouldn't happen this time, 3) the Youtube rep once again reassured them that this was absurd, 4) after reaching out to the rep and being told their complaint was being reviewed, videos that were years old suddenly became age restricted, 5) the rep apologized and explained that the new age restrictions were as intended. This means that even if you have 2 million subscribers and a youtube rep for support, asking google for help is just as likely to ruin you as actually fix anything.

lwneal 4y ago

Sundar is the Steve Ballmer of Google. And that's fine! Ballmer was a competent if uninspiring CEO: Microsoft under his leadership missed many new opportunities, but still made lots of money. Most importantly, Ballmer's tenure is what made it possible for Satya Nadella to pivot Microsoft into what it is today. Realistically, Windows Phone was never going to beat Apple, Bing was not going to beat Google, Yammer was not going to be the next Facebook, but Microsoft had to try and fail in order to learn those lessons. The real question is who- if anyone- will be the Satya Nadella of Google, bringing the company back for a third act in the post-AI world. And maybe, in this new world, the limiting factor of human progress is not the number of CS grads who can solve coding puzzles.

bsaul 4y ago
Fully disagree with windows phone. It never reached enough maturity to be a true competitor to ios, but it absolutely could have won over android. the gui was truely innovative (with the « tiles » system), and the general feeling and smoothness was absolutely better than android. Microsoft missed a huge opportunity there. It never was a technical problem, MS knows how to make operating system. It was only a strategical one. Ballmer is 100% to blame for that.
- 8note 4y ago
  The windows phone would never win over android. Google is the web monopolist, and would never build apps like YouTube or Maps for a Windows phone product, since it would compete with Android, and not have the market share of the iphone. Microsoft tried making their own YouTube app, which Google had taken down. Without access to the Google web products, a new phone ecosystem is going to be dead on arrival
  - charcircuit 4y ago
    Microsoft added back the YouTube app a few months later.
- dashundchen 4y ago
  In terms of UI, Windows Phone was so far ahead of Android and iOS at the time (and in many areas still beats both of them. Android is still a mess). The Nokia Lumia series of phones also were solid with great cameras in an era of plastic Android phones. I agree Microsoft flubbed the strategy, same with Zune where they had a technically superior product but no commitment. Platform reboots killed any developer momentum they built - Windows Phone 8 apps were not backwards compatible with Windows Phone 7 which itself was a clean break with Windows Mobile. A lot of trending apps like Instagram and Snapchat never released apps on the platform, so you had to use third party knock-offs that chased private APIs. Microsoft did build some great social media integrations that tied your contacts into a single local profile across platforms (Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook). They also kept rebranding and shuffling services on the phones - for example Zune became Xbox Music became Groove.

AndrewKemendo 4y ago

There are two possible outcomes for a publicly traded company that has figured out how to make a lot of money over a long period 1. Continue to accrete new revenue sources and pivot slightly forever until you eventually do a bit of everything, "diversifying" to the point where you become in effect a small nation 2. Stick to your plan and go out of business These are the two possible outcomes as a public company

Spooky23 4y ago
3 - Split up and create value. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, etc are offensive companies in that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Microsoft in particular is held back by having to support the platforms. Office as a standalone company would be worth more than Microsoft.
- noncoml 4y ago
  Have you tried Office lately? Feels like all coding is done by 14yo olds that just discovered programming. Also feature wise, why do I need a LinkedIn option on Excel. But that’s what you get when there is 0 competition. What we need in competition and anti-monopolistic policies. Not splitting up companies. For starts let’s get rid of the fucking patents for all software.