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Google Has ‘Delusions of Exceptionalism’
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- not_knuth 4y agohttps://archive.is/V6wqf https://archive.is/V6wqf
- blippage 4y agoThat's pretty much what I expected. "Delusions of exceptionalism". When a company becomes large and successful (I've heard similar stories about Microsoft), delusions of exceptionalism inevitably occur. There's a feeling of "manifest destiny". The employees are "the best and the brightest" working at one of the most successful companies. Egos are sure to become inflated. Google has a cash cow which hides a lot of inefficiency. For sure, Google has a lot of talented people doing a lot of clever things. The majority of which is wasted. You could probably get rid of half of the employees and even achieve a better result. What you want is something like another Bell Labs/Xerox Parc/Skunkworks. How many people? Less than 1000, I'd say, max. The rest can carry on moving dialog boxes from the top left of the screen to the top right, or whatever it is they do.
- more_corn 4y agoThe whole best and brightest thing was 100% a phrase people tossed around there. The interviews are notoriously difficult. Because “we only hire the best”. But there’s a trap smart men fall into. Intelligence leads to success, success to arrogance, arrogance to error, error to failure. I don’t think it’s the rank and file you need to get rid of.
- Ancalagon 4y agoI guess interviews asking for sheep don’t lead to getting the most creative employees
- LatteLazy 4y agoI feel like Google is quite down to earth and EVERYONE ELSE has delusions of Google Exceptionalism. From regulators to users to staff. * Google cannot provide you with an internet free of "bad things" (defined 8bn different ways by 8bn different people). * Google are a decades old, mature, mega corp, they are pressed to be efficient and that means (increasingly) layoffs, not R&D. * Google cannot provide gold standard service quality to accounts that are worth a few dollars or even 100s of dollars a year. * Google cannot magically produce secure systems WITH backdoors only for law enforcement etc. * Breaking up google will not solve any of these issues either And yet people continue to insist...
- ttt3ts 4y agoYea, I figured Google was the average mega corp when they removed "don't be evil". Still, they have areas where they need regulation. E.g. Paying Mozzila and Apple to be default search is anticompetitive.
- bagacrap 4y agoMeh, it's just a default. Users can switch away. Without this revenue, Mozilla would die and there would be /less/ competition in the browser space. In the car of Apple, nearly all people would probably choose Google anyway. Apple is extracting rent because they dominate the market of high worth end users.
- abudabi123 4y agoDownsize Alphabet/Goog by seventy percent to wring out the SF, Berkley niche community interests projected in culture war ads. Twitter did and the world's richest individual owns it. Do it.
- seanhunter 4y agoPeople advocating for a breakup[1] are mostly trying to separate advertising sales from search to prevent what seems like a manifest conflict of interest. I think preventing monopoly rather than exceptionalism is the motivation. [1] eg the US DoJ https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/24/doj-files-second-antitrust-lawsuit-against-google.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/24/doj-files-second-antitrust-l... thinktanks https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/06/19/break_up_google_143486.html# https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/06/19/break_...! the EU (although that's old) https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/27/european-parliament-votes-yes-google-breakup-motion https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/27/european-...
- codalan 4y agoMain thread, with link to original Medium post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34799308 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34799308