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I'm sorry you did. 20 years ago when I was young and naive I was very strong in ideologies too. In my case it was Linux and open source. I defended it blindly

I'm sorry you did. 20 years ago when I was young and naive I was very strong in ideologies too. In my case it was Linux and open source. I defended it blindly for a time. As I've grown up, now at 40 I understand more things about the world. In the case of private companies, I learned long ago not to get enamoured with them. Unless I am the owner, I work only for my paycheck. I've been in great companies, and some of them have paid me dearly. And I will always do my best for what I am paid. But long gone are my days of pushing myself even sacrificing my health, family relationships and personal wellbeing for a company. In the end, they can and will fire me tomorrow if it improves the bottom line.

xiphias2 3y ago
Actually Google was amazing in those times and didn't fire anybody in the 2008 recession that I lived through. Eric Schmidt was focusing on a vision where we can do great things, 20% project was real (I had one), which of course just meant extra work, as it didn't help in promotions (something I had to learn of course as an idealist). I would do this part again, but what I didn't realize at that time is that with 5x higher salary than before I should have spent much more money on balancing the disadvantages of living in a place where the local language is impossible to learn (Swiss German in Zurich).