3 ms·

> Additionally, critics of Google may point out that their engineering culture may not be great on its own terms -- every time Google launches a new feature, pe

> Additionally, critics of Google may point out that their engineering culture may not be great on its own terms -- every time Google launches a new feature, people post links to the Google product graveyard. It is personally scary when they develop new products. What if it is a brilliant idea, one I cannot live without? If Google develops it, then I am looking at this stillborn thing, mewling for life when I know its horrible fate. The trouble here is that Google employees (and perhaps even its upper management) want to believe that they are a company which is an inventor of things. But they are not this at all. They are an advertisement company. Advertisement companies should not and do not want to invent things... inventions are worse than burdens, inventions are these weird alien objects that appear valuable but are quite expensive and do not help to sell ads at all. So they hawk the inventions like they were freaks in some carnival sideshow to move traffic past their billboards. Until the traffic dwindles (or until they get tired of it). And then they take it out back behind the woodshed and put an end to it.

outside1234 3y ago
The inventions are to keep the talent stream coming ... to work on ads. The inventions are the small tax they pay to pretend to candidates that they could work on inventions when the vast majority of them will be "allocated" to ads.
- fidotron 3y ago
  It's also Google licking the cookie. They maintain a moat around ads by doing just enough to threaten to destroy anyone that gets close to their ecosystem. Facebook survived because G+ product vision was so out of touch with reality and FB were not part of the anti-compete hiring nonsense so that they managed to poach a lot of good people.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
  You're telling me this stupid, bizarre thing: that Google's major innovation was an HR process. That's fucked-in-the-head just enough that you've made me wonder if it's true.
  - svachalek 3y ago
    I doubt they did anything like that intentionally. My impression in my time there was they were constantly cargo-culting themselves. X obviously works, so keep doing X, even if it doesn't look like it makes any sense. And X was absolutely everything.
    - NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
      Mind me asking why you moved on?
  - WorldMaker 3y ago
    "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads" https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/06/12/click/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/06/12/click/
- biztos 3y ago
  You need Shiny Inventions so you can divert the talent stream away from your competitors, more than to actually work on the ads. I'm sure there's some Shiny Invention Corner in the ads business -- let's call it "AI" -- and some of the top people can be motivated to work there. But isn't the ads business by its very firehose-of-money nature something that will get on fine with that average level of talent that is sufficiently motivated by cash and doesn't need Inventions? And isn't the top talent able to make the same money doing interesting things elsewhere? (I keep hearing this is happening with AI, but I hear it on Xwitter so who knows.)

outside1234 3y ago

The inventions are to keep the talent stream coming ... to work on ads. The inventions are the small tax they pay to pretend to candidates that they could work on inventions when the vast majority of them will be "allocated" to ads.

fidotron 3y ago
It's also Google licking the cookie. They maintain a moat around ads by doing just enough to threaten to destroy anyone that gets close to their ecosystem. Facebook survived because G+ product vision was so out of touch with reality and FB were not part of the anti-compete hiring nonsense so that they managed to poach a lot of good people.
NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
You're telling me this stupid, bizarre thing: that Google's major innovation was an HR process. That's fucked-in-the-head just enough that you've made me wonder if it's true.
- svachalek 3y ago
  I doubt they did anything like that intentionally. My impression in my time there was they were constantly cargo-culting themselves. X obviously works, so keep doing X, even if it doesn't look like it makes any sense. And X was absolutely everything.
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
    Mind me asking why you moved on?
- WorldMaker 3y ago
  "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads" https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/06/12/click/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/06/12/click/
biztos 3y ago
You need Shiny Inventions so you can divert the talent stream away from your competitors, more than to actually work on the ads. I'm sure there's some Shiny Invention Corner in the ads business -- let's call it "AI" -- and some of the top people can be motivated to work there. But isn't the ads business by its very firehose-of-money nature something that will get on fine with that average level of talent that is sufficiently motivated by cash and doesn't need Inventions? And isn't the top talent able to make the same money doing interesting things elsewhere? (I keep hearing this is happening with AI, but I hear it on Xwitter so who knows.)