I was at Google then too. I had the same questions when I was asked to work on the team or even just collaborate with the team on Chrome support. I think it wo

I was at Google then too. I had the same questions when I was asked to work on the team or even just collaborate with the team on Chrome support. I think it would have been fine to just throw the Android runtime in a container. That wouldn't be useless - it was still a great opportunity to reinvent the kernel and the Linux driver model, and all of the other parts of the system. I find the "staff retention" thing confusing. Sure, I understand talented people want some freedom and flexibility, but I don't think that having a team of 400+ people go crazy for years with no plan is the only way to retain. Why not let them go crazy for a while but then force them to downscope, pick a real need and solve it with their tech? Or, why not make it more incubator-style? Instead of a team of 400, have 10 teams of 40 and give them a year to build something amazing, then turn only the top 1 or 2 into products and send the others back to the drawing board?