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Everything Google's Python team were responsible for

57 points by kryster 3y ago

sumeno 3y ago
We're just submitting HN comments to HN now?
- exhilaration 3y ago
  It's actually a great comment, I appreciate it being pointed out.
  - heyoni 3y ago
    Like best of on Reddit
    - fragmede 3y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/highlights https://news.ycombinator.com/highlights
- gcbirzan 3y ago
  Via another site.
- simonw 3y ago
  Yeah my post doesn't add much here, you can skip it and jump straight to the comment I linked to here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40176338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40176338
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
hodanli 3y ago
perfect loop achieved
lesi_nedo 3y ago
[flagged]
lijok 3y ago
Interesting move by Google. I wonder what the reasoning was behind the layoff.
- grumpyprole 3y ago
  One can only assume they want less Python in the company.
  - bananapub 3y ago
    they've wanted less python for at least fifteen years, but getting rid of the python team just makes the enormous mass of python code and python developers less useful, it doesn't magically convert it to C++.
- simonw 3y ago
  My guess is that the company set a goal to reduce headcount by X%, every executive was told to find some teams to cut, this team was expensive because the engineers in it were long tenured and excellent - and it caught someone's eye as a result.
  - Macha 3y ago
    Also there will be no revenue items for this quarter that are obviously at risk by cutting them that the person making decisions could be held accountable for. If every team using Python is 10% less productive as they need to wait longer when they need changes from these central tools... they'll just blame the new team members.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
kryster 3y ago
@dang was this post taken down from the front page through admin action? Does this post break any rules?
hiddencost 3y ago
If this doesn't have you looking for the door, idk what you're looking for. Betting the company on AI, all of the tools of which are written in checks notes Python, and they think laying off all their institutional knowledge is a good idea?
shanemhansen 3y ago
I had noticed that Google's ML teams are doing a ton of Python, and at the same time the overall support for Python in prod was pretty low. This has lead to some interesting situations over the last year. Especially as "move fast and break things" Google Labs style demos meet "everything deployed must comply with a thousand horizontal mandates relating to SLAs, logging, production best practices, etc". An astonishing number of things used every day at Google are unfunded "community commons" projects. This sort of used to work in the past when the company and the employees had a different relationship. As Google gradually changes that relationship to a more conventional one, they will see more and more conventional results.

57 points by kryster 3y ago

sumeno 3y ago

We're just submitting HN comments to HN now?

exhilaration 3y ago
It's actually a great comment, I appreciate it being pointed out.
- heyoni 3y ago
  Like best of on Reddit
  - fragmede 3y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/highlights https://news.ycombinator.com/highlights
gcbirzan 3y ago
Via another site.
simonw 3y ago
Yeah my post doesn't add much here, you can skip it and jump straight to the comment I linked to here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40176338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40176338
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

hodanli 3y ago

perfect loop achieved

lesi_nedo 3y ago

[flagged]

lijok 3y ago

Interesting move by Google. I wonder what the reasoning was behind the layoff.

grumpyprole 3y ago
One can only assume they want less Python in the company.
- bananapub 3y ago
  they've wanted less python for at least fifteen years, but getting rid of the python team just makes the enormous mass of python code and python developers less useful, it doesn't magically convert it to C++.
simonw 3y ago
My guess is that the company set a goal to reduce headcount by X%, every executive was told to find some teams to cut, this team was expensive because the engineers in it were long tenured and excellent - and it caught someone's eye as a result.
- Macha 3y ago
  Also there will be no revenue items for this quarter that are obviously at risk by cutting them that the person making decisions could be held accountable for. If every team using Python is 10% less productive as they need to wait longer when they need changes from these central tools... they'll just blame the new team members.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

kryster 3y ago

@dang was this post taken down from the front page through admin action? Does this post break any rules?

hiddencost 3y ago

If this doesn't have you looking for the door, idk what you're looking for. Betting the company on AI, all of the tools of which are written in checks notes Python, and they think laying off all their institutional knowledge is a good idea?

shanemhansen 3y ago

I had noticed that Google's ML teams are doing a ton of Python, and at the same time the overall support for Python in prod was pretty low. This has lead to some interesting situations over the last year. Especially as "move fast and break things" Google Labs style demos meet "everything deployed must comply with a thousand horizontal mandates relating to SLAs, logging, production best practices, etc". An astonishing number of things used every day at Google are unfunded "community commons" projects. This sort of used to work in the past when the company and the employees had a different relationship. As Google gradually changes that relationship to a more conventional one, they will see more and more conventional results.