It's not a paradox. It's just a different set of definitions. Someone can work long hours but produce nothing that helps the bottom line of the corporation. Now

It's not a paradox. It's just a different set of definitions. Someone can work long hours but produce nothing that helps the bottom line of the corporation. Now, usually these tasks are said to increase the long-term profitability or perhaps improve the firm's influence or reputation. Perhaps. But this allows people to make the claim that many could be fired without any real, immediate consequences. BTW, it's easy for me from outside Google to spot these teams. Many are working on cool technical problems and some of those are being cut. Dart, for instance, was a neat language but it's not really going to be used much in the near future and the company will do quite well without it.