5 ms·

Could you please explain ‘lay bare organisational deficiencies’? I ask without skepticism.

ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
I assume they mean: expose internal corporate silos/VP-fiefdoms that don't work seamlessly together despite being marketed under the same brand
- dmix 2y ago
  Google is quite notorious for having this issue from various blog posts and HN comments I've read. Lots of middle management power groups that would prevent a cohesive top down vision from easily being adopted.
  - ljm 2y ago
    The same as any enterprise company. It’s all office politics and bureaucracy. Make no mistake, Google is Enterprise.
  - yen223 2y ago
    This is the norm, not the exception for big companies. The more I spend time in mid-large companies, the more I'm amazed that that Apple somehow managed to avoid releasing three different messaging apps that do the same thing.
  - drevil-v2 2y ago
    Now it makes sense why Elon Musk trims the fat on his companies ruthlessly and regularly
theshrike79 2y ago
Most companies don't have an unified platform they can build this on. And even if they seem to have superficially, the internal organisation is so splintered that it'll never happen. Like what's going on inside Google, it's getting stupidly political and infighty. If someone tries to build a comprehensive LLM that touches on gmail, youtube, docs, sheets etc, it's going to be an uphill battle.
- Jtsummers 2y ago
  And even if they did, there'd be five competing efforts, two would be good or at least decent, four would be deployed (not the best one though), and all would be replaced in three years. None of them would work on-device, all would leak your data into the training set.
  - theshrike79 2y ago
    And two of them would be killed within a year and/or renamed/rebranded :)
  - matwood 2y ago
    And you forgot, if it was Google they would also all have their own internal chat service.
- sakisv 2y ago
  They did do that. Back in 2013-2015 or so. It was called Google Now, and it was a bit like magic. It showed you contextual cards based on your upcoming trips/appointments/traveling patterns. E.g. Any tube delays on your way home from work. How early you should leave to catch your flight. This alongside Google Inbox was among the best and most "futuristic" products. I was glad to see today Apple implementing something similar to both of these.
  - simonh 2y ago
    But it was a decent new Google product, hence all the past tenses.
    - drcongo 2y ago
      Google Then™
  - jbl0ndie 2y ago
    I've always been baffled why those two got canned. They were both really useful.
gumby 2y ago
The phenomenon is called “Conway’s Law”: a product reflects the organizational structure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law

I assume they mean: expose internal corporate silos/VP-fiefdoms that don't work seamlessly together despite being marketed under the same brand

dmix 2y ago
Google is quite notorious for having this issue from various blog posts and HN comments I've read. Lots of middle management power groups that would prevent a cohesive top down vision from easily being adopted.
- ljm 2y ago
  The same as any enterprise company. It’s all office politics and bureaucracy. Make no mistake, Google is Enterprise.
- yen223 2y ago
  This is the norm, not the exception for big companies. The more I spend time in mid-large companies, the more I'm amazed that that Apple somehow managed to avoid releasing three different messaging apps that do the same thing.
- drevil-v2 2y ago
  Now it makes sense why Elon Musk trims the fat on his companies ruthlessly and regularly

theshrike79 2y ago

Most companies don't have an unified platform they can build this on. And even if they seem to have superficially, the internal organisation is so splintered that it'll never happen. Like what's going on inside Google, it's getting stupidly political and infighty. If someone tries to build a comprehensive LLM that touches on gmail, youtube, docs, sheets etc, it's going to be an uphill battle.

Jtsummers 2y ago
And even if they did, there'd be five competing efforts, two would be good or at least decent, four would be deployed (not the best one though), and all would be replaced in three years. None of them would work on-device, all would leak your data into the training set.
- theshrike79 2y ago
  And two of them would be killed within a year and/or renamed/rebranded :)
- matwood 2y ago
  And you forgot, if it was Google they would also all have their own internal chat service.
sakisv 2y ago
They did do that. Back in 2013-2015 or so. It was called Google Now, and it was a bit like magic. It showed you contextual cards based on your upcoming trips/appointments/traveling patterns. E.g. Any tube delays on your way home from work. How early you should leave to catch your flight. This alongside Google Inbox was among the best and most "futuristic" products. I was glad to see today Apple implementing something similar to both of these.
- simonh 2y ago
  But it was a decent new Google product, hence all the past tenses.
  - drcongo 2y ago
    Google Then™
- jbl0ndie 2y ago
  I've always been baffled why those two got canned. They were both really useful.

gumby 2y ago

The phenomenon is called “Conway’s Law”: a product reflects the organizational structure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law