5 ms·

> I really was just a fuckin cog in a mega corp. Yes, you were. Next time, please choose a company that contributes to society rather than shoving ads in every

> I really was just a fuckin cog in a mega corp. Yes, you were. Next time, please choose a company that contributes to society rather than shoving ads in everyone's faces.

Mond_ 2y ago
No need to kick someone while they are down.
- henry2023 2y ago
  I worked at Google, and now I work at derivative finance. No sympathy should be expected when you don’t contribute anything valuable to society.
  - codr7 2y ago
    To an awful lot of people work is food and roof over their heads, and they're lucky if they can manage even that.
  - thinkingemote 2y ago
    I found this comment rather funny.
    - henry2023 2y ago
      I'm aware I don't contribute anything valuable yet. No hard feelings :). On the contrary, I'm trying to get to the point I can sustain my own small projects and stop worrying about Corporate America once and for all.
      - karolist 2y ago
        how's that going for you?
- JKCalhoun 2y ago
  Yeah, probably a poorly executed assault, but I felt it was an intent instead to kick Google with that comment.
underdeserver 2y ago
Google contributes to society. Search helps people find information. YouTube is quite possibly the most prolific source of learning ever created. Without Google Translate I'd have had a much harder time in a recent trip to Japan. There's a lot of bad, but no contribution to society? That's a bit much. Disclaimer: Ex-googler (left 2 years ago).
- palata 2y ago
  > Without Google Translate I'd have had a much harder time in a recent trip to Japan. I haven't used Google Translate in years. You do know there are alternatives, don't you?
  - underdeserver 2y ago
    I do. I try them from time to time, they weren't better.
    - palata 2y ago
      I didn't say they were better. Just that without Google Translate, I doubt you would have had a much harder time in your recent trip to Japan because you could have used them, and they aren't particularly worse :-).
      - Tainnor 2y ago
        It's not just about whether you yourself use Google Translate, it's that - much more than anywhere else I've ever travelled - Japanese people will regularly use Google Translate to communicate with you, usually by typing or speaking into their tablet and then showing you the machine translation.
        underdeserver 2y ago
        Actually in quite a few places there (mostly in Kyushu) they used a bespoke handheld device or DeepL.
knorker 2y ago
Ironically you're statistically very likely to be writing this comment in a browser based on chrome. And Chrome really helped save us from an Internet "embraced and extended" by Microsoft. We were heading for Microsoft succeeding in their (not first) attempt at owning the Internet.
- Freak_NL 2y ago
  Someone extremely critical of Google is likely to not just use Firefox? That doesn't sound statistically likely.
  - knorker 2y ago
    Well, two points to that: 1) If this person doesn't use Google products, then they are going out of their way to avoid Google. They are then very aware that their values are overruling technical benefits. 2) Surely if they are this invested in Firefox then they know who's been funding Firefox for years? I'm typing this from within Firefox, which I switched to over the adblocking changes. But I'd say that claiming Google has contributed nothing to society is silly. There's also the AI stuff with transformers, running the deepmind work with alphafold, alphago, alphazero. And GSOC. And the papers on bigtable, spanner, mapreduce, etc… bootstrapping modern big data, spawning many opensource copycats. And Android? I used a linux based Nokia N900 before Android, but clearly the world preferred Android. Hell, Google Search itself was once a paradigm shifting improvement over alternatives.
  - vshade 2y ago
    I'm not sure, specially as a lot of income for mozilla foundation came from google.
- pjmlp 2y ago
  How is Internet being "embraced and extended" by Google feeling like as society contribution? It has literally turned into ChromeOS, with exception of Safari, and Firefox meagre 3% hardly matter.
  - 2y ago
kome 2y ago
i am also extremely pissed at his complete lack of self awareness... of course, i am sad for what happened to him. but holly shit. do you think you were saving the world or what? you were working on a glorified spyware.
pb7 2y ago
He did, he worked at Google. What is your contribution to society? Some language reinventing the wheel for the 500th time? Google created a dozen of those alone and they don't even make the footnote of the contributions list.

> I really was just a fuckin cog in a mega corp. Yes, you were. Next time, please choose a company that contributes to society rather than shoving ads in everyone's faces.

Mond_ 2y ago

No need to kick someone while they are down.

henry2023 2y ago
I worked at Google, and now I work at derivative finance. No sympathy should be expected when you don’t contribute anything valuable to society.
- codr7 2y ago
  To an awful lot of people work is food and roof over their heads, and they're lucky if they can manage even that.
- thinkingemote 2y ago
  I found this comment rather funny.
  - henry2023 2y ago
    I'm aware I don't contribute anything valuable yet. No hard feelings :). On the contrary, I'm trying to get to the point I can sustain my own small projects and stop worrying about Corporate America once and for all.
    - karolist 2y ago
      how's that going for you?
JKCalhoun 2y ago
Yeah, probably a poorly executed assault, but I felt it was an intent instead to kick Google with that comment.

underdeserver 2y ago

Google contributes to society. Search helps people find information. YouTube is quite possibly the most prolific source of learning ever created. Without Google Translate I'd have had a much harder time in a recent trip to Japan. There's a lot of bad, but no contribution to society? That's a bit much. Disclaimer: Ex-googler (left 2 years ago).

palata 2y ago
> Without Google Translate I'd have had a much harder time in a recent trip to Japan. I haven't used Google Translate in years. You do know there are alternatives, don't you?
- underdeserver 2y ago
  I do. I try them from time to time, they weren't better.
  - palata 2y ago
    I didn't say they were better. Just that without Google Translate, I doubt you would have had a much harder time in your recent trip to Japan because you could have used them, and they aren't particularly worse :-).
    - Tainnor 2y ago
      It's not just about whether you yourself use Google Translate, it's that - much more than anywhere else I've ever travelled - Japanese people will regularly use Google Translate to communicate with you, usually by typing or speaking into their tablet and then showing you the machine translation.
      - underdeserver 2y ago
        Actually in quite a few places there (mostly in Kyushu) they used a bespoke handheld device or DeepL.

knorker 2y ago

Ironically you're statistically very likely to be writing this comment in a browser based on chrome. And Chrome really helped save us from an Internet "embraced and extended" by Microsoft. We were heading for Microsoft succeeding in their (not first) attempt at owning the Internet.

Freak_NL 2y ago
Someone extremely critical of Google is likely to not just use Firefox? That doesn't sound statistically likely.
- knorker 2y ago
  Well, two points to that: 1) If this person doesn't use Google products, then they are going out of their way to avoid Google. They are then very aware that their values are overruling technical benefits. 2) Surely if they are this invested in Firefox then they know who's been funding Firefox for years? I'm typing this from within Firefox, which I switched to over the adblocking changes. But I'd say that claiming Google has contributed nothing to society is silly. There's also the AI stuff with transformers, running the deepmind work with alphafold, alphago, alphazero. And GSOC. And the papers on bigtable, spanner, mapreduce, etc… bootstrapping modern big data, spawning many opensource copycats. And Android? I used a linux based Nokia N900 before Android, but clearly the world preferred Android. Hell, Google Search itself was once a paradigm shifting improvement over alternatives.
- vshade 2y ago
  I'm not sure, specially as a lot of income for mozilla foundation came from google.
pjmlp 2y ago
How is Internet being "embraced and extended" by Google feeling like as society contribution? It has literally turned into ChromeOS, with exception of Safari, and Firefox meagre 3% hardly matter.
- 2y ago

kome 2y ago

i am also extremely pissed at his complete lack of self awareness... of course, i am sad for what happened to him. but holly shit. do you think you were saving the world or what? you were working on a glorified spyware.

pb7 2y ago

He did, he worked at Google. What is your contribution to society? Some language reinventing the wheel for the 500th time? Google created a dozen of those alone and they don't even make the footnote of the contributions list.