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Dave Cowen's avatar

To quote a Taylor Lorenz repost of @rustycohl this morning: “Wild how we smoothly transitioned from no one wants to work to record layoffs”

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Bridget's avatar

> Google was never a family

No, it was a family all right, but the type of family that a person needs therapy for being raised in and finds a support subreddit dedicated to. Similarly the dreams that come to life in a particular location in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader are indeed dreams, but the kind that a person wants to wake up from.

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Omer's avatar

Thanks, Claire! I hope things are good, well, better, well nice where you're at.

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Robert Rossney's avatar

The real defining quote for Google wasn't anything Larry said. It was Eric's: "More revenue solves all known problems." Which is another way of saying, "Do I really look like a guy with a plan?"

There's a factor we were encouraged to pretend was an externality. As you discovered, that factor is power. A lot of people in tech have been thinking that way, for a long time, but it's changing. See Cory Doctorow's latest, on Bruce Schneier's new book: https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/06/trickster-makes-the-world/.

I wonder what the actual impact of discovering that power is real, and that it matters very much who has it and who does not, will have on how things get done in this industry. This guy has a pretty interesting take on "engineering culture": https://medium.com/@lloyd-f-hough/an-introduction-to-class-warfare-for-the-software-engineer-1810833055d7

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Marc B's avatar

I realize I'm late to the layoffs post (and great job, Clare, getting quoted in the news!), but as I've told my friends, "If being a family means I get to email ppl in the middle of the night, and literally never speak to them again" then I HAVE A LONG LIST PEOPLE

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Claire Stapleton's avatar

hahahahahahah

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Noah's avatar

Getting laid off is one thing, being disowned by your family after 18 years is another. And that's what Google did to us. People I worked with for 10 years are not allowed to bring us in for lunch to say goodbye, but can bring in any random person off the street.

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Claire Stapleton's avatar

it's so dehumanizing and horrible. so sorry, noah.

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Robin's avatar

Seriously? They banned you from the building???

They have totally lost the plot.

And even if they don't have the humanity to see what's wrong with their approach - what a way to alienate what was probably one of the most loyal workforces on the planet!!!

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Conrad Stargard's avatar

My "favorite" cringe line from Larry was his justification/thought for the search defrag back in 2012/2013. "More wood behind fewer arrows." To me, this always sounded like it came from a CEO for Dummies book. Meh... :)

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Claire Stapleton's avatar

hhhaahahah. omg. i remember that! the wrong people in the world have impostor syndrome

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orodley's avatar

I've always been amused by the idea that the way you make an arrow more effective is to ADD MORE WOOD so it is LARGER and HEAVIER.

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Claire Stapleton's avatar

lol. it's a really good point!

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Noah's avatar

Yeah, us engineers were mostly trying to figure out what that meant. The bow is mostly in front of the arrow, and a heavier shaft just means a slower arrow. But maybe that's what he meant, since progress slowed significantly as Google aged.

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