Yegge: Let em Have It
Honesty2. Thats what it breaks down to when you read Steve Yegges Google+ rant. Whats
pretty cool about this argument that Google doesnt do platforming very well is that it comes from a place of genuine sincerity and a longing for his company to perform better. Despite all the stuff we see and encounter, Google isnt a perfect company. No company is. Even GE, which is arguably the best run and one of the most successful companies in the world has had its share of ups and downs. But what does make Google different is its culture. Much like SeedCorn, its a great place to work and its a fantastic company.
The key take-aways from what was meant to be an internal post, was that Google is trying to figure out what users want and dictate how they receive that. Interestingly, the Facebook comparison takes center stage here because Facebook didnt tell users what they want. Facebook lets user dictate how they spend their time on the site. Yegge writes,
Google+ is a knee-jerk reaction, a study in short-term thinking, predicated on the incorrect notion that Facebook is successful because they built a great product. But thats not why they are successful. Facebook is successful because they built an entire constellation of products by allowing other people to do the work. So Facebook is different for everyone. Some people spend all their time on Mafia Wars. Some spend all their time on Farmville. There are hundreds or maybe thousands of different high-quality time sinks available, so theres something there for everyone.
He adds, The problem is that we are trying to predict what people want and deliver it for them. You cant do that. Not really. Not reliably. There have been precious few people in the world, over the entire history of computing, who have been able to do it reliably. Steve Jobs was one of them. We dont have a Steve Jobs here. Im sorry, but we dont. This is an interesting observation because you honestly cant predict what people want reliably. Life is about choice and our internet experience should be no different. I recently saw a documentary on food, and part of it dealt with how Wal-Mart now carries organic products. Well, yeah When the customer base demands it, they do it. Its that simple. Its a funny thing, but in business, its easy sometimes to lose sight of what got you where you are in the first place. I just hope Google gets on the right path.
As expected, and interestingly enough, nothing has happened to Yegge. In fact, as one would expect from the great culture at Google, they already started implementing changes. He writes on his Google+ page,
Amazingly, nothing bad happened to me at Google. Everyone just laughed at me a lot, all the way up to the top, for having committed what must be the great-granddaddy of all Reply-All screwups in tech history.
But they also listened, which is super cool. I probably shouldnt talk much about it, but theyre already figuring out how to deal with some of the issues I raised. I guess I shouldnt be surprised, though. When I claimed in my internal post that Google does everything right, I meant it. When theyre faced with any problem at all, whether its technical or organizational or cultural, they set out to solve it in a first-class way.
The whole article is brutal honesty and comedic gold. Check it out, and hopefully this is something well see in the future. Sometimes, the top brass dont have all the right ideas. Power to the people.
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by: Albert Marrero
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