roc used to work for Mozilla though, and witnessed Google cannibalizing us for Chrome in order to feed its ad business. Between then and now there has not been a time when it wasn't all about the money.
That depends on your definition of winning. Some of us couldn't give a rat's ass about speed, and for me Chrome lost because it's not an user agent (as in agent working for me, the user) anymore, it's a Google agent (as in working for Google to spy on me, the user).
Yes, we have tried having a better browser. Still trying. :)
When I said cannibalize I didn't mean in terms of market share but by absorbing talent in particular.
It's a bit naive to say it won because it's faster. They also used all kinds of shady marketing, strong arming, deals to have Chrome preinstalled on computers, and multiplied monopoly power that comes with controlling search and video and ads and a web browser.
I didn't, and still don't, think Google was unambiguously good or evil. They did dirty stuff with Chrome, they do addiction optimization, but they also provide great free services, fight endless wars against spammers, and provide reliable secure infrastructure to a lot of other people, and lots of other good things. I would never have joined the Chrome team, or worked on addictiveness, but I felt fine about working on optimization projects to make Google more efficient, which is basically what I did for my first few years there.
It's pretty hard to live in the world and be completely disconnected from anything unethical. Jesus doesn't seem to demand that (e.g. he didn't tell centurions to leave the Roman army).
> They did dirty stuff with Chrome, they do addiction optimization, but they also provide great free services, fight endless wars against spammers, and provide reliable secure infrastructure to a lot of other people, and lots of other good things.
As mconnor liked to say, there is no free lunch. :)
> I would never have joined the Chrome team, or worked on addictiveness, but I felt fine about working on optimization projects to make Google more efficient, which is basically what I did for my first few years there.
Ultimately, I don't think you can divide your niche from the corporation's primary goals (especially if you think it was your duty to be a good employee), so I disagree with your rationalization but kudos for at least having a moral compass and trying not to lose sight of it.
> It's pretty hard to live in the world and be completely disconnected from anything unethical.
Sure, but I don't think that should be an excuse for being fairly well connected.
dao- · · focus · HN ↗
Stay away from the lucrative then? Why did you ever think it was a good idea to start at Google? I don't think Jesus would have approved.
worik · · focus · HN ↗
Then came so much money, and by being chaotic evil even more money..
Still makes me sad. I was so sweetly naive
dao- · · focus · HN ↗
jackie293746 · · focus · HN ↗
pferde · · focus · HN ↗
dao- · · focus · HN ↗
When I said cannibalize I didn't mean in terms of market share but by absorbing talent in particular.
It's a bit naive to say it won because it's faster. They also used all kinds of shady marketing, strong arming, deals to have Chrome preinstalled on computers, and multiplied monopoly power that comes with controlling search and video and ads and a web browser.
roca · · focus · HN ↗
It's pretty hard to live in the world and be completely disconnected from anything unethical. Jesus doesn't seem to demand that (e.g. he didn't tell centurions to leave the Roman army).
dao- · · focus · HN ↗
As mconnor liked to say, there is no free lunch. :)
> I would never have joined the Chrome team, or worked on addictiveness, but I felt fine about working on optimization projects to make Google more efficient, which is basically what I did for my first few years there.
Ultimately, I don't think you can divide your niche from the corporation's primary goals (especially if you think it was your duty to be a good employee), so I disagree with your rationalization but kudos for at least having a moral compass and trying not to lose sight of it.
> It's pretty hard to live in the world and be completely disconnected from anything unethical.
Sure, but I don't think that should be an excuse for being fairly well connected.