The #Google layoffs are quite devastating. But on the bright side, at least Sundar said that if you're being fired you can work from home today.
@lauren how big are the layoffs?
At what time in the past would Google have the current headcount? Are they back to 2018 staffing? 2015?
@christosilvia I was looking at some of that earlier today. It's difficult to use the data usefully though without knowing how it breaks down across divisions and projects. My sense for example is that GCP ballooned in recent years, but again, it's complicated.
I'm at Google, in Geo. Just had a team meeting. It appears (with the limited visibility we have at this point) that layoffs were not based on performance. We lost some excellent people.
@torreyh @lauren @christosilvia Yeah, anecdotally, it feels like they were based on being attached to unsuccessful projects.
That's... I mean, if that is the case, that's a *very bad sign.* Because that creates the obvious incentive, at a company where engineers have as much career control as they do at Google, to stop taking risks on technologies that might not pan out.
And having engineers unwilling to take those kinds of risks ends Google as Google. Oh, the company will survive... But IBM is still with us too. And unlike IBM, Google has never had to be in the position of running ads on TV to get people interested in working for them.
@lauren @mtomczak @torreyh @christosilvia There would have to be something to disrupt the search engine market. I'm thinking maybe AI which is able to assist the user to find what they're looking for better than what search engines like Google can at the moment. Something like ChatGPT but perhaps more refined for that purpose.
@jamescrakemerani @mtomczak @torreyh @christosilvia Well, one of the many problems with ChatGPT is that it's so good at providing nicely written answers that are factually incorrect, and so far more dangerous as a result.
@lauren @mtomczak @torreyh @christosilvia Yes you are right in that regard. But I do wonder if in the near future we would be able to create an AI that does come up with factually correct answers (or just links to them). Because search engines like Google aren't always great when you're trying to look for one specific thing that isn't straight forward.
@mtomczak @torreyh @christosilvia As I've said before, once upon a time Digital Equipment Corporation seemed like it would last forever. When I consulted for them, I sometimes got to ride the DEC helicopter from Logan. Hell, even Google doesn't have a helicopter run like that (AFAIK). But now ... DEC is just history. A rumor. Long forgotten by most. It could happen to Google too. Yes, it could.