[fdsfsaa]

What makes "Google scale" unique? I've never understood the argument that because Google serves ultraziggabytes of data, Google needs complex engineering practices. A program is the same program whether it runs on ten machines or ten thousand. Complexity is what matters, and while Google does solve very complex problems, other companies solve them too.

[zardeh]

I think the point is that every company that works at this scale does more or less the same thing out of necessity.

[fdsfsaa]

Saying that process is a necessary side effect of growth is like saying cancer is a necessary side effect of age.

I don't think you have the causation quite right --- it's not necessity that forces the adoption of process exactly. Process is what you get by default if you don't consciously counteract natural human tendencies in management. A lot of large companies stop consciously protecting their culture, so they get the default big company culture instead. The default big company culture is ever-increasing process.

[kuschku]

Do they? Not even governments do that – instead, they manage billions of people and trillions of dollar by having a hierarchical structure, instead of using a long legislative process for every decision.

[zardeh]

Why do you think those two things are impossible to do at the same time. Most companies also have hierarchical structures, and most governments use some kind of bureaucratic process to approve major new projects, I'd expect it to be more bureaucratic than at most businesses.

[kuschku]

But that’s even not the case, that’s the point. Most governments let their government agencies just do things, without unreasonable bureaucracies like these.

[zardeh]

Really?

Everything I'm familiar with has approval and review on everything in government, bureaucracy is synonymous with government to many people for exactly this reason.