[hogFeast]

Leg up from dad. He even got work experience in the actual department in which his father worked...which surely wouldn't happen today.

...but this is kind of a Google thing. Page was the same (and somehow still didn't know how to code Backrub despite having a BSc and MSc in comp sci and the link idea came from Robin Li...made quite a career out of claiming the genius of other people as your own).

[peteretep]

Many millions of people have this level of privilege worldwide, but very few have founded Google-sized companies. Acknowledging the distorting effect of privilege is important, but this seems like you’re throwing out the baby with the bath water here.

[mehrdada]

You kind of prove the parent's point though. Given a large enough sample size of all the people with privilege, it is conceivable to imagine that Google-sized success would happen to someone in that group at random, and other explanations could be simply overfitting to the data.

(Not saying this matches my personal worldview, but just analyzing the commentary)

[peteretep]

> Given a large enough sample size of all the people with privilege, it is conceivable to imagine that Google-sized success would happen to someone in that group at random, and other explanations could be simply overfitting to the data.

This is true of all groups, though, so doesn't give us any information.

[ulisesrmzroche]

Enough information to hero worship, apparently.

[zerr]

Not everyone wants to found a company though - you can just enjoy your privileged high quality of life.

[peteretep]

> His father is a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland, and his mother a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

I mean, he still needed to get a job

[zerr]

Not necessary I'd say, depending how good relationship one has with the parents :)

[hyperpallium]

Can you elaborate on

(1). Larry not knowing how to code Backrub (sounds like you don't just mean that at first you don't know how to code something that has never been done before).

(2) Larry claiming other's ideas as his, particularly "the link idea".

[hogFeast]

Robin Li (who founded Baidu) created link-based search ranking (and patented it in 1996, two years before the famous papers).

Scott Hassan (a Stanford research assistant) coded Backrub. Page took a run at it but it didn't work. And it had actually been done several times before (again, it just sounds like you have no idea you are just assuming these guys were geniuses...several mining applications already existed, the largest came from DEC).

[hyperpallium]

backrub/pagerank is a specific kind of link-based search ranking. Link-based ranking was well-know before e.g. citation count. Was Robin Li's the same kind?

What were the "several times" backrub had been implemented before?

A "mining application" is a very general concept, and does not imply a specific algorithm.

I was not assuming but requesting information; and not "again" but once.

FWIW I'm intrigued by the school of thought that Google's success was largely due to just giving people what they want. Instead of crowded portals, just search, fast search, and search that's relevant. When I tested it at the time, I found competing search pretty similar for relevance. But google was faster.

[hyperpallium]

Too late to edit, but I'd forgotten paid-placement was a thing in search results before google. Can you believe it?

Of course, adwords has similarities (and copied from overture/goto), but don't masquerade as search results (though becoming less distinguishable over time...).

[wslh]

I am sure he is a business genius, there is no doubt about this and there is not doubt the Google search engine was the best solution at the time they launched.

[strikelaserclaw]

Other than steve jobs, pretty much 95% founders these days come from upper middle class with professional parents (doctors, engineers, professors, lawyers etc...)

[mjfl]

you are what is called in some circles "a hater".