[amyjess]

This is an HR problem. Two HR problems really, as exemplified by both your sentences.

> They have a real problem finding developers that will want to work on it.

At most companies, you don't get to choose projects you want to work on. You get assigned a project whether you like it or not. Almost every other company functions like this, Google's insistence on being different is shooting them in the foot.

> You don't get promoted at Google for maintaining a product that isn't growing.

Maybe Google should be selecting for people who aren't interested in chasing promotions. There are plenty of 'workman' developers in the world who are okay with spending the rest of their careers maintaining legacy systems. This probably ties into good ol' Silicon Valley age discrimination: they spend so much time chasing young hotshots with chips on their shoulders, while most of the workman developers are in their 50s.

[SystemOut]

You're looking at it from the wrong angle. It's not that an engineer says no but rather, other projects that are growing and have more resources/weight behind them come calling and looking for engineers that want to transfer into their project. A stalled/non-growing project can't block a transfer like that.

If Google really wanted to solve this problem they could by making the promotion criteria different. Their actions say they don't really see it as a problem, though.