[Olreich]

I’d be very surprised if management at the least didn’t have their heads in the sand about the potential failure mode. There are often “must deliver” dates at large companies because someone made a promise about a deadline and now heads will roll for missing it whether anyone actually cares or not. So long as middle management thinks the C suite is watching them, they are desperate to meet quota.

Hilariously, this results in stuff like Copilot getting released to great big legal problems. Only then does the C suite actually notice the project and get upset that it is a legal nightmare for them.

I think the real secret to winning in big tech is that your job is just to keep your head down and keep the money rolling in without causing headaches for higher ups. Increase sales, make customers happy enough to keep paying, maybe release a cool product. But more importantly, don’t cause a major outage, burn the PR team, or get caught up in a legal kerfuffle.

[rorykoehler]

You make a good case for innovation through acquisitions rather than in-house development. Once the derisking aspect is factored in acquisitions suddenly look a lot more attractive.