| It's also simply -- You're at Google. You need to do some kind of project that can be called a success -- within one quarter. What do you do? One possibility, the disastrous effects of which we've seen, is to build Yet Another Incompatible Chat App. This is another possibility. A very safe one, in a way. You constantly have to demonstrate that you are "useful, self-directed, and doing important things", in an environment where usefulness and importance are extremely hard to judge, and so become very socially-constructed. It can get pretty brutal -- even if, when you step back and take the long view, it all seems ridiculous. So when you look at what comes out of these companies, it's useful to remember that. Imagine the horrible games in which their employees have found themselves trapped. (Money's a hell of a thing. Shame you seem to need so much of it.) |