Have you found Googlers to be self-aggrandizing on average? That's not been my experience working there. (But might be different for "Googlers who talk a lot/are well-known publicly".)
It's our way of trying to make something out of all the lost years working away in the salt^H^H^H^Hprotobuf mines. We have to use the 'leverage' because all else we'd have left is money in the bank account and skill sets incompatible with most other places in the industry.
Right, that's what I meant. I don't think the average Googler is self-aggrandizing, but if you don't work at Google or have a big friend circle that works there, then there's a selection bias for the Googlers you do know.