[ifyoubuildit]

> despite having one of the most qualified engineering teams in history under his command

I'm always interested in how people come up with this. I know it's conventional wisdom, but a lot of it seems to be "they passed the google interview", which is very circular, or it's based on "I worked there and was impressed by everyone".

The counterpoint would be that google can't seem to get its head out of its ass and stop its reputational decline.

[ThrowawayR2]

Reputational decline at FAANGs often has little to do with the actual engineers. There are separate product managers / program managrs setting direction and separate UI / UX designers defining how products will look. Feedback from engineers is sometimes taken into account but, more often, will be met with "You don't get the vision" or "You're not the customer." expressed with varying degrees of politeness. The sensible response by engineers is to shrug, do what they're told, and start looking for an internal transfer before the SHTF.