[to3m]

Was the percent tool written with cynical intent? Or was it a simple in-joke, perhaps, among longstanding members of staff amazed at Google's growth? I'm not really sure what, if anything, I should read in to the tool's existence...

[ChuckMcM]

I don't think there was any cynicism in the creation of the percent tool, it was a way to see how fast the company was growing. Although when you thought about it you could draw interesting insights from the data, for one if you used it on yourself you would see the number of people hired after you growing fairly rapidly, more rapidly in fact than the total number of employees was growing. From that piece of information you could ascertain the 'stick' rate of hires, which is how many people stayed around for 3months, 6months, a year, 2 years, 4 years. All the usual peaks and valleys.