[YorkianTones]

As much as startups can "disrupt" by creating new businesses, big tech companies can also create entirely new products or businesses and when they attempt to do so they often succeed. Google has a good shot at eventually being successful with products like glass, self-driving cars, etc. Amazon is already succeeding with AWS and at some point will launch drone delivery. Even if you just own a small feature, it's fulfilling to work on large important products with high impact (legacy products too e.g. gmail). Plus, there is little risk and great payout guaranteed. Contrary to Thiel's comments, I think you're surrounded by brilliant people at a place like Google and will learn constantly and won't stagnate. The key is to not stay on the same team/product forever.

[BreakoutList]

I think that's definitely true if you're on a team like Glass v2 or self driving cars.

[Schwolop]

Yes, Google[X] (aka "Special Projects" on their job search portal) is a very different beast to Google proper.