I was shared a link to this blog post from the now former Googler, Ian Hickson, who described the changes at the Chocolate Factory (leave a comment if you understood this reference) in his 18 years working for the search behemoth since 2005.
I enjoyed reading about life on the inside, which chimes a little with what we’ve seen as we have watched along from the outside.
Flutter was a worthwhile pursuit, as is anything open source. But this type of criticism is quite damning:
Much of these problems with Google today stem from a lack of visionary leadership from Sundar Pichai, and his clear lack of interest in maintaining the cultural norms of early Google. A symptom of this is the spreading contingent of inept middle management. Take Jeanine Banks, for example, who manages the department that somewhat arbitrarily contains (among other things) Flutter, Dart, Go, and Firebase. Her department nominally has a strategy, but I couldn’t leak it if I wanted to; I literally could never figure out what any part of it meant, even after years of hearing her describe it.
Reflecting on 18 years at Google – Ian Hickson, Former Google Employee
It’s a little sad to hear how Google seems to have lost its identity. Go read for yourself, here.
