Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:
>
> Making the rounds on Mastodon and an interesting investigation into the
> last five years of Google Search.
>
> https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/
>
> Prabhakar Rabhavan does not emerge from this story looking good.

A very interesting article and worth a read. Seems the timeline
presented in the article matches with my slow move away from
google. Now I am 90% DuckDuckgo and I do not even use my
gmail address any more.

Some quotes:

>Raghavan -- a manager, hired by Sundar Pichai, a former
>McKinsey man and a manager by trade -- is an example of
>everything wrong with the tech industry

> "management" is synonymous with "staying as far away
> from actual work as possible

And that is my experience I have had with working in tech for
decades. No matter the tech company, Ivy League MBAs or people
like them, eventually take over and drive the company into
the ground. But they make Wall Street very happy, thus
themselves and upper management with increased bonuses.

The only difference between the Companies is how long it will
take and maybe, if someone at the top realizes what is happening,
make changes instead of watching their bank account grow.

--
[t]csh(1) - "An elegant shell, for a more... civilized age."
- Paraphrasing Star Wars

John McCue <jmccue@neutron.jmcunx.com> writes:

> Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:
>
>> https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/
>>
>> Prabhakar Rabhavan does not emerge from this story looking good.
>
> A very interesting article and worth a read. [snip]
>
> Some quotes:
>
>> [snip]
>
>> "management" is synonymous with "staying as far away
>> from actual work as possible"...
>
> And that is my experience I have had with working in tech for
> decades. No matter the tech company, Ivy League MBAs or people
> like them, eventually take over and drive the company into
> the ground. But they make Wall Street very happy, thus
> themselves and upper management with increased bonuses.

A possibly interesting relevant anecdote:

Over the late 80s and early 90s, I worked, very casually and
intermittently, with a humanities prof at MIT who ran a special
program for a selected group of 30 or 40 of each year's frosh.

He once remarked, with some surprise, that many of those 1st year
students in the program had told him that they were only at MIT and
only in a STEM major because they'd learned they were very good at the
technical stuff and saw that innate ability as an entry to corporate
success. But the had no desire or intent to pursue science/tech as a
career. Once having obtained a career foothold, they wanted to segue
to management at the earliest opportunity.

> The only difference between the Companies is how long it will
> take and maybe, if someone at the top realizes what is happening,
> make changes instead of watching their bank account grow.

--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

On 4/24/2024 3:47:39 PM, Mike Spencer wrote:
> A possibly interesting relevant anecdote:
>
> Over the late 80s and early 90s, I worked, very casually and
> intermittently, with a humanities prof at MIT who ran a special
> program for a selected group of 30 or 40 of each year's frosh.
>
> He once remarked, with some surprise, that many of those 1st year
> students in the program had told him that they were only at MIT and
> only in a STEM major because they'd learned they were very good at the
> technical stuff and saw that innate ability as an entry to corporate
> success. But the had no desire or intent to pursue science/tech as a
> career. Once having obtained a career foothold, they wanted to segue
> to management at the earliest opportunity.
>
>> The only difference between the Companies is how long it will
>> take and maybe, if someone at the top realizes what is happening,
>> make changes instead of watching their bank account grow.
>

In a depressing irony, this makes sense...and the initial article proves why.
Ben Gomes lost his job, Prabhakar Raghavan got it. Being good in a STEM field
is how you *get* a job. Being well-connected in a management position is how
you *keep* a job. If 'making an internet search engine successfully search
the internet' isn't a justifiable reason to continue employing someone at a
company who's job is to enable people to search the internet, then nothing
is.

Moreover, it's got to be extremely difficult to take that skillset elsewhere.
I'm sure Microsoft would, theoretically, *love* to have Gomes on their
payroll, but that seems messy. Splunk/Cisco and ElasticSearch might be
alternatives, but there's definitely tradeoffs involved.

Getting into management, however, is far safer, and again, the article proves
it. Raghavan had few successes, if any, and still managed to fail upward
throughout his career. Management allows you to do that, STEM does not.

Ultimately, STEM is a magnet for two types of folks: those who see it as a
calling (i.e. want to make the world a better place at the cost of self
sacrifice), and those who see it as a road to wealth (i.e. the ones who want
to make money, period). That the second path is visible in the provided
anecdote, rather than the first by itself, makes perfect sense.