The Artist Leaving the Googleplex
I think the problem with Google is that it advertised (still does?) itself, in a rather believable way, as being be diverse, fun, everyone working together -- developers, janitors and artists all holding hands creating a brigher tomorrow and perhaps fighting against evil.<p>Well it worked for me back then, I really did believe Google was &quot;Don&#x27;t Be Evil&quot; kind of company and so on, vis-a-vis say Microsoft, or say Walmart. Which were not evil, just you know, regular companies makign money. At least I remember buying into the PR.<p>So you see, Google took advantage of that image, and it worked out great for them. The problem is as soon as they went that way it became a high risk game, because from then on they will be judged according to that standard.<p>So I don&#x27;t see a problem at all with criticizing it. It really set itself up to a higher standard, so there is nothing wrong with pointing fingers at it and saying &quot;look at the hypocrisy&quot;.<p>The other more telling thing, is the story around it the video. How quickly this supposedly tollerant, open, diverse company moved to fire this person. You can only be tollerant and open as long as you are tollerant and open about approved things. You have the freedom to choose between the chocolate cake and the strawberry cake, but you don&#x27;t get to ask how the cake is made, basically.