[hosh]

I also think the presence of Sergey Brin has been making a difference in this.

[refulgentis]

Ex-googler: I doubt it, but am curious for rationale (i know there was a round of PR re: him “coming back to help with AI.” but just between you and me, the word on him internally, over years and multiple projects, was having him around caused chaos b/c he was a tourist flitting between teams, just spitting out ideas, but now you have unclear direction and multiple teams hearing the same “you should” and doing it)

[AYBABTME]

the rebuke is that lack of chaos makes people feel more orderly and as if things are going better, but it doesn't increase your luck surface area, it just maximizes cozy vibes and self interested comfort.

[IncreasePosts]

I'm in a similar position and generally agree with your take, but the plus side to his involvement is if he believed in your project or viewpoint he would act as the ultimate red tape cutter.

[pstuart]

That makes sense. A "secret shopper" might be a better way to avoid that but wouldn't give him the strokes of being the god in the room.

[LightBug1]

Oh ffs, we have an external investor who behaves like that. Literally set us back a year on pet nonsense projects and ideas.

[hungryhobbit]

Please, Google was terrible about using the tech the had long before Sundar, back when Brin was in charge.

Google Reader is a simple example: Googl had by far the most popular RSS reader, and they just threw it away. A single intern could have kept the whole thing running, and Google has literal billions, but they couldn't see the value in it.

I mean, it's not like being able to see what a good portion of America is reading every day could have any value for an AI company, right?

Google has always been terrible about turning tech into (viable, maintained) products.

[vinkelhake]

Is there an equivalent to Godwin's law wrt threads about Google and Google Reader?

See also: any programming thread and Rust.

[burgreblast]

I never get the moaning about killing Reader. It was never about popularity or user experience.

Reader had to be killed because it [was seen as] a suboptimal ad monetization engine. Page views were superior.

Was Google going to support minimizing ads in any way?

[DiggyJohnson]

How is this relevant? At best it’s tangentially related and low effort

[jamespo]

Took a while but I got to the google reader post. Self host tt-rss, it's much better

[largbae]

Can you not vibe code it back into existence yet?

[belter]

Because after the death of Epstein he suddenly had a lot of free time?

https://www.wsj.com/finance/jeffrey-epstein-advised-sergey-b...

https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2017428928814588323

[rvnx]

If this is true, this is disappointing :/

On a similar topic, it is worth mentioning the entrepreneurs that are forced into sex (or let’s say, very pushed) by VCs.

For those who feel safe or taking it as a joke, this affects women AND men.

Some people are going to be disappointed about their heroes.

[wslh]

What's striking is the sheer scale of Epstein's and Maxwell's scheduling and access. The source material makes it hard to even imagine how two people could sustain that many meetings/parties/dinners/victims, across so many places, with such high-profile figures. And, how those figures consistently found the time to meet them.