The Lost Facebook / Google Reign
Facebook was my dream company. I joined as an intern. I’ve seen that Google vs Facebook intern fight. I’ve seen that hack culture. People used to collaborate and contribute out of love / interest. But after the layoffs Meta has lost the culture. Now it’s people coasting / working out of PSC fear. The move fast and break things, Facebook prestige came from Zuck’s background, the cool dorm room startup, intern season, that fb hackathons. It was such a big thing and extremely difficult to build. Even though the stock value jumped and other things can be recovered, mass layoffs just shattered the great tech image of a company that will pay anything for the talent and will not fall. Will we ever be able to get back that great Facebook vs Google phase of tech?
Not like this. Not when leaders mainly M2+ seem to be looking out for themselves rather than their teams or the company.
Facebook vs Google prestige didn't change, Google also lost its culture after layoffs.
Haha! You mean they both are racing equally to the bottom! :) Good point!
It’s not because of just the layoffs. It’s mainly because of the metaverse joke and the company stopped innovating
i also feel like people got smarter and the walled garden and illusion/secrecy of big tech failed. we allll now know the innovation is to sell more ads and keep us on our phones. That’s why the social good narrative stopped after sheryl left.
Sheryl 💯
It will come from new companies. There was a time when IBM, Xerox, and Bell Labs were the exciting hacker companies to be at. That era came and went. It's clear that Facebook and Google have seen their best days and now they'll just chug along as boring behemoths. Who knows what the new companies/tech will be that lead the next era. They might already exist today or they might not have even been founded yet.
Yes I agree. But also for FB vs Google, the internet was new. People ain’t seen or imagined anything like that. It was a different / new exciting era. But now the tech has already evolved. Even when we get new technologies / AI I don’t see that excitement in people.
Nah, the internet wasn't new when Facebook and Google came around. The internet was already really exciting in the 90s and those companies didn't really take off until the 2000s. Facebook especially gets lumped in with "web 2.0". The 2010s were the decade of smartphones, streaming services, and gig economy apps. We'll see what technologies this decade brings. People have floated crypto, AI, metaverse etc. so far none have quite taken off, but that doesn't mean they won't or that something else won't come along that rocks the world.
Who’s the next Goog FB, from the culture angle? Almost all companies seem broken rn
Curious how long and what level are you at Meta?
Recently left Meta 💔 after 4yrs. Senior SWE.
Dude, when did you join? 2005?
You don't need to go so far back. It was like this till even 2018 or so.
Google morale hasn’t recovered after layoffs either
Damn so much nostalgia. When I joined Google in 2014, Larry and Sergei welcomed a bunch of nooglers in tgif. Now all of that is gone, replaced by hordes of mediocre Indians. Like literally at that time to get hired at Google you gotta be exceptional. Talking about winning ICPC or some shit
Also racist.
Bud the zurich office where I was hired at was full of IOI and red codeforces with rating 2400+. Fast forward today linkedin is full of Indian bragging about achieving 1500 rating and got a job at Google lmaooo. You see the difference right?
Google won’t get back that phase with Pichai as the CEO. Him and his penny skimping will lead Google to become another company.
Not any other company! We will be the next IBM or Intel!
Pichai is not the real Ceo. Larry calls the shots. He's just an admin