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points by doginasuit 15 hours ago | 0 comments

This is an interesting question to ask of any company. Every company over a long period is a Ship of Theseus. Google started out as a rowboat and now it is an ocean liner.

Investment in product quality, "Don't be evil", everything that set a company apart and allowed it to rise, it lasts only as long as it is preserved in a way that resists decay.

Is there anything left of the rowboat? I'm at the point where I am actively trying to shut Google out of my life to the degree that it is possible. And yet it is still not Microsoft. I catch a glimmer of the old google in a product release now and then.

[–] jppope 14 hours ago

To quote Christopher Nolan: “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

[–] virgil_disgr4ce 14 hours ago

Fun fact, according to C-Nol himself, his brother (Jonathan Nolan) wrote that line

[–] redwood 13 hours ago

And as a reminder to folks he's the writer of (the newer era) Westworld which if you haven't seen the full first season really turns into an incredible mind bender

[–] dinkblam 12 hours ago

That show should have died the hero, i.e. after season one.

[–] PaulDavisThe1st 10 hours ago

S2 was reasonably OK, IMO. But that was it. And all their talk of having a fantastic entire story laid out right from the start? I don't believe a word of it. There's no way they had thought up Rehobaum or whatever it was called back when they started work on S1.

[–] goodmythical 14 hours ago

I hear there's a janitor using the handle of one of the original paddles as a mop handle.

It's only there because it wasn't inventoried and so not lost in the purge.