Google: Is Technical Erosion Taking Place?
October 17, 2018
Two interesting reports caught my attention.
The first concerns the access problems experienced on October 16, 2018, with YouTube and YouTube Music. The details appear in “Back online. It’s Not Just You, YouTube and Other Google Services Are Down.” The write up states:
According to downtime tracker DownDetector, most people who are seeing the YouTube outage are in eastern and western United States and the UK. The site is seeing a very notable spike in reports of the web’s most popular video hosting site being down. Readers as far spread as Canada, India, Australia and Brazil are also reporting being affected.
Google’s infrastructure is large, complex, and subject to anomalies. Google was on top of the problem. The write up reports that Google dispatched “a team of highly trained monkeys” to rectify the glitch. Understandable, but YouTube is an ad revenue machine. The outage may have had an impact on Google Play, the pay-to-use-it service which will be available in the European Union soon. A YouTube outage is difficult to ignore even for monkeys. Did a monkey cause the problem or was it an annoying human user or a bad actor?
The second issue is related to Google’s self driving automobiles. “Google Engineer Triggered Self-Driving Car Accident That Went Unreported” asserts:
Google never publicly reported multiple autonomous vehicle crashes.
Let’s assume that the statement is accurate. The notion of a “failure to report” echoes the information in “Alphabet in the Soup for Keeping Quiet about Google Plus Data Leak Bug.” The article says:
Alphabet also failed to make investors aware that the company’s security measures “had failed recently and massively”; that they had been breached “due to employee error, malfeasance, system errors or vulnerabilities”; and that security protections had not shielded personal user data.
Google’s technology is quite good. Maybe there is no deterioration. What seems to be surfacing are examples of management decisions which are situational. I will pass these articles to the Beyond Search team compiling data about high school science club management methods.
Glitches and judgment could become the metaphorical equivalent of peanut butter and jelly, ham and eggs, or pressure and cracking in Inconel tubes.
Stephen E Arnold, October 17, 2018
Guess Who Has Not Been in an MIT Dorm for Men?
October 16, 2018
I know that Wikileaks is an interesting source of information. I usually do not mention the organization, its founder, or its information in this blog. However, I read “Leaked Memo: No Internet Until You Clean Your Bathroom, Ecuador Told Julian Assange.” Good stuff. So, let me make an exception to my minimalist approach to Wikeleaks.
I noted this statement in the write up:
London’s Ecuadorian embassy has slapped WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with a nine-page memo of house rules to follow if he wants to see the internet again under their roof.
The nine page memo contained this passage, which strikes me as a classic administrative response to a guest who has undesirable habits:
In order to safeguard the sanitary conditions of the Embassy facilities, Mr Julian Assange and his visitors will conserve the cleanliness and hygiene of the bathroom and other spaces that they use inside the embassy. For the same reasons, Mr Julian Assange will be responsible for the well-being, food, cleanliness and proper care of your pet. If the pet is not given due attention, the Head of Mission will ask Mr Assange to deliver the pet to another person or an animal shelter outside the Diplomatic Mission.
Yep, the cat is likely to be a pivot point.
However, what the memo reveals to me is that no one in the Ecuadorian embassy has had an opportunity to live in an MIT men’s dorm, spend time with some of the professionals participating in hackathons which require around the clock coding, or checked out the garbage left on Starbuck tables at 175 East El Camino Road.
Mr. Assange may be behaving in a manner which seems normal and—quite possibly—expected of a person with technical expertise.
Ecuador, however, does not seem to understand the cultural context of Mr. Assange’s approach to maintaining self, pet, and domicile.
What happens when an irresistible force meets and immovable object?
Trash and slovenly behavior escalate. Entropy takes numerous forms.
Stephen E Arnold, October 16, 2018
HSSCM: Organizing for Success in Google Plus
October 16, 2018
I continue to collect examples of high school science club management methods. My thought is to extract the “principles” of this approach. With MBA programs looking at a decline in student enrollments, perhaps these ideas will spark some new thinking at these august institutions.
The source of this example is the write up “Now That Google+ Has Been Shuttered, I Should Air My Dirty Laundry on How Awful the Project and Exec Team Was.” The author worked at Google for eight months, if LinkedIn contains accurte information. These observations date from the period in 2011 and 2012. I pegged the Golden Era of Google as ending in 2006, so these observations come as Google’s trajectory to the “new and improved era” indicate the direction of movement at the online ad company.
I highlighted a handful of items from the essay, which I have edited to remove the language which might be offensive to some of the more educated residents of Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky:
Statement 1: “I’m still #%*/! about the bait and switch they pulled by telling me I’d be working on Chrome, then putting me on this god forsaken piece of #%*/! on day one.
Beyond Search goose observation: Ah, has. Get hired. Get assigned. Then condemned to prowling the Google internal comms system for teams you might want to join. In short, bait and switch or—more likely—disorganization within the Google personnel hobby shop.
Statement 2: The [Google interview] process felt very haphazard.
Beyond Search goose observation: Ah, disorganization. The implementation of “we’re so smart, whatever we do will work out”. High school science club members are quite confident their ideas are better than those generated by the doobies on the student council.
Statement 3: The CEO didn’t just have an office. The entire floor was his [the person with the four corner office is Larry Page, the flying car entrepreneur].
Beyond Search goose observation: One needs room in which to operate, to fly new ideas like Loon balloons and cars which take wing. HSSCM principle: Get the biggest: Company, money, online ad system, etc. The wrestling team can occupy a squalid corner of the locker room. That’s the area with splintered benches, bent lockers, and slime on the green and yellow tile.
Statement 4: During the 8 months I was there, culminating in me leading the redesign of his product, Vic [Gundotra, the former head of Google Plus and once a Microsoft wizard] didn’t say a word to me.
Beyond Search goose observation: Communication is for goofs. If you are Googley, you know what’s what. Don’t get it? Become a Xoogler or work on scripts for updating indexes in the building near the lawyers. HSSCC principle: Telepathy is a functional way to coordinate work.
Statement 5: If your team, say on Gmail or Android, was to integrate Google Plus’s features then your team would be awarded a 1.5-3x multiplier on top of your yearly bonus. Your bonus was already something like 15% of your salary. You read that correctly. A #%*/! ton of money to ruin the product you were building with bloated garbage that no one wanted.
Beyond Search goose observation: In the handbook of HSSCM, it is not necessary to obtain information from potential user and actual users of an online service. The idea is to make decisions motivated by compensation. Combine this with the Microsoft method of soliciting feedback and then ignoring, and the HSSCC approach ensures a certain distance between what’s created and what users actually want. I don’t want to go “William James” on you, gentle reader, but this type of disconnection is important to effective HSSCC methodology.
Statement 6:
Everything being produced felt disjointed or siloed. Not part of the whole. The M.O.[modus operandi, a Latin phrase in case you did not recognized the acronym] was build and copy as much #%*/! as possible.
Beyond Search goose observation: HSSCM principle: If an employee does not understand the objective, the employee is not Googley. Obviously the failure to tune into the correct wavelength proves the inferiority of the humanoid.
Statement 7: None of this stuff was tightly integrated. More of a layer on top of everything. I wanted to change that. This was Plus when I joined. Lots of sections. Lots of junk. Bad navigation.
Beyond Search goose observation: Notice the duplication. In the HSSCC approach, everyone can do his or her own thing. (Yep, even my science club in 1958 had a female member. She changed schools, probably because of the general behavior of the advanced class toward those in “regular” classes. Welcoming is not a word associated with HSSCM methods. Operative concept: Wrappers, fixes, and good enough plus telepathy. Excellent guidelines.
Statement 8: They [fellow Googlers] didn’t care about what was better.
Beyond Search goose observation: HSSCC management does not require excellence. Membership means recognition. Stomp on others in the club so you get the recognition. Cue the theme music from Fame. Excellence? When one is a Googler, that’s like water to a fish. Ergo: Kill the other fish. Get the water.
Onward to management effectiveness.
Stephen E Arnold, October 16, 2018
HSSCM Method: October 13, 2018 Update
October 13, 2018
i read “Google CEO Refuses to Answer Detailed Questions on China in Letter to Senate.” CNET is a real news outfit, and I assume the information in the article is accurate. Perhaps Google’s information was not understood by the Senate. I do not think it is possible for the Senate to remain far from a political quasar.
The write up states that the Google letter included this statement:
We are approaching these issues deliberately, and whether we would or could release a search service in China remains unclear. Accordingly, we are not in a position to be able to answer detailed questions.
That seems pretty clear to me, but I live in rural Kentucky. This fact may give me a different appreciation of the English language. For me, the passage quote above means something along the lines:
I am not going to provide information to you. So there.
I think this approach is characteristic of a high school science club refusing to explain to the chemistry teacher where the concentrated hydrochloric acid went.
I recall one of our chemistry aces, whom shall remain nameless, saying to Virgil Shepherd, our estimable chemistry teacher:
I don’t know. Maybe the regular chemistry class used it instead of vinegar.
Mr. Shepherd did not buy the statement. But what could he do? The science club contained a published author, most of the top 20 students in the school, and knew that the regular chemistry students would lack the insight to stonewall.
Hey, did Mr. Shepherd want Illinois State Scholars, students who also attended local universities to rack up college credit from leaving high school, and and people who just rolled over when nobodies like chemistry teachers asked semi informed questions?
Of course not. He wanted a rubber chicken dinner just like the other teachers who had half a clue.
Now back to the letter. It is my content that it demonstrates the HSSCM method of talking down to lesser mortals.
This behavior is a core principle. Those who are in a more rarified atmosphere do not have to grub in the polluted atmosphere of dullardness.
Back to the article, the letter allegedly was “sent” on August 31. Well, that is a long time when measured in Internet minutes.
What’s the outcome?
First, it is now October 11, 2018, and the letter is ancient history when viewed from a science club’s perspective. Time’s a wastin’ when you are disruptin, some say.
Second, anger is not a trait one expects from august elected officials. Anger demonstrates a lack of judgment, patient, and rational thought. Logic and data are essential, unless one decides to do something due to a “feeling”. See this HSSCM example for a logical exception. The idea is, I believe, “we make the rules we follow, not some ageing group of former student council members.” Thus, the outcome will be more aloofness and objectivity from the author of the letter.
Third, nothing. Stalling is a known method of thwarting lesser mortals. These non Googlers often struggle to maintain focus. When delayed, the lesser mortals fight among themselves. The high school science club continues on its merry way. Science club members, we knew, were the future.
What’s the punishment? Detention in the library? A fine? Okay, parents will pay. Pull out of College Bowl (the TV show) or drop out of the state’s Quick Recall competition.
Hardly.
Today as it was then? Yep. High school science club management methods—works every time. Usually.
Stephen E Arnold, October 13, 2018
HSSCM Method: Update for October 10, 2018
October 10, 2018
The management methods inspired by high school science club behaviors are noteworthy. The goose calls these HSSCM methods or “high school science club management methods” to honor the behaviors of individuals who loved technology but were unfettered by such non essentials as football practice, the student council, and working as a volunteer at the retirement facility near the high school. Chemistry, math, physics, biology—the future.
Two items caught the Beyond Search goose’s attention this fine day.
First, the goose noted “Leaked Transcript of Private Meeting Contradicts Google’s Official Story on China.” The source is one of the popular real news sources associated with some NSA related information. The point of the write up, which the goose assumes is spot on, is:
On Sept. 26, a Google executive faced public questions on the censorship plan for the first time. Keith Enright told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that there “is a Project Dragonfly,” but said “we are not close to launching a product in China.” When pressed to give specific details, Enright refused, saying that he was “not clear on the contours of what is in scope or out of scope for that project.”
Okay, that seems clear.
And, on September 23, 2018, a Googler said:
“Right now, all we’ve done is some exploration,” Gomes told the reporter, “but since we don’t have any plans to launch something, there’s nothing much I can say about it.”
The hitch in the git along surfaces in this comment from the write up:
In July, Gomes had informed employees that the plan was to launch the search engine as soon as possible — and to get it ready to be “brought off the shelf and quickly deployed” once approval from Beijing was received.
The HSSCM method is to say different things to different audiences. That seems similar to practices followed in the high school science clubs with which I am familiar. For example, “Did you hot wire the PA system to play rock and roll during Mr. Durham’s morning announcements?” Our sci club leader said, “No.”
Did not fly.
The second high school science club management method the goose spotted appeared in the real news story “Facebook Isn’t Sorry — It Just Wants Your Data.” Facebook, a firm which has been associated with Cambridge Analytica and the phrase “I’m sorry,” allegedly has created what BuzzFeed calls a “home surveillance device.”
We noted this statement in the write up:
It’s also further confirmation that Facebook isn’t particularly sorry for its privacy failures — despite a recent apology tour that included an expensive “don’t worry, we got this” mini-documentary, full-page apology ads in major papers, and COO Sheryl Sandberg saying things like, “We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can’t, we don’t deserve it.” Worse, it belies the idea that Facebook has any real desire to reckon with the structural issues that obviously undergird its continued privacy missteps.
The HSSCM method is to do exactly what the science club wants. Need to experiment on pets, not frogs, as part of the biology course of study, have at it. I recall one of our science club members tried this stunt until the teacher learned that the student was expanding beyond the normal frog dissection.
These examples suggest that one just say what’s necessary to be left along. Then move forward. Fortunately the Beyond Search goose (a member, of course) evaded being cooked.
MBA programs may not have textbooks which explain the benefits of this approach. On the other hand, maybe the schools with forward looking professors do.
Stephen E Arnold, October 10, 2018
HSSCM Update: Two Little Used Methods
October 9, 2018
In the wake of the sinking of Google Plus, I wanted to highlight two HSSCM methods. You may recall that I use the acronym to mean “High School Science Club Management” to refer to the type of decision making found in secondary school extra curricular programs for students who perceive themselves as being pretty darned smart. I even ran a snap of me in my high school science club. We were a stellar group. Some PhDs, some published authors, and some pretty weird, anti social type dudes if I say so myself.
The first item concerns the apple of Amazon’s eye: the JEDI project for the Department of Defense. I learned from a highly reliable purveyor of information of real news that “Google Drops Out of Pentagon’s $10 Billion Cloud Competition.” That will make the day for some of the folks who labor in the Google’s DC vineyards really happy. Think of the many opportunities to explain, apologize, and reposition. On the other hand, Amazon may try to hire a couple of these Googlers. Getting some types of US government work might be tough.
What’s the management method? Well, surprise for starters. Also, creating enmity among those engaged in the RFP and procurement process. Plus, a clear signal that Google can and will change its mind on what has been a multi year process. Definitely sends a message. Just like the science club president in my high school who said, “Who wants to go to the prom? I have to work at the observatory that night?”
The second item concerns the Google Plus arabesque. If you want to get my take on the non management aspects of that exciting development, navigate to the story at this link.
The management method I want to highlight is revealed in the real news source the Wall Street Journal. You will have to pay to view the write up “Google Exposed User Data, Feared Repercussions of Disclosing to Public.” The main idea is the failure to notify. In my high school science club, I recall the time we broadcast the tune “Great Balls of Fire over the public address system.” We did not tell anyone we did it. Unfortunately it was highly unlikely that members of the football team or the wrestling team pulled off the stunt. As far as I know, our science club had the future electrical engineers in our quasi elite outfit. Google, in its wisdom, figured that keeping quiet was a prudent move.
The HSSCM method is to use exceptional judgment, ignore the advice of those who might have a different viewpoint, and create an opportunity for Google executives to explain themselves in a number of high profile venues. Will this question come up in a Congressional session? Maybe?
Net net: MBA courses can include these HSSCM methods as part of their initiative to reverse sagging enrollments.
Stephen E Arnold, October 9, 2018
HSSCM: Updates from Facebook and Snapchat
October 5, 2018
High school science club management methods are flourishing.
I wanted to highlight two examples of interesting ways to operate publicly traded companies in the spotlight.
The first example of HSSCM comes from Facebook, truly a gold mine of examples. I learned that a Facebook executive sat in a photo op location during the Brett Kavanaugh hearing. My source was “Facebook’s Head of Public Policy Is Supporting the Kavanaugh Nomination, and Some Employees Are Livid.” A Facebook top dog named Joel Kaplan appeared, at least to the Verge, to endorse “his close friend.”
The result, according to the write up, “roiled the social network.” I like the word roiled. The real journalists at the Verge reported:
For Facebook, the controversy over Kaplan represents a new point of division at a company that is still grappling with the Instagram founders’ unexpected departure and the largest data breach in its history. Only when it comes to the Kaplan controversy, it’s not clear to me what the company’s next move should be. The C suite seems to have been annoyed by Kaplan’s attendance, but was initially dismissive of employees’ concerns. (How concerned are employees? My favorite detail in Isaac’s story is that they went into Kaplan’s calendar and learned that he had not in fact taken the 27th as a personal day, as Kaplan initially stated. The calendar was later updated to reflect that it was, indeed, a personal day.)
It appears in the canon of the HSSCM method that it is not necessary to know what senior executives are doing. Furthermore, revisionism in the form of modifying a digital calendar, is supported. I also enjoyed learning that in this particular HSSCM example, the concerns of the employees were not at the top of the to do list.
Implications? I suppose there is a possibility that some MBA might interpret the method as exemplary decision making regarding a chain of command, time allocation, and awareness of the senior staff activities.
The second example concerns Snapchat, a service which I admit I never understood and still do not.
I captured this HSSCM method in the write up “9 Highlights from Snapchat CEO’s 6000-Word Leaked Memo on Survival.” Like leaks at Google and Palantir, the fact that someone released an internal memo suggests that shared values about how to handle confidential information may be lacking. Science club members have to be loyal, right?
My first reaction to the write up was, “6,000 words is a lot of words for a memo.” If I worked at Snapchat, I am not sure I would read that document. Some employees obviously concluded that reading and leaking were proof of the HSSCM approach.
I found a couple of the management principles embedded in the memo semi-interesting.
Item One, I noted the admission that the company moved too quickly. Well, it did break things, including usage of the software. An added plus was social media visibility. Annoyed users expressed their displeasure with a Snapchat design tweak. HSSCM knows how to get publicity. That’s a plus.
Item Two, a service called Discover is good. But the service is a “mess.” Hey, that’s part of the break things. The fix? Make Discover a “lean back” experience. I love the word experience. HSSCM methods deliver experiences, just like Google ads’ redesign which features the word “experience” instead of “increasing revenues”. See the email sent by Google on October 4, 2018, with the friendly, warm experience of the mail address: ads-noreply@google.com.
To sum up, here are the HSSCM methods I extracted from these two case examples:
- It is not necessary to know what senior managers are doing during the day on prime time television for six or seven hours
- It is okay to make it easy to modify digital calendars which is a trendy approach to revisionism
- It is okay to make decision in a hurry, ignore feedback, and then apologize. That is a way to move fast and put broken things back together.
- It is okay to create services which appear to be a mess. Creative destruction, right?
No wonder sign ups for MBA degrees are sinking. Who needs to study management when HSSCM methods are within reach of anyone working at a tech centric company?
Stephen E Arnold, October 5, 2018
HSSCM Methods: Hey, Enough of This Already
September 22, 2018
I read an allegedly “real journalism” story called “Google Suppresses memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China.” I won’t call attention to the split infinitive, which is not popular among the sensitive set.
And now to the “real” story:
The write up reveals that allegedly Google’s high school science club management methods include forcing employees to “delete a confidential memo circulating insight the company.”
But here’s the juicy bit:
The memo, authored by a Google engineer who was asked to work on the project, disclosed that the search system, codenamed Dragonfly, would require users to log in to perform searches, track their location — and share the resulting history with a Chinese partner who would have “unilateral access” to the data.
Okay, now that’s management: Confidential material circulating. Info must be deleted. Data from the alleged memo gets leaked to a “real” news outfit.
The reaction is classic HSSCM: Anger, possible governance goofs, and saying one thing and maybe, just maybe, doing something else.
Well, the HSSCM method includes what the write up says is an interesting angle:
Google reportedly maintains an aggressive security and investigation team known as “stopleaks,” which is dedicated to preventing unauthorized disclosures. The team is also said to monitor internal discussions.
I particularly like the phrase “moral agency.”
Hey, hey, the HSSCM method means that the science club sets the rules. “Moral agency?” Can that be measured in mendacity?
Stephen E Arnold, September 22, 2018
High School Science Club Management Method: Protecting the In Crowd Culture
September 17, 2018
I read a quasi news / semi MBA write up with the clicky title “A Wave of News Leaks Is Triggering a Crackdown at Google and Causing Fears That the Culture Is Being Openly Destroyed.” You know my procedure. First, I check out the loaded words in a write up. Not too tough because “crackdown” and “fear” are front and center. But the keeper is “destroyed.” Not damaged. Destroyed. Yikes.
There is one word I hoped the write up would define. It is “culture.” This may be one of the “I will know it when I encounter it” terms. Here in Harrod’s Creek we have culture. When one wants to shoot a squirrel in a neighbor’s tree, one pulls the trigger. Squirrels are fair game no matter where they are. Neighbors? Hah. Should have spotted the critter first and nailed it.
I don’t think too many Googlers or Alphabeters think about squirrels. I assume that if a squirrel were to find itself in need at the Googleplex, a squad of high technology wizards with minors in animal husbandry would rush to aid the furry creature. Another group of Googlers with degrees in food science would debate the virtues of frying versus grilling the animal. A third group of Googlers might make signs and protest improper intervention into the life of the confused rat like creature.
Ah, Google.
The write up, however, does not address these issues, whether squirrely or not.
I learned:
The increasingly heated and contentious atmosphere within Google mirrors the highly politicized nature of the country. As on the political stage, behavior within Google that was once considered unthinkable is now occurring with increasing regularity.
Okay, no definition of culture. Not too much about the destroy and fear thing.
Maybe crackdown? I noted after a bit of chatter about employees who send Twitter messages during meetings:
“People who leak are hated” internally, one source said. “There’s a reasonably open culture that many feel is being openly destroyed…. “There’s a perception that if you leak you’re destroying communication,” the source said.”
None of that anonymous stuff. This is a “source.” Helpful.
There’s a new security measure too:
Google informed employees in a weekly email update that the TGIF meetings would no longer be available to be streamed on individual laptops. Instead, employees who were not at the main event at a cafe in Google’s Mountain View, Calif. campus, would need to show up at special designated locations within its satellite offices to watch a feed of the proceedings. Anyone working from home or wishing to tune in from their desk while working was now out of luck.
Okay, the high school science club management method of restricting meetings and keeping the non sciclub types out. Insiders only. But only insiders who are actually inside something.
So much for the legions of remote employees, those traveling, or the hapless consultants who are “sort of like” employees.
I will keep looking for more HSSCM methods. These are useful and informative. Almost as nifty as leaked videos and real time Twitter messages, the follow up real news stories, and the wild and crazy apologia which Silicon Valley pundits contribute to the Gray Lady.
And the squirrel? Not qualified to be a Google target yet. And what is “culture” anyway. If it is not defined, can it be destroyed?
Stephen E Arnold, September 17, 2018
Management Tips from a Tech Centric Outfit
September 10, 2018
I read “Focus on End User Technology, Retain Your Employees.” Darned amazing. The write up from the ever fascinating, real news outfit Computerworld asserts:
…over 70% said that U they strongly prefer fast in-office technology and, without it, 20% of millennials said they would actually quit.
I love that “actually quit.”
But Computerworld seems unaware that at several high profile high technology companies stuffed with youthful workers and those who are mentally young face employee push back.
If the argument in the Computerworld management essay were accurate, these are the companies which should have happy employees.
Yep, that timely device refresh will thwart protests, walk outs, and staff resignations due to company work for the US government.
Ah, management thinking in 2018. Refreshing, just like a new device.
Stephen E Arnold, September 10, 2018
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