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Niniane Wang Has Quit Google  (View post)

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
15 years ago6,875 views

I'll be sad to see her go, though, I never quite got how Lively fit into the Google strategy...

Wishing her well in her future projects though! :)

Joe L. [PersonRank 1]

15 years ago #

I used to read her blog, and still did when she was talking about the super-secret crazy-awesome project she was working on. (as I recall, I unsubscribed when she talked too much about her drunken experiences in San Francisco, which I don't care to read about)

.... then Lively came out and it was revealed that is what she was talking about.

and my reaction was...... "really? THIS is the uber-cool top-secret project you've been raving about for a year? errmmm...... sorry. you may have had a good vision at one point, but this is super lame"

Sander [PersonRank 4]

15 years ago #

In a few months: Larry Page and Sergey Brin quit google...

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Best wishes to whatever she chooses to do going forward. It's too bad her last project wasn't given more time to mature.

TOMHTML [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

I only read her blog and I already knew that she has quit Google some months ago. So I suppose she already blogged about that, or people have leave comments on her blog about that.
I can't find it right now :-/

Andy Wong [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Niniane is undoubtly a guru of technology and super smart. She was just just lack of social experience in requirement analysis, though her super smarty sometime complemented such shortage.

Tadeusz Szewczyk [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Probably she was just a "loser" as Google refers to the 1/3 of employees that have recently "left" (been fired).
See here for the "starve the losers" reference: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/03/02/daily58.html

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

From above article:
> The statements reflect recent moves by Patrick Pichette, the
> company’s new chief financial officer, who has already shut
> down many of Google’s products that weren’t making
> money and stressed that he wants to “feed the winners” and
> “starve the losers.”

Was Google web search making money in the first 4 months? Just wondering. But considering from the outside we have no way of knowing why Lively was canceled (and Google won't tell us) this is all stumbling in the dark.

By the way, I think he might be referring to "losers" as "loser products" not "loser employees" as you suggest.

Tadeusz Szewczyk [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Yeah, it might be a metaphor but in most cases "losers" refers to actual people. Also you can't starve products. I know Googlers are "very smart" but they aren't poets to speak only in metaphors..

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

<< you can't starve products >>

You can starve products by not feeding them resources (people, infrastructure, time, marketing etc.)

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

> I know Googlers are "very smart" but they aren't poets
> to speak only in metaphors..

Certainly you wouldn't suggest that he meant "starving" non-metaphorical? Because that would mean he wants to physically stop giving food to employees, and perhaps even find ways to stop them from getting food on their own (e.g. by locking them up).

Here's the full quote by the way, from Canadian Business, October 13, 2008:

<<Q: What are your top priorities as Google’s CFO?

A: Look, I’ve just arrived. [But] what a good CFO does is, first, the compliance portions. You make sure the corporation’s protected, no one goes to jail, everything is in order. Second, you make sure the company never runs out of resources — i.e., cash — and I have the great pleasure that I don’t have to worry about that for a while. And the third priority of a CFO is pushing to make sure all the resources are used efficiently, that you feed the winners, starve the losers.>>
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/managing/ceo_interviews/article.jsp?content=20081013_198724_198724&page=2

pokemo [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

this is an expected news...nobody is going to work in the same company forever. IMHO.

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