The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread

Devin Coldewey / Aug 14, 2024

Video of Eric Schmidt blaming remote work for Google's woes mysteriously vanishes | TechCrunch

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who has since moved on to greener and perhaps more dangerous pastures, told an audience of Stanford students recently that

Someone needs to tell this noob how technology and the internet works:

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who has since moved on to greener and perhaps more dangerous pastures, told an audience of Stanford students recently that “Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning.” Evidently this hot take was not for wider consumption, as Stanford — which posted the video this week on YouTube — today made the video of the event private.

It would not be surprising if it was at the behest of the talent. “I misspoke about Google and their work hours,” said Schmidt in an emailed statement to TechCrunch. “I regret my error.”

Several news publications have already run headlines about the video, and 1.4 million people viewed a clip of Schmidt trashing Google’s remote work practices on X.

At another point in the video, Schmidt tells the audience to keep what he’s telling them private, then acts somewhat surprised when his interviewer points out cameras in the room. At another point, he tells the audience that AI startups can steal IP and hire smart lawyers to clean it up later, once they’ve created a successful product. Presumably, the former Google CEO did not know the entire interview would be posted online.

tigger

Eric Schmidt is an asshole. It’s quite simple.

Kilemall

@tigger said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

Eric Schmidt is an asshole. It’s quite simple.

I loved how first do no evil got road killed the moment they needed to monetize.

tigger

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@tigger said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

Eric Schmidt is an asshole. It’s quite simple.

I loved how first do no evil got road killed the moment they needed to monetize.

Look, this is nitpicking but it’s not technically true. Google has a brilliant business in that the better search results it serves, the more users come, the better ads it can serve. And in Eric’s time, (2001-2011) this was indeed so, and the scale of growth was massive, so there were no pressures to make it not be so, and there were practically no efforts to do quality-vs-ads trade-offs or other bets.

tigger

I’m not saying he’s not a jerk, just that you cannot blame circa 2019- moral decline of Google on him.

Kilemall

I’m saying they started selling harvested data early on without consent and that’s evil.

tigger

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

I’m saying they started selling harvested data early on without consent and that’s evil.

OK, I thought for a second we were discussing real world, not imaginary stuff. Carry on.

Kilemall

@tigger said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

I’m saying they started selling harvested data early on without consent and that’s evil.

OK, I thought for a second we were discussing real world, not imaginary stuff. Carry on.

Uh huh.

Gustaf

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

I’m saying they started selling harvested data early on without consent and that’s evil.

Coming the Trainlord, that’s rich. Nothing is more evil than trains.

oyaji

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

harvested data early on without consent

when you harvest something from someone else without consent, that would be like me bringing my combine harvester over to your field and taking your crop while you weren’t home.

there are words for that, aren’t there? i think it is called “stealing”. or how about “theft”?

Kilemall

@oyaji said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

harvested data early on without consent

when you harvest something from someone else without consent, that would be like me bringing my combine harvester over to your field and taking your crop while you weren’t home.

there are words for that, aren’t there? i think it is called “stealing”. or how about “theft”?

I’m told that’s imaginary. Billions in sales says otherwise.

Kilemall

@Gustaf said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

I’m saying they started selling harvested data early on without consent and that’s evil.

Coming the Trainlord, that’s rich. Nothing is more evil than trains.

Trains don’t take things without permission. Well eminent domain but that’s a process.

Instead you pay to get stuff moved. If you ask for it. Nicely. And have your money ready.

Blanks

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Gustaf said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

I’m saying they started selling harvested data early on without consent and that’s evil.

Coming the Trainlord, that’s rich. Nothing is more evil than trains.

Trains don’t take things without permission. Well eminent domain but that’s a process.

Instead you pay to get stuff moved. If you ask for it. Nicely. And have your money ready.

I’m pretty sure all those innocent people didn’t ask the trains to take their lives

Kilemall

@Blanks said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Gustaf said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

I’m saying they started selling harvested data early on without consent and that’s evil.

Coming the Trainlord, that’s rich. Nothing is more evil than trains.

Trains don’t take things without permission. Well eminent domain but that’s a process.

Instead you pay to get stuff moved. If you ask for it. Nicely. And have your money ready.

I’m pretty sure all those innocent people didn’t ask the trains to take their lives

Trains…… go on tracks…. you look both ways before crossing…. it ain’t hard to avoid them.

Lob12

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Blanks said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Gustaf said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

I’m saying they started selling harvested data early on without consent and that’s evil.

Coming the Trainlord, that’s rich. Nothing is more evil than trains.

Trains don’t take things without permission. Well eminent domain but that’s a process.

Instead you pay to get stuff moved. If you ask for it. Nicely. And have your money ready.

I’m pretty sure all those innocent people didn’t ask the trains to take their lives

Trains…… go on tracks…. you look both ways before crossing…. it ain’t hard to avoid them.

Evil cannot be avoided. It must be defeated.

Gustaf

@Lob12 said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Blanks said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Gustaf said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

I’m saying they started selling harvested data early on without consent and that’s evil.

Coming the Trainlord, that’s rich. Nothing is more evil than trains.

Trains don’t take things without permission. Well eminent domain but that’s a process.

Instead you pay to get stuff moved. If you ask for it. Nicely. And have your money ready.

I’m pretty sure all those innocent people didn’t ask the trains to take their lives

Trains…… go on tracks…. you look both ways before crossing…. it ain’t hard to avoid them.

Evil cannot be avoided. It must be defeated.

Trains go on tracks, it shouldn’t be that hard for them to not fall off the tracks and blow up.

Kilemall

@Lob12 said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Blanks said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Gustaf said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

I’m saying they started selling harvested data early on without consent and that’s evil.

Coming the Trainlord, that’s rich. Nothing is more evil than trains.

Trains don’t take things without permission. Well eminent domain but that’s a process.

Instead you pay to get stuff moved. If you ask for it. Nicely. And have your money ready.

I’m pretty sure all those innocent people didn’t ask the trains to take their lives

Trains…… go on tracks…. you look both ways before crossing…. it ain’t hard to avoid them.

Evil cannot be avoided. It must be defeated.

Those guys were losers. And looks like the shipper didn’t disclose the volatility.

Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway - Wikipedia

Gators1

How do you differentiate these “losers” from the rest of big rail? All the same to me.

oyaji

@Kilemall said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

the shipper didn’t disclose the volatility.

oh, c’mon now, don’t tell us that you aver that is the reason the train left the track?

Lob12

@Gators1 said in The OFFICIAL tech stuff thread:

How do you differentiate these “losers” from the rest of big rail? All the same to me.

It’s basically like Al-Qaeda pointing to the Islamic State and saying “Look, they’re bigger assholes than us!”