To me it looks like that while the high-minded idealists remained mostly the same, it's Google that transformed itself into something completely different from what it was the early days. It should be noted that in 2005, when this guy joined Google, both Android and the acquisition of Doubleclick were at least 2 years away. Google execs were probably already planning the move into an advertising and spyware behenoth back then, but I'm pretty sure the lower "cogs" like any freshly hired techie, wouldn't know that for quite some time.

The problem with these types of people is that they actually care about more than the paycheck. ;)

Didn't seem to care about more than a paycheck until they'd collected a big one for 15 years. Idealism is easy when there's no risk involved.

Now you're idealizing struggle. It's easier (doesn't mean easy) to influence a group from the inside than from the outside. Quitting Google to avoid its money would be just a nonsensical self-sacrifice.

Why the hate towards someone who is talking about their experiences at Google?

Do I sense jealousy?

Maybe they believed they could make it a better company from the inside, and have finally given up?

If everybody good runs, whats left is no good.

Google has done more good than a lot of companies. Go compare it to Palantir etc.

There was a time where the search ad economy was such a great idea and a net benefit to society, and you could hire idealists to do the right things because hey some of them might end up being win-wins for both the business and society (See: Google Maps, Gmail, News, Android). Now though, the scale has shifted much more towards just squeezing all the juice out of the ad and data economy and keeping competitors out. There's not enough large-scale win-wins. This started when the self-driving car projects started really petering out. Innovation, real innovation in both products and also business plans has slowed down, at least within the big companies.

So where are these idealists supposed to go? Well, imo, on measure they've got PLENTY OF MONEY NOW, so they can and should go IMPROVE SOCIETY. Sure, some can stay within Google to try to hold up the barricade against capitalism and investor demands, but everyone knows the barricade will fall sooner rather than later. Like the original post's blog - thats what those people should be doing.