Rob Pike is not a 'Googler' by birth or fame or identity. He was at Bell Labs and was on the team that created Unix, led the team creating Plan 9, co-created UTF-8, and did a bunch more - all long before Google existed. He was a legend before he deigned to join them and lend them his credibility.
Eh, and it was arguably a mistake to let him force Go on the rest of the organisation by way of starpower.
"force" seems a bit strong, as I remember it.
Re:Rob Pike Goes Nuclear over GenAI
by thatoneguy on Friday December 26, 2025 @02:17AM
(#46389966)
Yeah, I remember it being a fourth option alongside the others but I quit just before Google lost its serifs and its soul
Re:Rob Pike Goes Nuclear over GenAI
by DonHopkins on Friday December 26, 2025 @02:41PM
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I was gonna say! Working at Bell Labs is a LOT more prestigious (and less humiliating) than working for Google, an advertising company.
It's like the old joke from Mad Magazine:
The Beatles? Weren't they Paul McCartney's backup band before Wings?
In fairness, was Bell Labs, part of (or funded by) AT&T, a phone monopoly, any less corporate than Google's home for genius engineers?
Re:Rob Pike Goes Nuclear over GenAI
by DonHopkins on Friday December 26, 2025 @07:12PM
(#46397804)
Telephony is much more important to society than advertisement.
I know where they make money, but calling them an advertising company is just a jab. Ha ha, but that doesn't describe Google, like them or not.
I wonder where AT&T made profits and where, like any business, they broke even or had loss leaders. IIRC consumer telephone service was not profitable.
To call him the Oppenheimer of Gemini would be overly dramatic. But he definitely had access to the Manhattan project.
>What power do big tech companies have and why do you have a problem with
Do you want the gist of the last 20 years or so, or are you just being rhetorical? im sure there will be much literature over time that will dissect such a question to its atoms. Whether it be a cautionary tale or a retrospective of how a part is society fell? Well, we still have time to write that story.