Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense, is now as good as dead

Re:Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense,... by dragonwriter on Friday August 16, 2013 @11:45AM (#6224698)

> A lot of this "idiocy" is in fact rational behavior. At many large companies, upper management is rewarded for short-term gains.

The fact that microoptimizations that are harmful to the company in a broader perspective are rational on the part of individual mid-level managers working within the incentive framework provided by upper management, doesn't mean they aren't idiocy on the part of the upper management responsible for creating the incentive framework.

In fact, that means they are idiocy on the part of upper management.

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Re:Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense,... by tmoertel on Friday August 16, 2013 @11:56AM (#6224786)

I guess that conclusion would depend on whether the upper managers expected to better off (a) by staying at the same company for life or (b) by pumping the short-term returns and then using them as a shortcut to a better position at some other company, where the long-term consequences won't be felt.

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Re:Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense,... by ishansharma on Friday August 16, 2013 @01:09PM (#6225310)

Well, from what I have seen about the business people, their preferred method is b. Since by going to some other company, they can get higher salary, usually higher than the raise they'd be getting.

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