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I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 QUOTES

I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 QUOTES

1 " In search," Urs (Hölzle) believed, "the discussion was really, How can we outdistance our current system and make it look laughable? That's the best definition of success: if a new system comes out and everyone says, 'Wow, I can't believe we put up with that old thing because it was so primitive and limited compared to this. "

― Douglas Edwards , I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59

2 " Google hires really bright, insecure people and then applies sufficient pressure that no matter how hard they work, they're never able to consider themselves successful. Look at all the kids in my group who work absurd hours and still feel they're not keeping up with everyone else. "

― Douglas Edwards , I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59

3 " After Google, I find myself impatient with the way the world works. Why is it so hard to schedule a recording on my DVR? Why aren't all the signal lights synched to keep traffic flowing at optimum speed? Why, if I punch in my account number when I call customer service, do I have to give it to them again when I get a live person? These are all solvable problems. Smart people, motivated to make things better, can do almost anything.

I feel lucky to have seen firsthand just how true that is. "

― Douglas Edwards , I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59

4 " One fear I knew Eric had was of clowns. Specifically, the bozos who showed up at a company when it reached a certain size and bloated it with bureaucracy and bogged it down in mediocrity. Google's hiring guidelines explicitly stated we should only add people smarter than we were.
That's why we started running a line on the homepage that said, "You're brilliant. We're hiring." The engineers loved it. "

― Douglas Edwards , I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59

5 " Great food also had the ability to attract great talent. "I don't know what to do," senior engineer Luiz Barroso moaned to Jeff Dean the night he had to decide whether to join VMWare or Google. "I've made these lists. I've assigned points to all the pros and cons, and it's tied at 112 to 112." Jeff knew that the day of Luiz's interview at Google, Charlie had served creme brulee for lunch. "Did you factor in the creme brulee?" he asked. "Because I know you really like creme brulee." "Oh no! I didn't consider that," Luiz admitted. The next morning he accepted Google's offer. "

― Douglas Edwards , I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59

6 " One night around two a.m., I heard the piano suddenly start playing at high volume. Going downstairs from my office to shut it off, I saw Salar sitting at the keyboard in the half-light, ripping through a Chopin scherzo and filling the small space with his frenetic finger work. I stood and watched as he flawlessly hammered out notes, the sound crashing against the walls, the windows, the furniture, as if it needed to break free and soar across the moonlit wetlands just outside our door. The piece felt familiar to me. Then I realized that it wasn't the melody but the tempo — the mad racing pace, the unrelenting forward momentum - that I knew all too well. It felt like Google chasing opportunity through the night. "

― Douglas Edwards , I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59

7 " We had different tolerances for risk and different ideas about what two smart people working alone could accomplish in a complex technical area—and that is why I spent seven years working in mainstream media while Larry found a partner and founded his own company. Two smart guys working on complex technical problems, it turns out, can accomplish a hell of a lot. "

― Douglas Edwards , I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59

8 " What the hell are you thinking?” I asked Larry when he explained his idea for a new do-it-yourself advertising system. "

― Douglas Edwards , I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59