This question is for myself, a summary of my ten years of Google.

Emphasize “don’t pretend to be pushy”, mainly to remind yourself not to fall into the following conventions:

  • Make a name for yourself by lying to, gossiping about, or revealing secrets about your former employer (this is bad behavior)

  • Satisfy the public’s curiosity

  • Brag about yourself and belittle others

I joined Google in March 2006 and left in September 2016. My title/position upon leaving was Staff Software Engineer/Manager. 10.5 years, roughly divided into three periods:

  • The first two years focused on Linux desktop search products and Google’s open source projects.

  • In the last three years, I spent a lot of effort on Google China related products, such as input method, Google Music and so on.

  • The next four or five years were largely within the Knowledge Graph, which was tied to Google Search and Google Now’s recent big changes.

In the meantime, the code has written a lot, the team has also taken several. On top of that, I’ve been on the Google Doodles team for years as 20% of the developers who help create the Doodles on the front page — well, it’s true, I’ve made a small contribution to a lot of the Doodles.

What did you learn? Well, there are a lot of them. Pick the most important three or four.

First, live in a truly differentiated world for the first time

The domestic education atmosphere has always disliked differentiation. Words like personal hobbies, adventurous spirit and maverick will always make parents, teachers and even leaders and officials worried. Growing up, I basically lived in a world that tried to keep all children in rulers, boxes and cages; Can imagine, be like me such 70 hind foot when step into Google, can have what kind of feeling.

Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter… For employees, these companies themselves are a kind of big family, big society that encourages differentiation. Google has always played a leading role, which is one of the proudest things about working at Google.

The best advantage of differentiation, it is you have the opportunity to meet all kinds of magical figure, then, when you and outlook on life, the life style, personal interests and habits differences between great people work together, you will feel real, his life in this world haven’t got a monotonous, there are so many interesting people and fun waiting for you to discover.

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At Google, you shouldn’t be surprised to see any difference.

On a smaller scale, there are social phobes who code in a corner and hate interacting with people, and social stars who are glowing. In the office, there are caring people who take their dogs to work, good parents who value their families, dreamers who struggle all night long, and technical geeks who are obsessed with strange hobbies… For example, some of the hobbies I have worked with include: In the garage building grotesque bike every day, take an unpaid leave to help other people running for President, every weekend go to a place that have never been to leave to visit, study of ancient phonology, the pelagic survey of Marine biology, selling second-hand photographic equipment for a long time, write a science fiction, try atmosphere skydiving and break the world record… Of course, with respect to differentiation, you can’t stop anyone from going to bed from morning to night and spending only two hours a day doing what someone else does in 12 hours.

To a large extent, Google’s support for the LGBT community is well known. I understood this support more as a matter of political correctness. It didn’t take me long to realize how shallow my understanding had been. In one case, a video of a couple from Google’s San Francisco office proposing romantically in the company cafeteria went viral, touching many colleagues. I remembered later that I had met one of the happy couple at a conference in Silicon Valley. On another occasion, his entire team received an email from an executive announcing his gender change, saying that from that day on, everyone would need to refer to him as “she.” Contrary to what many people believe, these events don’t constantly remind you of the LGBT community. On the contrary, the more you experience them, the less you pay attention to them — they or they are members of the human race, not so different from you or me.

When I watched the documentary “HUMAN” promoted by Google on YouTube last year, IT became clear to me that the word “Diversity” was already a part of my blood, and there was no barrier between my brain and the brains of the documentary makers. I would meditate on the strange faces on the screen. In my opinion, one of the most ridiculous things in this world is that human evolution is clearly due to the differences in genes and character. Many people laugh at the differences between themselves and others, and try to force others to change, hoping that the people in the world are as stubborn and ignorant as themselves. This is true of sexual orientation, relationships, marriage, family, work and career.

Google employees often face a classic dilemma: Because many of my colleagues left Google early to raise money, start businesses, go public, and get rich, ordinary engineers like me, who had worked at Google for ten years, became an anomaly. Those who asked me “why haven’t you left Google” could hardly hide their contempt in their eyes. On the other hand, in my family’s eyes, my decision to leave Google was tantamount to destroying a golden bowl of bread, settling for the uncertainty of a steady paycheck and generous benefits. In fact, if you understand the importance of “diversity”, this dilemma is no longer valid. Since some people choose the fast pace and secular life, why can’t I quit my job and slowly follow my own interests and temper to understand the relationship between the world and myself from different angles? Why does “living slowly” have to be an escape?

The universe is big and people are small. Security is bullshit. Living alone is all that matters.

Second, the mentality of looking at technology is completely different

This is mainly about me. Before JOINING Google, I was engaged in the business software development of the banking industry in China, making software for large enterprises such as ICBC and Bank of China. This is a far cry from the end user Internet context of Google.

In the past, technology was regarded as something out of the world, a tool, a brick and a wood, and a necessity to solve the needs of users. There’s nothing wrong with this mindset, but it unconsciously puts you in the position of a tech follower.

At that time, I spent a lot of time desperately in understanding, learning and catching up with new technology, for fear of falling behind. Sometimes I write technical articles at CSDN, mainly because CSDN has the strongest following atmosphere. From this language to that language, from this framework to that framework, from this pattern to that pattern, from this platform to that platform… It’s impossible to stop. At that time, I was just a “user” of technology, just like moving bricks to build a house. If I didn’t care what kind of brick was popular this year, what kind of house structure was popular next year, and what kind of house appearance was popular the next year, I would be condemned as “old-fashioned” by customers and other programmers.

To Google arm roll sleeves a busy work, only to find before their narrow, stingy, frog in a well. It turns out that many of the top technologies pursued before are led or participated in by Google engineers. What’s more, there’s a lot of magic hidden inside Google that the outside world doesn’t know about. The most important difference was that I was now part of a larger team that was setting technology trends.

I used to learn how others designed houses and see what materials they recommended. Now, the top house design experts, materials experts are on hand, and I will soon be able to do the same for others. It’s like jumping into a great treasure and knowing that you’re not the thief, but the master of the treasure. There’s a fine line between stealing treasure vs. creating it.

Suddenly the mentality is very different, from the “user” of technology to the “master” of technology.

For example, when I was working on an ABI for C++ for a while, I remembered that quite a few people on the C++ standards committee worked at Google. One year, the all-hands meeting was held at Google’s headquarters — why not just drag along the guy who was also a colleague and the leading C++ decision maker? Similarly, the maintainer of the Linux kernel, the inventor of Python, the patriarch of UNIX, the creator of Google Brain… Working in a company with so many great people, you can’t be comfortable just asking for advice. If you get the chance, you’ll always want to be like them and contribute to technology, if only in a small way.

For example, technologies such as MapReduce, Bigtable, and TensorFlow, which were created by Google and have had a profound impact on the industry, are not just external tools at Google. They are the work and pride of a large group of Google engineers. Because everyone is the owner of something, they can tamper with the source code, submit their own patches or new features, or even overturn the redo. Don’t underestimate how hard it is to reinvent yourself, because you have to convince your boss and users and find enough developers to do it, but the reality is that Google has frameworks, tools, libraries, interfaces, and services that have been re-invented, re-invented, re-invented, re-invented, re-invented, re-invented, and re-invented. The tendency to build new versions and new systems at the slightest disagreement has led to both untold process chaos and a mountain of healthy competition that often leads to technological leaps beyond imagination beneath the surface chaos.

At Google, there are tens of thousands of engineers. Not everyone is eager to be the master of technology, but there are many who are ambitious. Because Google is on the cutting edge of technology, ambitious engineers really don’t have the face to be pure technology followers. Of course, I don’t mean to say that no one at Google does the not-so-cool drudgery, but that most people have a competitive mindset and are constantly trying to figure out how to do world-class work, even on relatively simple technical tasks.

For example, an engineer came up with an interview question about the moon. He put algorithm, programming, design, and maintenance questions in the context of the solar system. I used this question as an example during an internal interview technique training session. As a result, the engineers who participated in the discussion expressed opposing opinions, with some saying that the design was fantastic, while others criticized the problem as unrealistic. As a matter of fact, Google techies are working in the conflict, contradiction and transformation between reality and future almost every day. The phrase “stargazing, down-to-earth” does not begin to describe the dichotomy of Google engineers.

On the one hand, engineers know how their code contributes to some of the most cutting-edge and daring computer systems on earth and in the galaxy, contributing to things like search engines a decade from now, phones or robots with artificial intelligence, quantum computers, genetic engineering, driverless cars, and so on. On the other hand, the geeky and nerdy side of engineers is often revealed in the details of their work that outsiders might not notice — there are the language masters who have spent decades optimizing compilers, the tools experts who have designed the best code review systems, the technical directors who prototype hardware and software themselves, An international team that insists on providing input and output solutions for every human language on the planet…

This is a difference in mentality, or rather, a difference in technical realm, branded in the DNA of Google engineers, others may not want to learn.

The word “management” has a completely different meaning

At Google, engineers are sometimes difficult to manage, because most people have new ideas, lots of ideas, high vision, and strong personalities. At Google, engineers are sometimes easy to manage, and if they are encouraged to do something seemingly ordinary at a world-class level, they are good enough to execute on their own without being pushed.

Being a technical manager and leading a team at Google is completely different from being a technical manager and leading a team at other companies. This may have something to do with the average level of the technical team, but it is fundamentally a matter of management level.

Remember before in other companies, spend a lot of effort to develop process management, now think, mostly red tape, stylized, dogmatism, the most extreme like ISO9000 process certification, so that all people exhausted, the effect may not be much good.

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When I came to Google, I found a secret: no amount of rules and regulations, no amount of procedures, not as effective as a good set of tools. For example, Code Style and Code Review used to bore the technical manager to death, and they could not carry out the repeated instructions. After three days, everyone would do nothing but obey them. At Google, the issue is not entirely a matter of system. Without Readability Review, new engineers can’t easily submit their own code, which is a hard limit set by code management tools. This sends engineers directly to a Review committee for “re-education” — yes, re-education — and even Guido van Rossum, the father of Python, worked hard to get Python code Readability reviewed. Then, before submitting the new code, a variety of static and dynamic checking tools will run automatically to help you report a series of style errors, compilation errors, unit test errors and simple logic errors. You have to follow the tool’s prompt to correct these low-level errors before entering the Peer Review process. The entire Code Review process is done in a very convenient web tool that allows Code writers and reviewers to interact, discuss, and even modify Code online. The “mandatory” of the tool ensures the implementation of the system, while the “convenience” of the tool minimizes the burden on engineers to implement the system, and the two complement each other. Of course, Google has its fair share of internal fudging, but it does a better job than most companies.

When it comes to management, those who lead technical teams at Google are in fact bitter haha. I handed the team over twice and was happy to do pure coding. The reason is very simple. The title is Manager, but you can’t tell people what to do from above. The best team leaders in Google are the ones who rush to the front line and lead everyone to work together. Applying for promotions for everyone, talking to people who are mentally stressed… I don’t like the thankless task of working two jobs and having no say in the promotion of my team members. But like it or not, it’s amazing that Google’s disparate management is both remarkably chaotic and well-run.

Strictly speaking, smart people together, only need motivation, do not need management, Google’s approach is mainly to emphasize this point.

I have to be honest, when I joined Google, there were about 3,000 engineers, and disorderly management, spontaneous management, and flat management were dominant. As Google got bigger, so did the big company disease. Processes are getting more complex, there are more layers, there is more overlap and ambiguity, and there are more differences in management styles between teams. But even so, the Google DNA that disdits conventions, resists office politics, and resists red tape can still be found in many team leaders — a valuable element of health and vitality in the Google fabric.

By the way, the issue of ctos who can’t write code has been widely spread in Chinese circles recently. Many CEO/ CTOS who were once engineers of Google have posted their code on wechat moments to show their attitude. I have no inclination for technical managers to write code or not. They can be good managers, but it’s totally unacceptable to be proud of “not being able to code”, bottom line. I’ve interviewed a lot of candidates for Manager and Director at Google, and I’ve tested them on their ability to write code, or at least discuss a piece of code — not that they must write code as part of the management process, but that they won’t be able to communicate with Google engineers and coexist with Google’s technical DNA.

Working as a technical manager at Google, I can’t learn any written rules. What I can learn actually depends on “understanding”.

Fourth, the mentality of looking at career is completely different

This varies from person to person. Many people come to Google for a good salary. So, I’m just talking about myself.

There’s a feeling I got when I started working at Google. And it’s getting clearer and more compelling, so much so that after ten years, I’ve come to regard it as almost the first driving force in my work. How can I put it? This feeling is probably shared by many people.

Spend at least a portion (if any) of your entire career working for the pure joy of it. Whether a company is right for you depends mainly on whether the company can, or to what extent it can meet this need.

I work on different projects at Google. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s painful, sometimes it’s intense, and sometimes it’s fun. But normal projects don’t allow me to enjoy that kind of pure, joyful happiness, so I’ve spent 20 percent of my time in the last five or six years working on Google Doodles, which is both fun and right for me.

Doodle, um, home page Doodle, purely for the purpose of making users happy. The project needs both artists who draw and people who write animation, sound and game code. It is not only fun, but also very tasteful and cultured. Because of this, I had the opportunity to work with some amazing artists at Google headquarters, and it was really fun.

I did a Birthday Google Doodle, and the choice was Pinata, a game American children play every day. Implementing a game like this on a computer requires a clean art style, a physics engine that supports JavaScript, and a smooth, efficient animation engine, but these are technical details that I won’t go into. But outside of technology, we fun-seekers clamored to play Pinata in the real world for once. We hung a real Pinata on a tree and took turns hitting it with a bamboo stick until we had a field of candy. A dozen artists and engineers were as happy as children.

It’s a pure, simple, happy experience. No matter how much trouble there is in the job, want to reserve such a space to oneself at least, call home of mood it is good, call casually what name it is good, even if again small, also must have so one. For me, in the process of participating in the Doodles project, I can communicate with the great scientists and artists commemorated by Doodles across time and space, interact with the small animations and games that are being designed and produced at any time, and predict the happiness of the end users when they see each Doodle. It is really an amazing thing.

Fortunately, Google can provide the right opportunity for people like me who pursue happiness. Unfortunately, (I know for a fact) many companies don’t take this into account. It’s probably in the DNA of the company, so you can’t force it. Thanks to my 10 years at Google, I have no qualms about defining the most important pursuit of my career as “fun.”

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Ten years of career, in addition to happiness, there is a heavy sense of history. Especially in the past ten years of Google China, I have had the honor to experience the history, which can be regarded as a great storm in my life. Unfortunately, a lot of history cannot be explained or evaluated in detail. The so-called Spring and Autumn writing method is not only a political compromise of historians, but also a great wisdom to examine history from a higher dimension in more cases. The story about Google and China is too sentimental. Praise or criticism lacks force. Too explicit, and the right to speak is easily rudely deprived; If you go into too much detail, you can’t help but fall into a vicious circle of consequentialism versus motivation.

Years from now, when the word Internet is no longer an industry leader, when access to information is as free as breathing air, Then human Shi Jiahe historiography robot of artificial intelligence will be compiled together, such as the history of the Internet censorship, science and technology industry competition and regional BaoHuShi, with Internet users in the network politics ideological history, information exchange, the denial of articles and sensitive network keywords from exam “, “network of economic and political barriers”, “the Internet under the background of the government Behavior, The Birth and Death of Wikipedia, and The Globalization of Social Networks. Only when the pace slows down can one be awake enough to look at history from a different perspective. Many of today’s definitive historical theories will have new controversies and different interpretations when handed over to future generations, right?

My descendants will be able to tell them, in a very gossipy way, that someone in our family was there to witness the historic moment when a company and a government couldn’t agree on Internet censorship. Sometimes, I really want to travel into the future, just to assess whether the things that matter so much to us today will be forgotten by our children and grandchildren.

In general, I prefer a “slow life” that is not passive and shunning in nature, and that “joy” and “variety” are its sources of strength. After I left Google, I was convinced that this life was my future.

The more ideas, the older the body and mind. The next decade, please come slowly.