Let me start this new programming musings epoch with a personal (and, fear not, short) note: since last Friday, i no longer work at Google. The reasons are basically the same as other people’s and can be summarised with one of my favourite quotations:
Always have a vision. Why spend your life making other people’s dreams?
-Orson Welles (1915-1985)
As it happens, Google’s vision is not my vision and i don’t share their dreams. I guess cults make me feel uneasy too. Starting on August, i’ll share a nice office in Barcelona with hacker extraordinaire Andy Wingo in an exciting new adventure. Stakes are high, plans are to change the world (only plans likely to fail are worth trying; travels to Ithaca, you know the drill).
I’ll miss the city and some of the people (too old for caring about perks), but the decision was not that hard. I just hope that, many years from now, i’ll open a new blog post citing Robert Frost:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
July 14, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Well done! Good luck…
July 14, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I’ve found that leaving a large company to work either on your own or for a small company is almost always the best career decision one can make.
Good luck and best wishes in your new endeavours!
July 15, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Oh, I wanted to have at least lunch, while you were still here. Best of luck then.
July 15, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Just so you know, when you read the full poem - the roads are _exactly_ the same. The poem is about your future self rationalizing why you succeeded or failed in life, based on a single decision, even though it was not at all clear at the time which decision you should make.
Having said that, in your case, you are clearly taking the less traveled path, and I wish you great luck in that endeavor.
July 15, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Godspeed. Spain is a beautiful country, though it’s a bit hot in the summer. Enjoy your adventure!
July 16, 2008 at 8:13 pm
I´m very happy your talent and furtune don´t depend on big-corporation´s wisdom. As Jobs said in one ocasion, it´s all about “connecting the dots”.
Have fun and keep it up!
July 31, 2008 at 1:27 pm
One thing I am happy about is that you will resurrect your blog, I seriously missed it