Google and Its Management: More Excitement
January 7, 2022
In western countries, the technology industry is predominantly white and male. This has led to AI algorithms are accidentally programmed with “racial bias.” These awkward and humorous incidents include a “racist” soap dispenser that could not sense dark pigmented skin and photo recognition software identifying black people as gorillas. AI algorithms can easily be fixed when they are fed more diverse data, however, it is harder to fix human habits. Google is once again under fire for its treatment of minority employees, specifically, “Google Facing Probe For How It Treats Black Female Workers,” says Daiji World.
Google’s recent diversity report stated that only 1.8% of its work force consists of black women. The tech giant explains that it wants to be a viewed as a welcoming environment for black people. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has questioned Google employees about harassment and discrimination in response to complaints. Google has a known history of harassment and discrimination:
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) researcher Timnit Gebru, who was fired from Google after sending an email of concern to her Ethical AI team, has now set up her own research institute that will be an independent, community-rooted institute set to counter Big Tech’s pervasive influence on the research, development and deployment of AI.
Gebru was the technical co-lead of Google’s Ethical Artificial Intelligence team. She was fired over an email where she expressed her doubts about Google’s commitment to inclusion and diversity. Two Google engineers, including one of Indian-origin, quit Google over the abrupt firing of Gebru.
While engineering director David Baker said that Gebru’s dismissal “extinguished” his will to work at the company, software engineer Vinesh Kannan announced that he was quitting because Gebru and April Christina Curley, a diversity recruiter, were “wronged”.”
All industries should be merit-based, but allowances must be given for sex and ethnicity as these factors heavily weigh on society. All ethnicities and sexes want acceptance, respect, and inclusion in the workplace. This means racist, sexist, discriminatory, and harassing behaviors are taboo. If they do occur, the perpetrator should be punished, not the victim.
Here is a big secret about women in the workplace: they want to work. Here is a big secret about ethnic minorities in the workplace: they want to work too. Why is it so hard to curb rude behavior and treat women and ethnic minorities like everyone else?
The tech industry is like a huge good old boys club. When the male club members are confronted with change, they do not want to relinquish their power. Toxic male behaviors are not the only problem. As a whole, society still pushes women towards more traditional female roles. These roles stem away from science, math, and technology.
Things are better, but they can and will improve. The biggest holdups are old predilections that will face as older generations pass. Once Generation Z reaches adult hood, society will have improved. The biggest downside is the present.
Whitney Grace, January 7, 2022
Google: Who Us? Oh, We Are Sorry
January 4, 2022
One sign of a decent human being is when they admit their mistakes and accept their responsibilities. When people accept their mistakes, the situation blows over quicker. Google leaders, however, are reluctant to accept the consequences of their poor actions and it is not generating good PR. The lo shares the story in: “Google CEO Blames Employee Leaks To The Press For Reduced ‘Trust and Candor’ At The Company.”
During a recent end-of-the year meeting, Google employees could submit questions via the internal company system Dory. They then can vote on the questions they wish management to answer. The following questioned received 673 votes:
“The question was: ‘It seems like responses to Dory have gotten increasingly more lawyer-like with canned phrases or platitudes, which seem to ignore the questions being ask [sic]. Are we planning on bringing candor, honesty, humility and frankness back to Dory answers or continuing down a bureaucratic path?’”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai was exasperated and he blamed employees leaking information to the media for the inflated, artificial answers. He said the following:
“‘Sometimes, I do think that people are unforgiving for small mistakes. I do think people realize that answers can be quoted anywhere, including outside the company. I think that makes people very careful,’ he said. ‘Trust and candor has to go both ways,’ Pichai added.”
Pichai also explained that the poor relationship between employees and the top brass is a direct result of Google’s large size and the pandemic. Google employees were upset with their leaders prior the the COVID-19 pandemic. They stated they were frustrated with how Google handled sexual harassment complaints, lack of diversity issues, and sexism. Google employees formed their first union in January 2020.
Pichai would do better to admit Google has problems and actively work on fixing them. It would make him and the company appear positive in the media, not to mention better relationships with his employees.
Whitney Grace, January 4, 2022
The CEOs Have a New Best Friend: Information Technology People
December 21, 2021
During the COVID-19 pandemic, organizational leaders turned to their IT departments to keep business running. IT professionals were propelled into leadership roles and were integral to keeping the entire globe from crumbling. ZD Net explains how, “Technology Leaders’ Influence In Their Businesses Grows Beyond Expectations.”
Snow Software recently conducted a survey of 1000 IT leaders and discovered that they faired well during the world crisis. Their roles became so important that they will venture into leadership positions that fall outside IT. Before COVID-19, 89% of respondents said that their roles were undervalued. Now 90% claim they are viewed as trusted advisors within their companies. Ninety-four percent of IT leaders view innovation as an integral part of their jobs, but 71% said they are spending too much time fixing problems than the former.
In 2022, IT leaders want to concentrate on reducing IT costs, improving customer relations, and improving day-to-ay operations. The survey showed:
“‘These areas of focus can often conflict, or at least compete, with one another which, so often, is an all-too-familiar pain felt by IT leaders,’ the researchers observe. ‘To balance these priorities moving forward, CIOs need a more advanced approach for managing their technology environment. Nearly all respondents say they are in the process of adopting the cloud in some form — and 61% increased their use of cloud services over the last year.”
It is great that IT leaders are influencing business decisions and shaping the work environment, but will things revert back as the world heads towards normalcy? Also since IT is a white, male dominated industry will this exacerbate the bro culture that dominates industry?
Sounds like a winner for the techies who happen to be male.
Whitney Grace, December 21, 2021
Amazon: Engendering Excitement and Questions about Failover and Reliability
December 8, 2021
Amazon’s big-bang conference is mostly a memory. I don’t think the conference announcements or the praise sung by the choir of Amazon faithful can top this story: “Amazon Packages Pile Up after AWS Outage Spawns Delivery Havoc.” The agility of the two-pizza method and the super duper automatic redundancy, failover ingenuity did not work. What’s affected? Just the foundation business of the online bookstore.
The write up states:
Three delivery service partners said an Amazon.com Inc. app used to communicate with delivery drivers is down. Vans that were supposed to be on the road delivering packages are sitting idle with no communication from the company, the person said. Amazon Flex drivers, independent delivery people who carry parcels in their own cars, can’t log into Amazon’s app to get assignments, said another person. The problems come amid Amazon’s critical holiday shopping season when the e-commerce giant can ill afford delays that could potentially create lasting log-jams.
Personally I don’t care too much about my deliver of household cleaner. I do worry that Amazon’s assurances for the existing GovCloud and the newly minted GovCloud West may suffer a similar meltdown. A failure to provide me with three bottles of Krud Kutter are tiny compared with fouling up top secret messaging and secured processes.
Concentration of online in the capable hands of a few technology behemoths makes sense to some MBAs. Efficiency, scale, better service, yada yada. The reality is reported in the start Detroit News’ story: Havoc. Marketing and conference talks are just easier and more exciting than maintaining a hugely complex system which is getting more difficult for some to believe in good, old Saint Bezos.
Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year!
Stephen E Arnold, December 8, 2021
New Management Method: High School Science Club Wants to Run the School District
December 8, 2021
I love those confident, ever youthful, and oh-so enthusiastic high school science club members. Many of these individuals maintain their youthful insights into adulthood. In the after life, maybe these imbibers of the fountain of youth-type thinking are in charge. Milton, bless his poetic soul, learned that blind poets are best left to menial duties. Are there Augean stables in heaven? Nope, just techno-wizards.
I read “CTO to CEO: The Case for Putting the Tech Expert in Charge.” After an incident of Dorseying, Twitter has a new captain at the helm. The article is interesting because the author uses the Twitter appointment of Parag Agrawal as the start of a new management trend.
Here’s an example:
CTOs are increasingly being groomed by corporate boards as part of their CEO succession planning, according to Ash Athawale, senior managing director for Robert Half’s executive search division. Athawale told Protocol that he’s witnessed an increase in attention towards technology leaders as potential future chief executives. The reason? Tech is now central to core business functions across all industries…
Logical, no? A technology centric CEO at Twitter is just the ticket.
And what have technology capable adults with a history in their secondary schools’ science clubs wrought?
Here are a handful of examples:
- Twitter and its unique ability to provide left and right coasters with a platform to direct their thoughts at those who kick back and enjoy a filter bubble equipped with a one click response mechanism.
- Facebook and its remarkable impact on social constructs, including vulnerable people who have their self worth inflated or crushed in a mouse click
- The wonderful world of online advertising which introduced the concept of zero privacy to the world
- Amazon and its race with Walmart to reduce small businesses to delivery drop off points
There are other examples of what happens when tech-savvy folks run giant companies with money generating feedback mechanisms.
My hunch is that the ideal manager is not likely to be as well received as individuals with a slightly different profile.
Stephen E Arnold, December 8, 2021
An Impossible Dream? Where Is the Windmill?
December 1, 2021
Cyberattacks are only growing in frequency, sophistication, and ROI for hackers. We know most companies need to do a better job at protecting themselves, but what will make the difference? Perhaps the problem lies in the gaps between departments. Network World suggests “3 Steps to Better Collaboration Between Networking and Security Pros.” IT Research firm Enterprise Management Associates finds many companies recognize the need for these departments to work more closely but are having trouble effectively bringing them together. The article identifies four key challenges: separate data silos, skill and knowledge differences between the teams, architectural complexity and, surprise, lack of funding. Writer Shamus McGillicuddy suggests three solutions. The first is to create common data repositories:
“The first priority is to establish a shared data repository that both teams can rely on for a common view of the network. In many companies, security teams are constantly requesting data from the network team when conducting investigations. If that’s the case, the network team should identify the data that security teams frequently request and establish repositories that are accessible to them. … network teams and security teams should centralize packet-capture infrastructure as much as possible so that both teams have a common record of raw traffic data.”
The catch—this change may require updates to data stores, which means spending some dough. Then there is the issue of training staff to better understand each other. McGillicuddy suggests it is up to management, not the teams themselves, to identify the necessary know-how:
“Leadership should recognize how skills gaps are undermine NetSecOps partnerships and lead from the top to close those gaps. Also, network infrastructure professionals are usually quite knowledgeable about network security concepts. They can bring that to bear as much as possible to find common ground with the security team.”
Again, companies must be willing to allocate funds to this endeavor. Finally, architecture should be simplified. The write-up stresses:
“If complexity is getting in the way, the network team should kill complexity and modernize legacy architecture as much as possible. One option is to adopt automation solutions that abstract complexity. And as they move into new environments like the cloud and work-from-anywhere, they should design for simplicity as much as possible.”
This step might be the most costly of the three, especially if legacy systems must be overhauled. All told, companies can be looking at a significant investment to establish harmony between their networking and security departments. The alternative, though, may be to risk a much more costly (and embarrassing) data breach in the future.
Cynthia Murrell, December 1, 2021
Value Decisions and the Silicon Valley Approach to Business Ethics
November 26, 2021
I read “Neurobiologist Reveal How Value Decisions Are Coded into Our Brains.” This research project suggests that smart software might be infused with similar functionality. My question, “Who’s doing the training?” The research paper ignores this type of question.
The authors/researchers have focused on an area within the cerebrum called the retrosplenial cortex. The write up states:
The RSC they found, is the site that we use to make value choices such as which restaurant we decide to visit for tonight’s dinner. We then update the RSC with fresh information based on the new impressions of how much we enjoyed the evening’s soup and pasta.
A quick question: If scientists know the region, is it possible to plant a Musk-esque implant in the brains of certain Silicon Valley high technology luminaries. Then, using appropriate signals, could someone pump the contents of a small collection of books related to ethical behavior, moral choice, and judicious decision making?
It has been obvious to me for years that university educations or, in the case of some high tech luminaries, hanging out with people who did attend esteemed institutions like the Epstein funded Massachusetts Institute of Technology, don’t do a good job with the ethics and morality cognitive functions.
Greed is good is a snappy phrase, and it seems to be the mantra of a coterie of digital wizards who like to win when playing Monopoly with their family.
Let’s give the implant some thought and work on the morality input functionality. Oh, oh, one problem. What if these luminaries don’t have a well formed retrosplenial cortex? Bummer.
Stephen E Arnold, November 26, 2021
When a Senior Manager Talks about What Top Dogs Know That Could Come Back and Bite Hard
November 12, 2021
I read “Facebook Knew What It Was Doing, Eric Schmidt Says.” Of course, Facebook knew what it had been doing. The company is effectively the personal sandbox of Mr. Zuckerberg. The write up says:
Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms Inc., “went a little too far on the revenue side and not enough on the judgment side,” Schmidt said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “You can see that from the Facebook leaks that have been occurring.”
This astute observation could be the verbal equivalent of a dog that bites its master. Google executives have been somewhat vague in their public statements and Congressional testimony about certain Google practices.
The top dog in a company knows what’s going on, eh? What do Google senior managers know about Google’s boots-on-the-ground practices? Probably a lot.
Stephen E Arnold, November 11, 2021
If True, More Google High School Science Club Management Antics on Display
November 9, 2021
I received a link to a tweet stream from Amruta Buge. You can find (hopefully) the posts at this link on the tweeter thing. The idea appears to be that a Googler has unceremoniously become a Xoogler. The brief messages suggest that the newly minted Xoogler was the subject of interesting management methods. Those of you who read my musings in the Beyond Search blog know that I use the phrase “high school science club management methods” to capture the oft en baffling ways in which bright sprouts interact with other humanoids. My hypothesis is that bright sprouts view other people as dim sprouts unable to flourish in the sun light of the superior sprouts’ intellects.
Is this the Xoogler Amruta Buge?
Here’s a rundown of the tweeter’s view of Google management and human resource methods:
- Frightening the employee
- Personal attacks
- Verbal criticism
- Financial penalties
- Failure to provide proof of performance.
Check out the original tweets for the complete list.
Let’s assume the complaints are not true. It seems clear that the Google has hired a person ill suited for the Googley environment. This raises the question, “What’s the hiring method?” (Timnit Gebru was another notable bad fit.)
If we assume the tweets reflect the reality of the GOOG, the high school science club management method of exclusion and snide behavior are remarkably effective in creating tension.
One interesting aspect of the tweet stream is the inclusion of emails for six of the high school science club’s management team. These are allegedly real live email addresses. Gold to some Google advertisers too.
Stephen E Arnold, November 9, 2021
Learning about Advertising Executives: A Google Lesson
October 27, 2021
I spotted a story about Google’s systems and methods for capturing advertising revenue. “Ad Execs Dismayed, But Not Surprised by Tactics Google Allegedly Used to Control Digital Ad Dollars.” The information about Google was not particularly interesting. The company has been operating in ways which make it difficult for those who just love free services and the Googley glitz to discern what’s shakin’ in the management meetings.
The write up states one point which I found intriguing:
Trade bodies are quiet while industry insiders shrug as if to say “what did you expect.” They’ve long accepted the harsh truths of online advertising in the platform era.
Notice the words “insiders,” “shrug,” “harsh truths,” and “platform.”
I interpreted these two sentences to suggest ad execs know the game is rigged. Why, pray tell? Commissions, the value of being Google certified, and getting the insider scoop on opportunities to help ad execs’ customers sell their products (at least one hopes something besides ad inventory sells).
This article adds little to the Google ad lore, but it says quite a bit about the brokers or facilitators of ad sales.
Commissions, consulting fees, and the lure of search engine optimization runways to for fee Google ads — yep, the ad execs are in the game.
Perhaps the hot topic of ad fraud will be discussed? Perhaps not?
Stephen E Arnold, October 27, 2021
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