On new opportunities
I've been pretty much driving the whole day today. I am using Google's Maps to help me with navigation and, for those that haven't been using it, it is getting worse and worse. So, since there's not much else to do I was thinking a lot about that fact and I have some half-baked conclusions that I'd like to share with you.
For me, Google Maps used to be rock-solid piece of software that I could rely on. An important part of the infrastructure of the world that most people have been using for free. Not me though, we as a family pay two subscriptions to Google, so I can assume we're actually also paying for Maps as well.
But lately, some few months ago, it's been really buggy. For example, this is what was displayed frequently during today's trip:
Sometimes road colors would change for no particular reason too. Or notifications from Waze would pop-up sooner than they should. The trend here is worrying. If you follow the news you might be aware of recent chaos Google Maps did in Germany, and while some people love to see malicious hackers in everything, I think this is just the part of the trend I've been observing.
And that trend is the idea I am trying to pass here: I think that the path for new companies, and start-ups, is opening rapidly and we will soon have opportunities we didn't imagine could exists.
Let me elaborate a bit.
Google is not a cool company it used to be. I know people that have quit their job 10 years ago to take a stab at getting hired at Google, and it used to be sign of exceptional engineering to be there, but that's not the case anymore. You see, software code is not main thing companies are built around. Not even close. The main thing are the people, the knowledge they share and the culture they build. And I think that nowdays people at Google just don't care. I really can't blame them.
It's the same with other big technology companies. With original founders retiring, leaving or simply going completely crazy, companies struggle to keep the same level of software quality. The same level of care.
The window for the stories similar to Microsoft vs. IBM is opening, I believe, and I am really happy about that.