O'Reilly OSCON Data 2011: Steve Yegge, "What Would You Do With Your Own Google?"

[Uncompetative]

Couldn't Google just reverse-engineer the genome of different cat breeds?

That way, everyone's happy.

[KenRocker1968]

...

[Gavrillo]

Such a badass

[rstar3000]

I WILL GO WITH YOU JERRY MAGUIRE.

[eligottlieb]

Sir, on the subject of the human genome, BIOLOGY DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY! GOODNIGHT!

[fryejames12]

I want this video on my VK4100 unit.

[imbluz]

I'm impressed with his verbal reparte and delivery. What I gleaned from this lecture is how mobile devices, advertising and social networks contribute greatly to social engineering.

[DNAutics]

There are too many bioinformaticists and not enough bio wetlabbers. Because working with computers is too easy relative to working with living systems. We've data mined the heck out of the world's DNA and it's still not quite enough. Because we're only blindly manipulating data and not THINKING about the data.

[leolsliu]

I love cats

[wanorris]

@seahawks78

Math and science grad school in the US is filled with foreigners because Americans can get great-paying technology jobs with a B.S. degree. Coming to a U.S. grad school is an opportunity for people from other parts of the world to have a realistic shot at finding a U.S. job after graduation and getting much better job opportunities.

[ericgjertsen]

As a software developer and social activist I think it's a bit absurd to imagine the world's problems can be boiled down to data mining. The presenter completely ignores politics and political struggle in social change. Where is the software that supports that is what I want to know?

Plus why does he pick on cat pictures which are universally loved?? It ignores many elephants in the room, such as financial industry jobs that suck so many talented programmers into socially useless occupations.

[iktoe]

@ericgjertsen you really dont get it.

[eligottlieb]

@ericgjertsen he ignores political struggle because he's a West Coast techie. There's something in the air out there that makes techies believe they can Save the World through "innovation".

Signed, an East Coast techie with a heavy interest in politics. OCCUPY WALL STREET!

[valajbeg]

I have no doubt that Google is trying to change the world. But i'm just not sure if it will be better for us or not? If it is going to make us blind "slaves".

[varungulshan]

For HN readers, the quitting part is not the best part of the talk. So don't just jump to 14:30 and watch that. The main point is to think about working on problems that are useful for society.

[Deshawn144]

Do jadensmith a girlfriend

[shytcardz]

awesome

[deathofthemagi]

Inspirational. Great speech.

[justncase80]

Watching it knowing the conclusion, you can see his use of "they" instead of "we" and the primary use of the past tense is hinting at the conclusion.

[austinmcconnell]

Take a drink every time he says, 'right?' after a sentence.

[joepesci15000]

Apathy + Steve Yegge = Inspiration

Very nice. Thank you for this I needed it.

[sigep311]

This feels very much like a TED talk, and very cool.

[tutysara]

Himm nice talk. Love it.

[uzanto98]

To Steve Yegge and Tim O'Reilly. Yes, I own physical copies of 2 of these books, and have several others in a folder on Safari. Yes, publish more. I will be there reading them.

[teenduck69]

You are the absolute man, Steve Yegge.

[MrNightLifeLover]

Recently got a masters in CS now looking for a job.. I would love to do something not Web related, but jobs seems rather hard to find.

[YHVH]

That gorilla made a good point

[jasonheob]

he didnt quit. he quit the cat picture project. he's still with google cause it's oh so awesome!

[mattsn0w]

bravo!

[bigrobw]

He'll get an offer from IBM Research by the end of the day...watch.

[Interdiffusion]

I hope to be working with you soon, Steve Yegge.

[anysteph]

Sure, the delivery and self-aggrandizement that are common in the tech world could use a little work, but he *is* in "on mode" for a conference talk. Yegge's message is more important and welcome. Many of us are struggling with why, given so many serious problems, "the best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads," as Hammerbacher said. At least Yegge's come up with a way to do something about it that works for him.

[sandbag45]

Rockstar and Bethesda operate on principal and dont suckle the sequel teat? Is he high? Two companies well known for producing almost exclusively derivative works? Who have regularly been shown to operate in a classic corporate manor? Rockstar especially known for crapping on and shutting down studios?

All credibility just went out the window for me.

[luiskov]

Truly inspiring speech. It's a shame that 99% of the ninjas out there care just for the money and their egos. Chapeau Steve!

[TheSpiritProject]

So inspiring... and just the push I needed to make a few changes of my own. Thanks, Steve.

[SaveTheRbtz]

Wow, 1 down vote? Someone from facebook? =)

[daniellindsley]

@SaveTheRbtz Nah, probably Yegge's boss. :)

[huckfinnaafb]

Good luck!

[simon333]

This was fantastic!

[monkeyjamboree]

While I don't think it was a good idea for him to quit like that, I follow his line of thinking and am glad he is following what he believes to be right. Bravo, Steve. Bravo.

[sysprv]

That was awesome.

[a97807]

Integrity, thy name is Steve Yegge. Bravo.

[fapestniegd]

The great thing about burning bridges is that it keeps you moving forward. You can't spend time waffling about past decisions if you can't go back.

[IganLong]

You're the man Steve!!!!

[billythekid]

Kudos. Very brave and very forward thinking.

[emilepetrone]

To save HN some time, he quits at 14:30

[danrbr]

@emilepetrone He did not really quit Google. Just the project.

[tartley]

@emilepetrone No he doesn't. He quits one project. That's a huuuuge difference!

[neurogami]

@emilepetrone Except he doesn't *really* quit. He "quits" the Google project he doesn't care for so he can go back to the Google project he *does* care for. (Yeah, it *sounds* like he's quitting Google, "skin in the game", and all that, but it turns out that he's not quitting much of anything.)

[cl4rk3]

He put his money where his mouth is. It's a difficult thing to do, but it is brave and shows his level of conviction and commitment. Good on Steve for following his own advice, like a boss.

[pepitofizo]

I wanna see him in five years from now. Hopefully, he will not go back to lolcatz projects again.

[dentonez]

I admire his heart, but it's a bit sensationalist to quit you're job like that. Never good to burn bridges.