Sigh. The problem with doing a book is that you hold stuff back, hoping it'll stay fresh for the book, and then suffer death by a thousand little cuts. Such is the case of today's NYT story on Google's Founders Awards, which I discussed with Sergey a while back.

The idea is neat: reserve millions of dollars in value for teams of people within Google who make major contributions to the success of the company. Basically, Google wanted to create a culture within the company that rewards people on par with the returns someone receives when they start a successful company, then sell it - to a company like Google, for example. I think it's innovative and rather bold - an acknowledgment that Google is maturing, but still committed to the kind of upsides that Valley startups are all about.

BTW, Google reports earnings today.

OK, back to the final chapter.