I get the sense that Google is, in many respects, a really really great Grad School that folks leave – after four or five years of hard work – with a degree in well heeled “Now What?”? Latest good guy to leave: Nat Stoll. Best of luck in the new venture, man!
This decision has been quite difficult but ends with positive feelings. I’ve felt in the past months as if I was breaking up with Google, and I don’t think that to be a stretched analogue. I have countless close friends who I’ve been through the eye of the storm with to see clear sky, and we have history that is hard to think past. So, for all of my friends still in the ‘plex, know that “it’s not you (Google), it’s me,” and I hope that we can still stay close after we take some time apart.
Update: Kevin Fox is leaving too.
Read through the notes they write. They are very, very similar.
Wait, here’s another. Hmmmm.
Given that Google is modeled after a university environment (it screamed grad school when I visited there during AdSense Partner Day), I find myself wondering if that isn’t such a bad thing. As long as they can manage the new blood, why not let the send the old guard off with a certificate and a ceremony?