Honestly, I don't know why his comments always seems to get voted up. I assume they're voted up by people who have not read the previous exact-same rants...
[1]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3790656 [2]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3784685 [3]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3702761
The only way to really refute what mchurch says is to post evidence of his work from when he was at Google, but that's a massive violation of his privacy, so nobody is going to do that. The only thing to do is dismiss his argument with vague statements like, "no, that's not true", which nobody is going to believe when compared to his well-written rants.
If you want to know the full mchurch story, I suggest you get a job at Google. Then you will have enough information to decide whether or not mchurch's rants about Google make sense.
That was not my experience at Google. Not all people turn to hate when learning how they are valued by others. There's certainly disappointment.
it encourages people to work on the projects that are most visible, which are not always the most valuable.
Some types of work at Google are undervalued, but it's not related to visibility.
Third, it creates a general atmosphere of distrust.
I think it creates a more pleasant atmosphere. People learn that being an asshole can hurt come review time.
