A leaked Google memo compared it to slime mold

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Hi, I’m Deputy Manager Jake Swearingen, on my last day I’m filling in for Diamond Naga Siu. You have been a wonderful audience; please tip the mail server.

It’s like the beginning of a joke: What do Google and slime mold have in common? A lot, says a memo from a former Googler who likens the organization to a “slime mold.”

That’s not exactly an insult: both Google and slime molds solve complex problems without brains or central coordination. (One key difference: Stanford graduates aren’t desperate to intern in a slime mold.)

But with ChatGPT setting off alarm bells inside and outside the organization, Google should probably move faster and with more intent than the slime mold.

Just before entering, Insider affairs editor-in-chief Matt Turner is at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He will be posting notes and videos on his LinkedIn throughout the week. You can follow along here and read his latest post here.

Now, let’s begin.

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AlbyDeTweede/iStock/Getty Images

1. Google’s “slime mold” structure. Journalist Hugh Langley got his hands on “Why Everything Is So Damn Hard at Google,” a memo written by a former Google program manager during his long tenure at the company from 2008 to 2021.

The most memorable part of the memo compares Google’s bottom-up organizational structure to a “slime mold,” highlighting how both Google and a slime mold can function independently yet come together to solve complex problems. It’s a strength and a weakness: A culture that rewards autonomy can accomplish great things, but the more the organization grows, the slower things get. Because each fiefdom within Google operates on its own, Google engages in “messy” behavior that can be “hard to predict.”

According to the memo, all of this leads to a “coordinating headwind,” which is why at Google, even “seemingly simple things seem to take forever.” , up 57% to 186,779 in the first nine months of 2022. Concerns about Google’s bureaucracy aren’t new. In 2018, more than a dozen Google vice presidents emailed Google CEO Sundar Pichai warning him that the company was facing increasing difficulties.

Click here to learn more about Google’s mold problem.

In other news:

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Stephen Lam/Reuters

2. Disruption of Apple and Google. The two titans of tech have held the cruise control for more than a decade, with Google owning search and Apple building ditch after ditch around iPhone revenue. But this year Google faces a push from ChatGPT and Apple is forced to open its App Store. Don’t write their obituaries yet, but it will get interesting.

3. Radical wage transparency. Writer Aki Ito has decided to tell everyone from colleagues to first dates about her salary, tackling one of the taboo topics in modern life (outside of blind spots, of course). She also asked other people about their salary. The result: For the first time in her career, she asked for a raise during her annual review.

4. Cheap Teslas Won’t Save Elon. Tesla is cutting prices by up to 20% as it tries to boost demand for its cars. But bigger and better competition is coming, and the discounts are a Band-Aid on the larger issue of how Elon Musk and Tesla fare when each manufacturer has its own Tesla competitors in the marketplace.

5. Salesforce could cut deeper. The pain hasn’t stopped at Salesforce, with insiders telling reporters Ellen Thomas and Ashley Stewart that another round of layoffs will come in February, after its fiscal year ends. More worryingly, leadership may be considering cutting another 10% of staff on top of the 10% already on the block.

6. Sex, art theft and privacy: AI avatar maker Lensa exploded in popularity in late 2022. Now he’s facing allegations that he sexualizes women, steals from artists and harvests personal data.

7. Shopify scales up. Shopify’s brand has been a nice and cuddly e-comm platform for small businesses to get started, with the average Shopify merchant making $35,000 in sales annually. But now it’s ready to go big, launching a suite of new offerings for large retailers and partnering with brands like Mattel, which made nearly $5.5 billion in sales in 2021.

8. Former FTX.US president raids SBF. Brett Harrison was, until recently, the president of the US affiliate of FTX. He pulled back the curtain on the woes of now bankrupt FTX and “insecure” Sam Bankman-Fried in a lengthy Twitter thread, here are the top 10 things we learned.

Frippery:

Exterior view of the Twitter office in New York City on April 26, 2022. Kena Betancur/Getty Images

9. Twitter is literally buggy. Twitter staffers at the company’s New York offices have spotted cockroaches in employee areas, including showers and a locker room at Chelsea’s office, sources told Insider.

10. Rec Podcasts We asked investors at JetBlue Ventures, Mighty Capital and other venture capital firms to share their favorite listens to stay ahead of the technology, and they gave us the 11 best venture capital podcasts happening right now.

Curated by Jake Swearingen in New York. (Feedback or suggestions? Email [email protected] or tweet @jakeswearingen.) Curated by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.

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