Another post where I disagree with the author's outlook on engineering culture at Google. (the other one). The contents otherwise are interesting observations about Google+.
"As part of induction into Emerald Sea, my team got the 30-minute pitch from the Circles team. I listened politely, all the while rolling-my-eyes in secret at their seemingly implausible naivete."
"I laughed, disbelieving. Facebook has a hacker culture, they're only a handful of engineers, and they develop with quick, adaptable tools like PHP. Especially when compared with the slow moving mammoths we were using at Google."
"On my side of the fence, engineers were increasingly frustrated. Some leaving Emerald Sea for other projects and some even leaving for facebook. I had the impression that Paul Adams was not being heard (if you're not an engineer at Google, you often aren't)."
"Engineers outside Emerald Sea--a cynical bunch at the best of times--were making snide comments and writing off the project as a dismal failure before it even launched."
I'll say that in my experience it's not like this. People don't act this way. It strikes me that the author's perspective is the crucial factor here, not the environment (which I continue to thrive in). My advice in general:
"I think you need to ask yourself why nobody is agreeing with you."
— Hilary Clinton