> Go is a pretty good programming language. I have long held that this is not attributable to Google’s stewardship, but rather to a small number of language designers and a clear line of influences which is drawn entirely from outside of Google — mostly from Bell Labs. pkg.go.dev provides renewed support for my argument: it has all the hallmarks of Google crapware and none of the deliberate, good engineering work that went into Go’s design.

Putting aside the criticisms, I think a new word is needed to describe anti-Google sentiment of this flavor. The idea that Google is incapable of doing anything positive, so anything “good” coming out of Google must be attributable to influences outside of Google.

I’d like to think about it as a “no true Googler” argument. The Go team are not true Googlers, because they produce something useful. When they built that module proxy however, they were clearly so doing as Googlers. (As someone who works at Google, I can humorously imagine that when I’m acting as a true Googler, my only goal is to foist new crapware onto the world, get promoted, and kill it off.)

Or maybe we recognize that companies are collections of individuals, and all individuals bring their own history and influences. The culture shapes them and they shape it back. Playing semantic games to divide and attribute isn’t useful.