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Comment by dkokelley | Hacker News Reader

Perhaps the point was that company culture let this work despite the obvious issues with efficiency and priority conflicts. You're absolutely correct that this tactic wouldn't work in today's Google, but if company culture has persisted, it might still work within internal teams (albeit in a much less visible fashion).

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The kitchen was replaced with memegen[0]. The same principle still applies though. Someone complains about a problem. Engineers all around the company brainstorm and implement a solution to said problem. It's a unique and difficult atmosphere to grow in a company.

[0] http://thefw.com/take-a-peek-inside-googles-internal-meme-ge...

During my one year at Google, the problem with the most complaints by far on memegen is Android L's "safety lock," requiring an extra swipe up before entering the unlock code.

This is an edict from the design team, which engineering brainstorming cannot overcome. Furthermore, the majority of engineers cannot implement a solution even if they cared to try: they lack permission to access the development Android source repository.

Maybe it's different in other product areas, but from where I sit, the atmosphere you describe feels like a myth that Googlers tell each other, and not part of its culture today.

I can't speak to your particular experience but it's a single datapoint from one year for one person.

I no longer work at Google but for the nearly 7 years I was there while not every complaint got handled by a group of engineers like described in the article, a startling number of them were. It was still very much a part of the culture when I left and I would not be surprised to discover that it still was.

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