The internet | Who’s afraid of Google? | Economist.com
Financial analysts might be running around praising Google but I am pretty much disgusted by it. Why? Do I really mind the simplicity of Web searches and fast-loading results? Am I unappreciative of all the fun that Google Maps are bringing? No, not at all. What I strongly dislike about Google is its people.
Yes, you heard me. From Sergei Brin, the nouveau riche nerd who is fond of providing free lunches for his minions, to the code-warriors whose paths I have crossed quite a number of times in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since Google opened shop here, Ann Arbor has not been the same. Its bars and coffee-shops are overflowing with hipster-looking, iPhone-toting, self-righteous in their conscientious environmentalism and organic-food consumption youngsters, who, while barely out of college, are commanding salaries that will put to shame seasoned workers. What do they do with all their wealth? Spend it on gadgets and Bohemian parties, of course! Running around with their Macbook Pros, chatting idly on their iPhones, checking their Blackberries every five minutes, sipping on fruity drinks, grilling vegan burgers in the backyard, while munching on Fair Trade, All Organic, Cruelty-Free, and Respectful corn chips from Whole Foods.
What Googlers bring to Ann Arbor is the entirely unnecessary excitement of Californian undergrads that should have stayed on the West Coast. I much prefer the gloomy world of underpaid graduate students who are subsisting on a diet of food and drinks specials and who do not believe that technology is the savior of post-modernity.
OK, I am done.
Rant is over.
DJ VadimJ
6 responses so far ↓
1 Guest // Oct 1, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Hear! Hear!
2 megancase // Oct 3, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Now hold on just a darn minute. I used to live in Ann Arbor, and it has ALWAYS been full of “hipster-looking, iPhone-toting, self-righteous in their conscientious environmentalism and organic-food consumption youngsters”, “running around with their Macbook Pros, chatting idly on their iPhones, checking their Blackberries every five minutes, sipping on fruity drinks, grilling vegan burgers in the backyard, while munching on Fair Trade, All Organic, Cruelty-Free, and Respectful corn chips from Whole Foods.”
Except the gadgets were different ten years ago. But still.
3 megancase // Oct 3, 2007 at 2:01 pm
My point is that you can’t blame Google for that.
4 megancase // Oct 3, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Besides, that’s one of the nice things about Ann Arbor. Otherwise Michigan would be 100% rednecks.
5 megancase // Oct 3, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Well, and the urban blight of Detroit, of course.
6 Vadim // Oct 7, 2007 at 8:37 am
I guess, you are right. What’s killing me is the attitude of Googlers-reminds me too well of Komsomol. We have an agenda, we have ethos, we are much better than you. We will build a new world, and we will live in it and if you don’t change, you should stay in your pituful state and the door of the new world are closed to you.
Googlers are like Komsomol members, and the latter later in life became corrupt ruthless bureacrats. Let’s see if this happens to the “Google youth” as well. I have a strong feeling that it will.
DJ VadimJ
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