Larry Page's 2012 CEO Update

"It may sound nuts, but I’ve found that it’s easier to make progress on mega-ambitious goals than on less risky projects. Few people are crazy enough to try, and the best people always want to work on the biggest challenges. We've also found that “failed” ambitious projects often yield other dividends."<p>Loved this comment! Out of curiosity, are there any other failures at Google (apart from the ones he mentioned) that are used for different purpose than the one intended?

"In addition, we gave many of our products, such as Google Search, a visual refresh, and they now have a cleaner, more consistent, and beautiful look. "<p>This is just bizarre.<p>As pg said in his essay "Ambitious Startups"<p>"Google used to give me a page of the right answers, fast, with no clutter. Now the results seem inspired by the Scientologist principle that what's true is what's true for you. And the pages don't have the clean, sparse feel they used to. Google search results used to look like the output of a Unix utility. Now if I accidentally put the cursor in the wrong place, anything might happen."

What I find interesting is that there's no mention of "organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful".

"So the one-sentence summary of how to change the world… work on something that is uncomfortably exciting!"

What about quality?

As an ex-googler, that was the funniest thing I've read all week...

This was definitely a letter for the Pinks. I found it hard to take seriously.

Just the length and number of headings put me off.

Note the shortest section in that whole thing is about the employees. A company is nothing without its employees. Interesting.