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> Does having a daycare for highly paid adults to dick around all day create innovation? You can't force creativity out of people no matter how much you pay them or how well you treat them

Google is proof that yes, it does create innovation. How many products and tools came out of people dicking around?




That was many MANY years ago. I'm talking about today.

What new product has Google launched recently that it didn't cancel? Google's main money makers are all still products from 15-20 years ago.

Given all this it's proof that no, paying people to dick around doesn't generate more creativity once you peaked.


I think an aspect there is that Google nowadays has quite a backlog of stuff, which just needs maintenance. Established products which each have limited room for big innovation. And maintenance doesn't work well with goofing around. And finding the balance between having maintenance work done and doing new things is hard. (Just see their messenging solutions ...)

At the same time at their scale the measures of success are different. If a solution doesn't reach a huge audience it's quickly lost between the big products, while it might be profitable.

Back in the days an Orkut which served primarily Brazilian audience was okay, but compared to scale of Gmail, YouTube and Search (and the aimed reach of Google+) it was a distraction, not helping the core brand.


Two people affiliated with Google won Nobel prize last year.




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