Two Engineers, Two Stories, Two Cultures

I came across two unrelated stories in 2003 (at the time, one old, one new) that taken together juxtaposed two different modes of Big Honkin’ Project creation… or rather, what happens when marketroids rule the roost versus when really smart geeks are let loose.

Exhibit #1: Priceless by Dave Hyatt on September 12, 2002.

Exhibit #2: The first week at Google by Ovidiu Predescu, posted January 22, 2003.

Keep in mind while reading these how well the two projects (Netscape and Google) are doing in their respective spaces (browsers and search engines Internet domination). No, we can’t make a direct correlation, but it is food for thought.