Memegen is a key part of the culture. Its default mode is over-the-top mocking, of course, with a grain of truth. Nobody and nothing is spared. C-level execs, products, the perf process.
So this by itself is not quite the scoop 404 media thinks it is. You could take the front page of memegen on any given day and construct twenty scandalous headlines of it.
Excel users complain about using Excel still [1]. They even make memes about it! Some of them work at Microsoft!
404media, please, take a deep breath. Your jobs are safe, your trauma is valid. Your corruption coverage is so good, but this 'employees make memes' editorial decision-making is exposing some deep insecurity I can't quite triangulate.
You're inferring quite a lot from a pretty harmless piece of reporting. Are you sure you're not the one that feels insecure?
arm32 19 minutes ago [-]
Everybody, deep breaths. Relax.
timmytokyo 8 minutes ago [-]
In my experience it's the poorest programmers who thrive with LLMs, because it levels them up. They lacked the skills to design and write quality code before AI, and now they feel like they can compete. They get a computer to write all their code and get to attach their name to it. That's why you see such pushback against AI critics from a vocal subset of engineers; they're the ones who weren't very good.
The engineers who critique AI are the ones who see the garbage code the LLMs write. Just look at the source dump for Claude Code; that code was a rat's nest of epic proportions.
lokar 4 minutes ago [-]
I see it slightly differently. It "levels" up the poor programmers in the sense they can submit a ton of output that seems plausible to managers.
But it can also help Sr engineers, differently. They tend to use it in smaller, more tightly scoped use cases. Well scoped re-factoring, boilerplate stuff, improving personal tools, etc. The improvement is not nearly as visible or measurable to managers.
burkaman 2 minutes ago [-]
I think it's pretty interesting to read what companies think of their own products, especially when the product is this big. A story about internal Microsoft opinions of Excel would also be newsworthy in my opinion.
simonw 3 minutes ago [-]
404media are great:
> After this story was published Google's spokesperson reached out and asked us to publish a slightly different version of that statement. The new statement no longer stated that "it's critical that we maintain humans in the loop."
dan_sbl 4 minutes ago [-]
> After this story was published Google's spokesperson reached out and asked us to publish a slightly different version of that statement. The new statement no longer stated that "it's critical that we maintain humans in the loop."
I'll let that stand on it's own.
spogbiper 30 minutes ago [-]
“We encourage our engineers to vigorously test and critique our internal tools; that candid feedback loop, even via our internal meme generator, is vital to how we build technology," Google said. "We continue to refine our internal tools based on employee feedback to ensure we are delivering the best experience that maximizes daily productivity.”
Can anybody comment on whether that statement is an accurate reflection of how management at google treats these memes? On surface level it seems like they don't mind the memes and even use them as feedback but I wonder if that's how it really plays out
singron 1 minutes ago [-]
I haven't worked there in several years, but assuming memegen hasn't wildly changed: Management likes having a pulse on employees, and they tolerate memegen since it's mostly fun, it builds shared culture in a massive company, lets workers (mostly) harmlessly blow off steam, and it would be massively unpopular to shut it down. Management does not like that memegen is often a nexus of cynicism and employee activism. Also in my experience, most employees were nearly completely agnostic or ignorant about whatever trend was on memegen, so it wasn't necessarily representative.
dietr1ch 17 minutes ago [-]
If your memes are too spicy you'll get HR try to turn a critique of something being bad or underfunded into a personal attack on people that put a lot of effort into something no matter how broken it is. They'll pull strings and you'll have to speak with your manager about it and even if they agree it wasn't a personal attack, they'll push you into not doing it again and just lay low under their radar. It's not the usual though, so maybe it only happens if someone feels attacked and complains to HR about it?
Memegen is something that HR wants gone, but knows it cannot afford to take away as they already made Google a worse place to work at during the past 10 years. They already sort of hijacked it and took control of it.
physhster 7 minutes ago [-]
You can criticize all you want on memegen, people will upvote but nothing will change.
seanmcdirmid 18 minutes ago [-]
Yes. This is considered pretty tame and the lines you can’t cross mostly involve other people or groups of people (reasonable).
49 seconds ago [-]
jerlam 12 minutes ago [-]
Mocking it instead of being apathetic may spur someone to try and address its problems. It's worse when management tells people not to complain because it's bad for morale.
I've used and hated other internal tools - stuff like JIRA and Workday - that were just accepted as terrible and never going to improve.
SimianSci 28 minutes ago [-]
Glad to know the struggle seems to be universal.
Im happy that this really cool and sophisticated tool got invented. But everywhere im seeing it be used is making me sad and frustrated. This software renaissance feels more like the coming dark ages.
olalonde 17 minutes ago [-]
Breaking: Googlers use self-deprecating humor as a pressure release valve. More shocking revelations at 11.
zuzululu 24 minutes ago [-]
I do wonder why Gemini/Antigravity is so behind Codex and Claude. They have it all, TPUs, the model is okay, but then its scattered across a dozen product plans, names, limits. I feel like they are spread thin.
Gemini CLI was atrocious. It's now being shuttered to AG but its very hard to use due to the limiting usage constraints
Claude is better and Codex remains king of actual usage you can get.
fg137 17 seconds ago [-]
For OpenAI and Anthropic, their entire business is AI. If this thing does not work out, their company is over.
Google? They are shoving AI into every product for sure, but the company is going to do ok even if they immediately stop all AI work. Their revenue comes from ads, cloud etc, and AI doesn't directly translate to revenue much.
thallium205 10 minutes ago [-]
They are at least 6 months behind the other labs because they got a late start.
elorant 10 minutes ago [-]
They simply have no incentive. If AI tanks there's no sweating it, the cash cow of Search will keep printing money and no one is the wiser.
setnone 20 minutes ago [-]
a mistery indeed
spwa4 9 minutes ago [-]
After first firing half their AI staff, to follow up with reorganizing BOTH AI departments so most survivors don't trust their managers?
Meanwhile firing a third of the rest of the company, to make sure that whoever remains encounters company morale somewhere between mandatory fun and PIP.
In case you're wondering about the management reaction? They canceled PIPs (you're now fired when you'd normally have gotten a PIP)
24 minutes ago [-]
oytis 10 minutes ago [-]
I mean, it's an engineering company, so that's expected
josefritzishere 31 minutes ago [-]
All AI sucks, it's not a Google problem.
zuzululu 23 minutes ago [-]
Disagree and if you actively use it in your workflow well you will realize its a major competitive edge.
Nobody is going to hold you back from falling behind tho and I'm not here to convince you otherwise.
datsci_est_2015 15 minutes ago [-]
Willing to bet my career that how we use LLMs in 2027 will look nothing like how we use them in 2026 because of harness churn. My take is: focus on providing value to your company with the tools available today that appear least likely to churn out of existence tomorrow. The more specific and bespoke your harness, the likelier it is it will become obsolete very soon (I.e. the next frontier model release).
swatcoder 3 minutes ago [-]
Indeed.
It's promising technology, but the tools are far from mature yet.
And as they do mature, the ramp up will decrease and their won't be any particular benefit to being an early adopter. For reasonably bright people, there's essentially no penalty to "missing out" for a while.
As often, the FOMO-afflicted are churning on stuff that just won't matter. Which is fine if they enjoy it, but isn't something the rest of us need to fret over.
righthand 5 minutes ago [-]
Competitive edge with who? Your coworkers? Your boss’ efficiency demands?
josefritzishere 21 minutes ago [-]
With all due respect, there's no sense in betting your whole career on dead-end technology like AI.
tokioyoyo 14 minutes ago [-]
Hard to believe that there are any non-mission-critical companies that won’t question one’s rejection of AI. Sounds insane, I know, but not using some LLMs to quickly look up a problem is akin to avoiding Googling when you have a problem.
Yes, they can be wrong. But if you’re competent enough, you should spot the irrelevant suggestions.
gretch 11 minutes ago [-]
Turns out you don't have to bet your whole career.
Do you think if AI turns out to be a dud, most of us will permanently lose our career as software engineers?
Rendered at 16:39:53 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Memegen is a key part of the culture. Its default mode is over-the-top mocking, of course, with a grain of truth. Nobody and nothing is spared. C-level execs, products, the perf process.
So this by itself is not quite the scoop 404 media thinks it is. You could take the front page of memegen on any given day and construct twenty scandalous headlines of it.
404media, please, take a deep breath. Your jobs are safe, your trauma is valid. Your corruption coverage is so good, but this 'employees make memes' editorial decision-making is exposing some deep insecurity I can't quite triangulate.
[1]: https://www.demilked.com/excel-humor-memes/
The engineers who critique AI are the ones who see the garbage code the LLMs write. Just look at the source dump for Claude Code; that code was a rat's nest of epic proportions.
But it can also help Sr engineers, differently. They tend to use it in smaller, more tightly scoped use cases. Well scoped re-factoring, boilerplate stuff, improving personal tools, etc. The improvement is not nearly as visible or measurable to managers.
> After this story was published Google's spokesperson reached out and asked us to publish a slightly different version of that statement. The new statement no longer stated that "it's critical that we maintain humans in the loop."
I'll let that stand on it's own.
Can anybody comment on whether that statement is an accurate reflection of how management at google treats these memes? On surface level it seems like they don't mind the memes and even use them as feedback but I wonder if that's how it really plays out
Memegen is something that HR wants gone, but knows it cannot afford to take away as they already made Google a worse place to work at during the past 10 years. They already sort of hijacked it and took control of it.
I've used and hated other internal tools - stuff like JIRA and Workday - that were just accepted as terrible and never going to improve.
Gemini CLI was atrocious. It's now being shuttered to AG but its very hard to use due to the limiting usage constraints
Claude is better and Codex remains king of actual usage you can get.
Google? They are shoving AI into every product for sure, but the company is going to do ok even if they immediately stop all AI work. Their revenue comes from ads, cloud etc, and AI doesn't directly translate to revenue much.
Meanwhile firing a third of the rest of the company, to make sure that whoever remains encounters company morale somewhere between mandatory fun and PIP.
In case you're wondering about the management reaction? They canceled PIPs (you're now fired when you'd normally have gotten a PIP)
Nobody is going to hold you back from falling behind tho and I'm not here to convince you otherwise.
It's promising technology, but the tools are far from mature yet.
And as they do mature, the ramp up will decrease and their won't be any particular benefit to being an early adopter. For reasonably bright people, there's essentially no penalty to "missing out" for a while.
As often, the FOMO-afflicted are churning on stuff that just won't matter. Which is fine if they enjoy it, but isn't something the rest of us need to fret over.
Yes, they can be wrong. But if you’re competent enough, you should spot the irrelevant suggestions.
Do you think if AI turns out to be a dud, most of us will permanently lose our career as software engineers?