Things I'll miss at Google

Third in a series of "An update on David" retrospectives, looking back on the last 11 years at Google: "Things I'll miss at Google. "

I don't know if these things exist outside of Google, because it's been 11 years since I've been outside of Google and a lot can happen in 11 years.

I'll miss misc-ny (and forsale-ny, and badpuns, etc.) Basically all the mailing lists that make it so easy to get help/advice/free stuff/etc. During one of my interviews someone asked me how I would use a system I never used before and I casually said "I'd just ask on the mailing list" and they were blown away...

Similarly, I'll miss having THE expert in-house. I was blown away the first (and 10th) time someone replied on a thread and it turned out they were the author of the JDK/library/system/Make/whatever.

I'll miss the mild ego boost having people think I'm some kind of super genius that I work at Google.

I'll miss the food, of course. Google lunch at its worst is better than just about any other place, for the money.

I'll miss some of the awesome tools we have: Cider, CITC, Sponge, Blaze, etc. Especially CITC. Being able to edit the same file in the same client in multiple places in multiple editors is compelling.

I'll miss having GVC in every conference room, and every phone room, and being able to "dial in" from my laptop anywhere in the world.

I'll miss our internal non-build "tools" like G+, Memegen, Dory, Huddle, etc.

I'll miss having an active social networking "scene" in G+.

I'll miss the awesome REWS, TechStop, ABPs, and all the other non-eng teams that make working here great.

I'll miss having 11 years of common history, trials, tribulations, and successes to share. ("Is there a notary in the office?")

Oh yeah, of course the people. All the tools in the world can't replace all y'all.

I'm sure I've "missed" something so apologies up front.

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