It's hard

Sorry for the time away. I have realized that blogging gets harder the more public your "voice" becomes. Looking back, it became clear that over time that I stopped writing about the things that meant the most to me for fear it would usurp our formal PR process and I would catch shit. The few times I did venture to explain my perspectives on a company I dearly love, I shortly thereafter saw my posts sensationalized and included in top shelf news magazines out of context as illustrations of impending Google doom.

This was all made worse with the San Francisco WiFi process. What started as a push to bridge the digital divide and to inspire the world to take seriously their obligations to make the Internet universally available somehow devolved into a tiresome local political battle that forced me to unplug my home phone due to zealots calling at all hours and exposed me to bureaucratic self-dealing that would made anyone question the health of democracy.

In any event, my words here are always my own and never are offered on behalf of Google. Outside of this blog, I gave over 80 talks last year and am pretty well-known for speaking my mind and sticking up for those who may not have a voice with which to speak. I feel lucky to work for a company that lets me do that. I get to stir the pot and ditch the talking points in the name of end users. However, when it goes wrong, it can be lonely. No matter the accuracy of the lame quote, with the exposure comes the wrath. 

The result? I started to self-censor. Yet, the silence soon came to irk me and it has felt insincere.

In that light, I am back and hope to type about one or two things that have some meaning to me as well as a dose of the meaningless drivel you have all come to love. I will likely get in trouble, but at least I will feel like myself again.

In the meantime, Twitter has really emerged as my chosen form of immediate expression. I think Ev, Jack, Biz, Goldman and crew have done a phenomenal job building something fun, easy and shockingly powerful. So, if you are ever really jonesing for an update, check me out here.

Comments

[Greg Linden]

Hi, Chris. I understand the concern, but it would be a shame to not take the risk and keep your public voice.

There is a downside to speaking publicly -- the danger of your words being misused -- but there is also an upside. Weblogs like yours humanize Google, bringing personal stories to what otherwise might be seen as a corporate blob.

For example, your words on the SF WiFi battle made me much more sympathetic to Google at a time when the stories in the press seemed (probably quite unfairly) critical of Google's effort.

Or take your fun post on the "TPS reports". That post described some of the bureaucratic creep that we all heard vague rumors about anyway, but put a personal and humorous face on it.

Posts like those may be risky, but they also make people understand what Google is and what it is like to work at Google. And, they make me want to work at Google not less, but more.

So please do not self-censor. Take the risk. Your writing here may have potential costs, but it has big benefits as well.

[BWJones]

Happy to have you back and posting Chris.

[Steve Lerner]

Isn't it weird as time goes on that one has to be extra careful about their "internet trail" that they leave behind? I have a million things I'd like to post as well but have spent years cleaning the internet to make sure that I have 100% control over what is out there and it doesn't conflict with work or personal life.

For example: I married into a family with famous clergy members who have different PR needs than I do, so its not wise to post anything in relation to them.

My work involves acting as an analyst in multi-party deals, so all sides see it as very sensitive- can't post too much about that.

etc...