An Ex-Googler Dishes Out Details

Google tended to hire smart Stanford grads and set them loose in the halls. If they didn't secure a role elsewhere, they ended up in marketing, where the assumption seemed to be that no special skills were required, as long as you could think quickly and were willing to work hard.

"I'm going to give you five minutes," [Sergey Brin] told me. "When I come back, I want you to explain to me something complicated that I don't already know." He then rolled out of the room toward the snack area.

It's not important to slow down and explain things, if the value of what you're doing is so self-evident that eventually people will see it for themselves. You'll hear a lot on this topic from me, because I think it's Google's core strength and it's greatest Achilles' heel.