The man behind the Big Tech comics – with Manu Cornet · The Pragmatic Engineer summary

Key takeaways

Manu Cornet's org chart comic remains a humorous critique of structural inefficiencies within big tech companies.
Google's bottom-up culture, while innovative, has also led to product naming confusion and overlapping projects.
The '20% time' initiative was a vital aspect of Google's innovation strategy but has seen a decline in relevance as the company has matured.
Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter drastically changed the company culture, leading to mass layoffs and uncertainty among employees.
Humor in comics serves as an effective medium for discussing complex issues in the tech industry while engaging a wider audience.

Summary

The Viral Org Chart Comic

Manu Cornet delves into the story behind his well-known org structure comic, which humorously depicts the organizational chaos seen at major tech companies like Google and Amazon. Originally drawn in 2011, Cornet talks about the creation process and the skepticism he had towards its humor. The comic highlights how different companies have distinct structural approaches, with Amazon depicted as hierarchical and Google showing a trend of overlapping roles and redundancy, which Cornet experienced during his tenure.

Understanding Google's Culture and Product Naming Issues

The discussion shifts towards Google’s unique corporate culture, particularly its bottom-up structure, which allows engineers significant freedom. However, this has led to product overlap and confusion, especially in naming. Cornet shares anecdotes, including experiences from his time at Uber with Google’s ever-changing payment product names. The comic depicting this chaos humorously critiques Google's struggles with branding and consistency.

20% Time and Innovation at Google

Cornet discusses Google's '20% time' initiative, a policy encouraging employees to spend a portion of their work week on personal projects. He reflects on how this practice fostered innovation and led to products like Gmail. However, he notes a shift towards a more traditional company structure, which began to stifle this creativity over time.

Insights from the Twitter Experience and Musk's Acquisition

Reflecting on his time at Twitter, Manu shares the cultural differences compared to Google, emphasizing a more youthful and free-flowing environment. However, this changed dramatically with the arrival of Elon Musk, leading to mass layoffs and a shift in workplace morale. He illustrates the chaotic atmosphere during Musk's acquisition with thoughtful comics, shedding light on the unpredictability of corporate changes and layoffs.

The Impact of Humor in Industry Commentary

Manu's journey as a cartoonist allows him to express his take on the tech industry's dynamics, using humor as a tool to engage with the audience. His comics provide a means to tackle serious themes, such as job insecurity and corporate culture, without losing the comedic touch that resonates with those in the field.

Show notes

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In today’s episode of The Pragmatic Engineer, I am joined by a senior software engineer and cartoonist, Manu Cornet. Manu spent over a decade at Google, doing both backend and frontend development. He also spent a year and a half at Twitter before Elon Musk purchased it and rebranded it to X. But what Manu is most known for are his hilarious internet comics about the tech world, including his famous org chart comic from 2011 about Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft.

In today’s conversation, we explore many of his comics, discuss the meaning behind them, and talk about the following topics:

• The viral org chart comic that captured the structure of Big Tech companies

• Why Google is notorious for confusing product names

• The comic that ended up on every door at Google

• How Google’s 20% time fostered innovation—and what projects came from it

• How one of Manu’s comics predicted Google Stadia’s failure—and the reasons behind it

• The value of connecting to users directly

• Twitter’s climate before and after Elon Musk’s acquisition and the mass layoffs that followed

• And more!

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Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(02:01) Manu’s org structure comic

(07:10) Manu’s “Who Sues Who” comic

(09:15) Google vs. Amazon comic

(14:10) Confusing names at Google

(20:00) Different approaches to sharing information within companies

(22:20) The two ways of doing things at Google

(25:15) Manu’s code reviews comic

(27:45) The comic that was printed on every single door of Google

(30:55) An explanation of 20% at Google

(36:00) Gmail Labs and Google Stadia

(41:36) Manu’s time at Twitter and the threat of Elon Musk buying

(47:07) How Manu helped Gergely with a bug on Twitter

(49:05) Musk’s acquirement of Twitter and the resulting layoffs

(59:00) Manu’s comic about his disillusionment with Twitter and Google

(1:02:37) Rapid fire round

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The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this episode:

• How Manu creates comics

• Consolidating technologies

• Is Big Tech becoming more cutthroat?

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See the transcript and other references from the episode at ⁠⁠https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/podcast⁠⁠

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The man behind the Big Tech comics – with Manu Cornet