
Ask HN: What Happened to Larry Page? - mrkn1
I can&#x27;t find any news about him since he left Google.
======
AnonHP
My guess, which is just a guess, is that the founders got tired of Google
Search and advertising and Android and mobile hardware and privacy issues and
regulatory issues so much that the “don’t be evil” motto was glaring at their
faces and made them uncomfortable enough to step aside and let others run the
show (or run things into the ground). This must have allowed them to enjoy
their riches in relative peace.

Sometimes the things you create grow way beyond your capacity to handle and
become soul crushing endeavors that bear little resemblance to the early years
of adventure, fulfillment and satisfaction in serving others, and the wise
thing to do would be to step aside and preserve your sanity and peace of mind.

~~~
chesterbr
Last paragraph is the reason why I don't have kids

~~~
stickfigure
I entered into parenthood with similar trepidation, but my fears turned out to
be unjustified. It definitely means having _different_ experiences, but it's
waaaay more fun than I thought it would be.

~~~
lukaa
There is nothing from evolutionary point of view more important than having
children. It would be highly unusual if nature didn't make that experience
overall speaking as one of best things in life.

~~~
esperent
And yet, all the studies of people with children show that they make you less
happy, while they are around, although more happy later in later, presumably
once they have moved out. Years of relief built up I guess (just kidding, more
likely the benefits of having an extended close family when you are older).

Speaking for myself, I know that I would hate to have my freedom taken away by
having children. I also know that my sister, who has a four year old and a one
year old, has been miserable and exhausted for much of the last four years.

~~~
ALittleLight
Happiness is overrated. Like picking a food to eat because it's sweeter.

If you could choose between a future where your happiness doubled but one of
your loved ones died, or the unadjusted future, which would you prefer?

~~~
esperent
Moral framings like this are pointless. That's a scenario that's never going
to happen, so why worry about it? Instead, we have a real question to ask:

Which of these would you choose?

A. Have children and be less happy, more stressed, and have less money and
less free time for your a ~25 year stretch somewhere between ages 20 and 60.

B. Don't have children, be less happy, poorer, much busier, and more stressed
during those years, but potentially more happy in your old age.

~~~
ALittleLight
The point is the realization that happiness is not the most essential thing in
thing. My hypothetical is meant to be similar to the choice between two
futures, one, where you have one more loved one and maybe less happiness, and
the other where you have one fewer loved one and maybe more happiness - i.e
the choice to have a child or not.

Happiness is a kind of short term thing. Life has better things to offer in my
view.

------
sixty4bit
He has two "flying car" startups that he is working on:
[https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/19/17586878/larry-page-
flyin...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/19/17586878/larry-page-flying-car-
opener-kitty-hawk-cora)

Considering the relative secrecy that he is building these companies in, I'd
guess he has other companies going as well.

~~~
CarCooler
Wondering for almost two years after this news we haven't seen a single flying
car demo from these companies. Of course Larry Page's money is a good
financial support but Elon Musk has repeatedly rejected the VTOL idea, it can
pummel populated areas.

------
gumby
He’s in the Caribbean a lot of the time and seemingly spent a lot of time
there when he still had the CEO title. I didn’t see him much around google in
those days (not that we move in the same circles, so this is purely
anecdotal).

One of my friends lives on the same block and said a little while ago that he
never sees him any more (they aren’t friends so it’s a “see the neighbors”
kind of thing, also not something authoritative).

------
ilamont
Maybe he's one of the regulars here on HN using an anonymous handle, taking
part in these conversations without anyone judging him or his actions.

Well-known people have used pseudonyms for ages to preserve their privacy (for
instance, when staying in hotels) or sometimes to manipulate public opinion --
writing letters to the editor under various names and personalities was a
favorite tactic of Ben Franklin, even to the newspapers he owned!

More recently, Mitt Romney's alt Twitter account "Pierre Delecto" was
uncovered after he gave away too many clues: [https://slate.com/news-and-
politics/2019/10/mitt-romney-has-...](https://slate.com/news-and-
politics/2019/10/mitt-romney-has-a-secret-twitter-account-and-it-sure-looks-
like-its-this-one.html)

------
throwaway45349
Retired, I presume. Sometimes people just want to spend time with their kids
and not have to work all the time. And I'm sure he talks to Sundar Pichai all
the time, Alphabet/Google was his baby afterall.

~~~
ci5er
May I ask? In English: "I presume" means that "I have no data and am
speculating". I that correct?

If that is correct, why would you give an answer?

My query should not imply any criticism - just that I don't understand. Could
you explain to an (Sincerely, From: obvious problematic person, who does want
to learn)

~~~
shalmanese
If we restricted discussion forums to only people who had any idea what they
were talking about, you could fit all of internet discourse onto a floppy
disk.

~~~
ci5er
Well played. Still - sometimes I would like to rank answers somehow, like: 1)
I was there, 2) My best friend was there, 3) I have a PhD in that theory, 4) I
built something from theoretical blocks, 5) My friends and I got high in
college, and thought about building something, 6) ....

------
nabla9
His paralyzed vocal cords make public speeches hard.

He is still Alphabet board member and employee. His interest has always been
futurism and moon-shot projects.

~~~
ChrisCinelli
My feeling is that the paralyzed vocal cords are more an effect of the root
cause.

I think Larry did not like anymore most of what he had to do in his role and
created so much stress to him that his body ended up helping him to get out of
that role.

From what I heard on some videos Larry and Sergey were still actively involved
in the creation of new things in Google X etc. They are engineers and they
love to build and create new ambitious things. But if you are high in the
management of a big public company that is not your role anymore.

I think they hoped the creation of Alphabet would have given them the
opportunity to go back to work on new products with an impact for good in the
world instead of having to keep focussing on the dull and stressful management
of Google itself.

But in the end they probably realized that it was not the case and they left.

I know they do angel investing. I guess that with their experience and money,
it is more effective to help younger enterpronurs to make the world a better
place.

------
thecolorblue
Building his Ex Machina home assistant. Watch your inbox closely and you can
win the contest to visit his compound.

~~~
synaesthesisx
Rumor has it Larry Page has already uploaded himself to the cloud, leaving
behind his abandoned, lifeless husk inside a closet in a Google data center
somewhere.

~~~
rreichman
Huge if true

------
softwaredoug
Having had a high profile in a much smaller community, it can be nice to be
forgotten for a while :)

------
username90
He got sick with an incurable disease which makes him sound like a 80 year old
chain smoker, I heard he got a lot less active since then. I bet it made him
realize how little money and power can actually do for him so he is focusing
more on stuff that matters in his life.

------
jppope
He's still a board member, and if I remember correctly he moved over to the
Moonshot factory (X).

------
ilamont
He used Google+ _a lot_.

Somewhere there's an archive of his old posts.

~~~
jacquesm
Oh? What happened to the originals?

~~~
indigochill
Google+ died.

~~~
CarCooler
Facebook and Instagram killed it!

------
benatkin
I wondered why he doesn't have a personal website and saw that Sergey Brin,
Tim Cook, and Elon Musk don't either. Ended up at gatesnotes.com and signing
up for Bill Gates' mailing list.

~~~
Sebb767
Probably because its a lot of work and risk. With such a high profile,
controversial points quickly become a lot of trouble. Also, there's a lot of
overhead with running and securing the site. So, why bother if you don't have
anything interesting to say on there? They are big enough to have Wikipedia
host their CV.

~~~
tgsovlerkhgsel
> there's a lot of overhead with running and securing the site

Not really. Especially not if you have Google at your disposal.

~~~
Sebb767
It's surely possible, I don't meant to suggest otherwise . But still - why
bother when you have nothing to say?

A personal website tends to serve as either self promotion or to voice your
opinion. I don't think he needs promotion, so unless he wants to start
blogging, it's only risk and timesink with no upsides.

------
jboggan
He's someone that can ensure that there is no news about him.

------
antognini
No idea about Page, but I do remember walking by Sergey Brin in a microkitchen
about two years ago when I was at Google. He was evidently playing around with
Tensorflow in Colab. I actually didn't know it was him when I walked by,
someone told me who it was after I left the room.

------
mrkramer
"I can't find any news about him since he left Google." Not even Google can
find him.

~~~
netsharc
Hah, creating your own search engine has its advantages doesn't it.

Or if you don't own Google, you can just claim something related to the search
term to hide what you want to hide: [https://www.wired.co.uk/article/boris-
johnson-model-google-n...](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-
model-google-news)

------
dariusj18
Hanging out with his neighbor Richard Branson I imagine.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustatia_Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustatia_Island)

------
pknerd
Must be busy checking server logs[1]

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9138814](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9138814)

------
mjfl
Wasn't there was some sort of metoo thing that happened with Page, Brin, and
Schmidt right before they all stepped down?

------
tomcam
He’s reading this at the moment since it hit the top of HN, but for the last
few hours it was all about Animal Crossing.

------
renierbotha
So many cans of worms

------
paxys
It was clear years ago that neither he nor Brin were interested running Google
day-to-day anymore. I'm actually surprised that every billionaire doesn't do
the same after reaching a certain point of success.

Like..is calling the shots at Facebook really that big a deal that Zuckerberg
spends his life being dragged from one mess to another, put in front of
Congress every other week, criticized across the political spectrum (which is
an achievement in itself)? Does he really not want to take his $110B and
do...literally whatever he wants in peace for the rest of his life? Or is it
just that he cannot bring himself to trust anyone enough to hand over the
reins of Facebook?

~~~
dddbbb
He's still relatively young, and likely realises the near absolute power he
holds over one of the largest companies in the world is not something he can
get back once he gives it up. Also Gates, to put it in very uncharitable
terms, has shown that it doesn't matter if you're seen as a hated, greedy CEO
as long as you do enough philanthropy later in life.

~~~
2muchcoffeeman
What would Bill Gates have to do to finally shed his reputation as a business
man?

Honestly, Gates seems like a pretty good guy from interviews he’s given and
he’s doing something good with his money.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
When you're as rich as Gates and Buffet you not only have a teams of people
managing your money, you also have teams of people dedicated to managing your
image.

So yes - Gates seems like a pretty good guy. And he'll have paid a lot of
money to create that impression.

Zuckerberg doesn't seem to be running the usual PR operation - possibly
because he's too young to be bothered, and possibly because he doesn't really
care much.

Likewise Bezos. But you can be sure that if/when they turn to philanthropy,
they'll consider the option of a similarly wholesome transformation and
proceed if it seems likely to provide extra social leverage.

The alternative will be managed media invisibility, which is also an option at
that level.

~~~
bostonpete
That's pretty cynical. Giving away your entire fortune to charity and
convincing others to do the same isn't just PR, it's a genuine effort to make
the world a better place. He was a cutthroat businessman and made millions at
the expense of other businessmen, many of whom would've done the same to him
if they could. I don't think being a hardass in the board room disqualifies
you from being a generous and caring person in your private life.

~~~
_jal
> I don't think being a hardass in the board room disqualifies you from being
> a generous and caring person in your private life.

No, but it also doesn't somehow wipe away the actions he took to make that
money.

He didn't just attack other businesses, he attacked open source, and would
have destroyed it if he could have.

By all means, you can think whatever you like about the man. Gates has done
some pretty slimy shit. Being nice now is nice, and I applaud him for it, but
nobody is obligated to develop amnesia.

Further, there is no obligation to politely applaud the rich person picking
and choosing who should benefit from their largesse. Nor in noticing the
massive PR campaigns that go along with it.

He's buying what he wants with his money.

~~~
2muchcoffeeman
> _He didn 't just attack other businesses, he attacked open source, and would
> have destroyed it if he could have. By all means, you can think whatever you
> like about the man. Gates has done some pretty slimy shit. Being nice now is
> nice, and I applaud him for it, but nobody is obligated to develop amnesia._

I’m not asking you to forget what he did as a business man. But people grow by
integrating new information and changing their minds. And Gates seems to be
progressing in the right direction.

But all of you anti-Gates people are hell bent on defining him by his actions
as the head of Microsoft. And being cynical about his motivations.

I’m grateful that he’s changed his ways and is making a positive contribution
to the world. He really does seem to try and understand the issues he wants to
tackle and not just hire people to do it for him.

~~~
_jal
> I’m grateful

Herein lies our difference of opinion. I consider it a positive thing that
he's changed and grown. But grateful? Wealth-worship is gross and I'm not his
dependent.

Again, he's buying what he wants to buy with his money.

~~~
ficklepickle
Exactly right. He won the money game, he couldn't feed his ego with that
anymore. Now he is feeding his ego with philanthropy. He literally couldn't
spend it all on himself. So he sprinkles it around with his name attached.
People don't cheer when I give pocket change to the homeless, yet it is a
similar percentage of my net worth.

------
ocdtrekkie
It's funny how Larry Page very much seems to like his privacy these days...
after taking it from everyone else.

~~~
CalChris
Larry didn't take it from anyone. We gave it to him. He just monetized it.

~~~
ogre_codes
You cannot give something away without realizing it. Google's collection of
shadow data on people is not "Given" to them. Most people don't know when and
how they collect it. I didn't "Give" Google data any more than I gave data to
the guy who drove by my car and collected the plate number when I went to the
store a few weeks ago.

~~~
ry_co
Alternatively, data could be considered not to exist until it is collected. In
this way Larry is neither stealing it nor are you giving it. I personally find
this interpretation more compelling. Otherwise you'd get weird conclusions,
like Darwin stealing evolution from nature, rather than being the creator of
the idea and the data that supports it.

~~~
ogre_codes
We're off in the weeds now.

The point here is that there was no agreement about this... or even knowledge
about the collection of data. There was unilateral action on the part of
Google/ Facebook to secretly create data collection points all over our lives.

The person I replied to suggested we volunteered this information to Google.
Which is almost entirely untrue. Most people Google and Facebook track have
zero knowledge they are being tracked.

~~~
PaulDavisThe1st
I don't want to blame "most people". But had they read the agreements (!) and
understood them (!!) they were told they were being tracked.

So I blame the people a bit, but I blame a media culture that didn't make it
clear, and an educational system that prevented them from understanding what
was happening.

------
tehjoker
Notch is said to be a deeply unhappy person, or at least he was a few years
ago. He also made a hard right-wing turn.

[https://money.cnn.com/2015/08/31/technology/minecraft-
creato...](https://money.cnn.com/2015/08/31/technology/minecraft-creator-
tweets/index.html)

[https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/online-conduct-
leaves...](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/online-conduct-leaves-
markus-notch-persson-out-of-minecraft-10th-anniversary/)

~~~
zanmat0
>He also made a hard right-wing turn.

Is that problematic in and of itself?

~~~
scarface74
He still believes in the QAnon and PizzaGate conspiracy. That is kind of
“problematic”.

~~~
solarkraft
Unfortunately this doesn't seem as unfounded as I had initially thought:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200118060902if_/https://twitte...](https://web.archive.org/web/20200118060902if_/https://twitter.com/notch/status/901192994971410433)

Yet I couldn't clearly claim that he does on the basis of this, as it's just
confusing to me, no sure whether that's his flavor of irony. Do you have some
more evidence to prove that he believes these things? I had previously seen
him as weird and provocative, but not definitely right-wing.

~~~
brokensegue
[https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Notch](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Notch)

