> This is what has never changed and it's the employee's fault if they do not realize this when they accept their employment offer.
My point is that he already realizes this. And that within one Google culture, he felt comfortable handing it all over to Google and taking advantage of all their resources and clout, and that in today's different Google culture, it's not a clearcut decision anymore, and in particular, pursuing a project that management sees as being at odds with the core mission of Google+ would probably be a bad idea. So I don't think you have any news for him, despite your initial claims.
If his primary concern had been Google Reader staying alive, he arguably had "false sense of comfort" back then, and this is exactly what I am saying. He made a mistake in evaluating risks.
The news is not for him, of course, as it would have been useless. The news is for anyone else who feels like safely innovating within a big company with _any_ culture today. There is a trade-off that you always take. Know it well when you make it. It can be much easier to leverage a big company's resources; on the other hand, your product may not follow your initial vision or get a bullet in its head. "The culture seemed cool back then so I was fooled by recruiter propaganda telling me I have control, blah, blah..." is not an excuse.
EDIT:
To clarify, all of this post presumed it would have been successful if he'd done it outside Google, something he seems to imply by his statement. I want to reiterate that I personally object to this very assumption, so I think he made the right trade-off, in which case, it's all fine, but he should not post a rant that implies doing it outside Google would have been catch-free.
My point is that he already realizes this. And that within one Google culture, he felt comfortable handing it all over to Google and taking advantage of all their resources and clout, and that in today's different Google culture, it's not a clearcut decision anymore, and in particular, pursuing a project that management sees as being at odds with the core mission of Google+ would probably be a bad idea. So I don't think you have any news for him, despite your initial claims.