Doing A Bunch of Things, Kind of Well.

On Google's "philosophy" page, there's a statement that is pretty bold to make given their current situation: "It's best to do one thing really, really well." In class, it has been argued that Google's "one thing" is search: not only to search the internet for information, but to search for innovation as well - to search for answers in a larger sense. To me, though, this is kind of contradictory: sure, you could argue that products like Google Glass and the like are ways of giving us more "answers" and continuing this search, but on the other hand, it feels a little excessive. To me, Larry and Sergey seem to be guys who come from a background much different than the majority of well-established businessmen: they are interested in technology, in moving the world forward, and in making some awesome stuff. That's what a lot of the Silicon Valley start-ups are like - it's definitely what Steve Jobs would like. But with that mentality comes a lot more than simply doing one thing really, really well - it means that in success, there is the ability to try and fail, and try and fail, and then try and fail again. That kind of mentality comes from a company with means, that in the past did do one thing really well (a search engine) and now has the ability and the money to do pretty much anything they want.

I'm speaking, in a lot of ways, about the Glass Barge. It's been proposed that one day Google will have a store of its own - much like Apple eventually had stores - that would exist on a glass boat, which, to be honest, would be incredibly awesome. But when you really think about it, that sounds like an idea thought up by some mad scientist, bent on doing things just so that they can be done. I'm not necessarily against this, but if that is the way you want to run your company, don't say that you do one thing. Say that you do one thing well, and are trying to do some other stuff and you'll see what sticks. After all, that's how great ideas come about - trying things and seeing what sticks. Maybe I'm just being picky here (considering I said that no one reads the "about" page anyway), but it seems a little off for a company that claims to do one thing to also make glass boats.