To Good Vibes
Tonight I went for drinks outside with a friend for the first time since The Start©.
He'd never been to The Beer Garden where that Apple engineer left a prototype iPhone 4. It happens to be near my place.
Before heading down from San Francisco, my friend noticed Google said they were closed today. I had no idea. I didn't get his message; I logged off from work early tonight.
When I was heading out the door I caught it and replied, “Let's meet there anyways and figure it out when you get here.” An entirely unnecessary ordeal; given they were actually open when I arrived.
We had a great time chatting and catching up. At the end of the night, we were the last ones to leave.
Parting with our server, he said, “Hey, thanks for coming out on a Monday.” We mentioned we almost didn't come. Google said they were closed.
The short of it is: they can't get in touch with Google to get it fixed. The long of it... there's a retail store in front they own too. That's closed on Mondays. The Beer Garden is actually open. Google does not comprehend such a nuance.
Google does not employ such a person that can program such a nuance. At least not at scale. It is a human nuance. A human problem. An expensive problem.
If Google had to pay a software engineer for every edge case that could possibly cost a small business their business in an economy that's trying to recover from a global pandemic, they'd be out of business.
Trust me, I'm a software engineer that works in their neighborhood. They're a business too.
So look. That's all I've been getting at with these blogs. That's how Google treats a business in their own backyard. Imagine how all these Big Technology companies treat people behind their backs. Imagine the social consequences of such unchecked negligence.
I'm just going to rest my case here and now. Whatever I've been on about with my blogs, this is it: I had a great time tonight. It is a shame I felt the need to get on my computer to blog about it. Hammering away at my keys knowing it is just me and a couple friends against a Mind Flayer that nobody else can see.
I think the monster I'm chasing is that monster Aral had been confronting head on. I think it's the same monster Dave Chappelle was talking about in his Unforgiven special.
I digress. I need to adapt and come at this monster from a different angle.
We paid our bill. Our transaction was complete. Our server could have said anything or nothing at all.
He said, “Thanks for coming out on a Monday.”
Whatever the tip shook out to be on a few beers and a couple pretzels, that's how much Google costs. Well, that's how much they would have cost our server had I paid them any mind. Could have been worse.
Welcome to the attention economy. From here on in, the only attention I'll be sending you on these digital airwaves will be good vibes.