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Google's First Employee Departs
redletterdave writes "Craig Silverstein, the first employee hired by Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, will leave the search giant for Khan Academy, an online education portal based in Mountain View, Calif. Silverstein had been with Google shortly after it first launched in the garage of Susan Wojcicki, a friend of both Page and Brin, in September 1998. He had helped Brin and Page develop infrastructure when Google was just a Stanford grad school project, but when he officially joined the company, Silverstein became its technology director. The Khan Academy, where Silverstein is heading next, is a not-for-profit organization that aspires to change the education industry by providing free 'world-class education to anyone anywhere.' Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is an enormous fan of the service, telling CNN that he uses it with his kids."
first
Obligatory.
can't say i'm surprised, none of csilver's open source projects have been properly maintained in years
Craig is good egg who walks the walk. Not hungry for power, glory or money, he already has enough of all that. The original Google do-gooder. I sincerely hope that his shoes do not prove too big to fill.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
Good move, khan academy is really nice, but could use a lot of improvements on general usability.
I'm guessing he has enough money to last him several lifetimes by now. Good to see people that will work for non-profit at that point.
Seriously?
I remember discovering Google when it started as the alternative to Deja Vu for archived usenet posts. Search came later, I don't remember what I was using before Google to be honest. Netscape search site perhaps.
Now looking for a Google replacement. I think they're ebil moneygrubbers now to be quite honest. The do evil. In spades.
"Change the education industry"? That's a strange choice of words, considering Khan Academy coursework is free and so is K-12 education in America. Should we even be thinking of educating our children as an industry?
Breakfast served all day!
Almost 14 years with a start up? I thought the new model was to resume build and jump, the sooner, the better. Maybe it's different for people who get in that early.
The code for Khan Academy uses Google Code and runs on Google App Engine so he should at least have a passing familiarly with the technology stack that his new company uses :-)
Source: http://www.brianbondy.com/blog/id/109/
Dear Mr Gates,
I have noticed how fond you are of the excellent efforts of the Khan Academy to disseminate knowledge to anyone for free.
I'm very excited to have found two more projects that should really be up your alley. You will probably want to donate billions to them right away!
They are very much in line with what the Khan Academy is trying to accomplish, but they are working at another perspective of knowledge.
They are about fascilitating the dissemination, creation and construction of knowledge and information on computing hardware:
http://gnu.org/
http://linux.com/
They are Free and Open instructions for computers (machines to process data with). With these free of cost and Free as in freedom software projects and the excellent efforts of the Khan Academy, all the children of Earth (with access to computing hardware - that is yet another avenue you could look into) can really get a leg up.
Sincerelly,
Dr Pointer-Outer-Of-Obvious-Ironies-Dinkelspiel
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
I have property tax bills that say otherwise. K-12 education in America is anything but free.
Like most taxes in America it's unfair, racially biased, and (usually) badly managed.
Just because you don't write a tuition check to the school for K-12 doesn't make it free. It's far from free.
Also, what's with every other story being about Google anyway?
--
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What jumped out at me was that BillG says he uses the Khan videos WITH his kids. Kudos on the parenting, Bill.
Best of luck dude! We need people like you do things like these!
Where he will teach super-human reasoning courses like "LMGTFY 101" and "Your Way With Eels 510".
I thought it was a one-man show.
Religion says that conformity trumps individual sovereignty, and Mother Teresa was true to those beliefs.
Anarchy says that individual sovereignty trumps conformity, and Ghandi was true to those beliefs.
I know which one of these two icons I look up to.
This guy is leaving for a good cause and all, but I've noticed a pattern of Google employees leaving lately. Even newer recruits don't seem to stay long. I wonder if they've taken the fun out of working there? Obviously, something has changed. It can't be the computing problems, because they still have huge challenges.
MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
Obviously rats leaving a syncing ship :)
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
Khan uses the oldest educational technique in the book- the demonstration lecture. Its just packaged better. First someone who clearly explains it. Second in a right-length chunk of a few minutes, not a forced 60 minutes. And on demand, anywhere, not on a schedule at a certain location. And almost free, after it is done the first couple of times.
People have been trying a half century to properly use television and computers in education. This seems to be one of the better results.
I got an interview with Google in 1999, and I had the opportunity to have lunch with Craig. He never mentioned to me that he was the 1st employee at the time.
I do remember what he asked me. I was interviewing for the job of initializing their QA department. He asked me how I would look for problems in an indexer that stored MILLIONS (ha) of pages. I had to ask what exactly an indexer was.
On the way out, I spent too much time flirting with the hot red head they had at the front desk, and Larry walked by and saw what I was doing. I don't think that's why I didn't get the job though.
DAMMMMMNN I wish I got that job!!!!!!!!
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
I like it!
i really hope someone at Google screamed "Khaaaaaaan!" if for nothing else than effect.
Bill gates lets a klingon bastard teach his children? Damn!
Does anyone know?
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Authorities were later called to Google HQ to dislodge a chair from the windshield of Sergey Brinn's Ferrari out in the parking lot, and a glass company was immediately called in to repair the window.
Apparently my 2nd year calculus professor believed in this model. He assigned sections to read from the textbook and exercises to do as homework. Homework was collected at the beginning of class and then he lectured on the topics covered in those sections. He wanted us to be "prepared and qualified" to listen to his lecture. He announced this approach on day 1 of class, half the students immediately dropped his class and signed up with a different professor. Too bad, I did better in 2nd year calculus than I did in 1st. He made us work hard and we enjoyed greater success as a result.
Something reasonable from a dotcom millionaire? Not a hobby electric car company or Space Nutter delusions?