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Larry Page and Sergey Brin Are Lousy Coders

Posted by Soulskill on from the if-it-compiles-it's-probably-fine dept.

theodp writes "Don't tell Business Insider's Nicholas Carlson about Santa and the Easter Bunny just yet. He's still reeling after learning that Larry Page and Sergy Brin are actually pretty lousy coders. That's according to I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59, a book about the company's startup days by Douglas Edwards. 'I didn't trust Larry and Sergey as coders,' Google engineering boss Craig Silverstein recalls in the book. 'I had to deal with their legacy code from the Stanford days and it had a lot of problems. They're research coders: more interested in writing code that works than code that's maintainable.' But don't cry for Larry and Sergey, Argentina — even if the pair won't be taking home any Top Coder prizes, they can at least take solace in their combined $50+ billion fortune. And, according to Woz, they certainly could have kicked Steve Jobs' butt in a coding contest!"

4 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. Ideas vs. Implementation by intermodal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The computing world works specifically because some people have ideas and others have the ability to implement those ideas. And the few who can handle both of those are not generally going to be capable businessmen. It is a rare individual who can excel in all three roles.

    --
    In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
  2. Normal for PhD students by Sir_Sri · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's pretty normal for PhD students.

    Most of us are aware of better coding practices, but getting things done on academic schedules tends to result in whatever can be done before reading week or before tuition is due or the like.

  3. Typical by Virtucon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've always seen software engineers point fingers at other engineers and say that their work sucks. It's the one thing that remains constant in this industry and it's no different from any other competitive field. Most of the time however the guys pointing the fingers have more skeletons in their closets in terms of bad code and use it as a deflection mechanism. Sure, there are incompetent coders but they usually wind up moving into management or the fast food industry.

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
  4. Re: Yes, and? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And a lot of Wrights buildings are in shambles, or gone. Because he was an artist, not a builder.