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Google has also been systematically destaffing various language infra teams.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/google-fires-entire-python-te...

https://www.airs.com/blog/archives/670

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Kythe

etc

That is not quite the right word. For Python, the headcount was moved from the Bay Area (the most expensive place in the world to hire software engineers) to Munich (the most expensive place in Germany to hire SWEs.), for cost saving reasons.

If you're the author of https://github.com/hanwen/go-fuse/ -- thank you :D

The problem is most SWEs in Germany are not as good as most SWEs in the Bay Area. :(

Most of the engineers making most of the tools being praised in this thread are in Germany, so I don't think that generalization quite holds.

Even if the best SWEs are better in the Bay area, there's also a lot more competition for them, so Google in Germany might be able to get top 1% there (and in neighboring countries) but Google in the Bay Area is probably having a tough time getting even top 10%.

That's a good point, and why I'm happy to see remote offices pop up in many locations. The problem is the top .1% which can live anywhere, is often a poor representation of the depth of talent density.

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