zlacker

From the point of view of an ex-Googler who worked there for many years, the frustrating thing about discussions of Google isn't criticism so much as lazy assertions of things people couldn't possibly know. (They are often things I don't know either, because in a 100,000 person company, there's no way to know everything, and since I left my knowledge is out of date.) And if you ask how they know it, it is apparently just conventional "wisdom" in some circles.

I see that in certain other topics as well, such as discussions of the 737 as mentioned in the article.

Along with intellectual curiosity, I think it's important to cultivate intellectual humility, and they go together. A lot of what we think we know just by reading the news isn't all that well-founded, so asserting a strongly-held opinion isn't justified. I'm reminded of a cartoon about collecting questions, rather than answers:

http://kiriakakis.net/comics/mused/a-day-at-the-park

So, if you're wondering about downvotes, overconfidence might be a reason, or at least for one downvote.