Google fires `gog` creator J. Poehnelt after his open-source Workspace CLI goes viral

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Google fired the guy that made the google workspace cli, because he made the google workspace cli.

Lucky me, Google can't fire me. https://gogcli.sh

Two months ago I was fired by Google for creating the Google Workspace CLI. It went viral, hit #1 on Hacker News, gained thousands of GitHub stars and many thousands of actual users in just a couple days.

It was an incredible, confusing journey, from directors and leaders asking what they could learn from the tool to getting grilled by legal about why the Google logo and brand colors are on the Google Workspace GitHub code repositories.

I think the cause was that Workspace and certain leaders (and projects) were afraid of being disrupted. But the fear wasn't specific to my CLI, it was a broader fear in what agents meant for Workspace. Either way, the irony of my termination was the announcement at Google Cloud Next two days before I was fired that an official Workspace CLI was coming.

I want this out there because it is easier for me to explain my story and it is an experience I want to fully own. It's also part of my healing.

Nearly 7 years at Google was an incredible opportunity for me and I was fortunate to have wonderful teammates and a manager that fully supported me through these last few months. Thank you.

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@levelsio@levelsio

Insane

@sundarpichai you should rehire and then promote him, these are the people Google needs!

Justin Poehnelt@JPoehnelt

Two months ago I was fired by Google for creating the Google Workspace CLI. It went viral, hit #1 on Hacker News, gained thousands of GitHub stars and many thousands of actual users in just a couple days.

It was an incredible, confusing journey, from directors and leaders asking what they could learn from the tool to getting grilled by legal about why the Google logo and brand colors are on the Google Workspace GitHub code repositories.

I think the cause was that Workspace and certain leaders (and projects) were afraid of being disrupted. But the fear wasn't specific to my CLI, it was a broader fear in what agents meant for Workspace. Either way, the irony of my termination was the announcement at Google Cloud Next two days before I was fired that an official Workspace CLI was coming.

I want this out there because it is easier for me to explain my story and it is an experience I want to fully own. It's also part of my healing.

Nearly 7 years at Google was an incredible opportunity for me and I was fortunate to have wonderful teammates and a manager that fully supported me through these last few months. Thank you.

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kache@yacineMTB

Still thinking about this. He got fired for good reason (though getting fired does suck). You need to go through security and legal for these things. You can't just release software with your company's branding under your personal.. super irresponsible

Justin Poehnelt@JPoehnelt

Two months ago I was fired by Google for creating the Google Workspace CLI. It went viral, hit #1 on Hacker News, gained thousands of GitHub stars and many thousands of actual users in just a couple days.

It was an incredible, confusing journey, from directors and leaders asking what they could learn from the tool to getting grilled by legal about why the Google logo and brand colors are on the Google Workspace GitHub code repositories.

I think the cause was that Workspace and certain leaders (and projects) were afraid of being disrupted. But the fear wasn't specific to my CLI, it was a broader fear in what agents meant for Workspace. Either way, the irony of my termination was the announcement at Google Cloud Next two days before I was fired that an official Workspace CLI was coming.

I want this out there because it is easier for me to explain my story and it is an experience I want to fully own. It's also part of my healing.

Nearly 7 years at Google was an incredible opportunity for me and I was fortunate to have wonderful teammates and a manager that fully supported me through these last few months. Thank you.

1d192.7K1.5K202

Beff (e/acc)@beffjezos

In my experience at big G, nothing will piss off leaders as much as actually shipping something fast.

Justin Poehnelt@JPoehnelt

Two months ago I was fired by Google for creating the Google Workspace CLI. It went viral, hit #1 on Hacker News, gained thousands of GitHub stars and many thousands of actual users in just a couple days.

It was an incredible, confusing journey, from directors and leaders asking what they could learn from the tool to getting grilled by legal about why the Google logo and brand colors are on the Google Workspace GitHub code repositories.

I think the cause was that Workspace and certain leaders (and projects) were afraid of being disrupted. But the fear wasn't specific to my CLI, it was a broader fear in what agents meant for Workspace. Either way, the irony of my termination was the announcement at Google Cloud Next two days before I was fired that an official Workspace CLI was coming.

I want this out there because it is easier for me to explain my story and it is an experience I want to fully own. It's also part of my healing.

Nearly 7 years at Google was an incredible opportunity for me and I was fortunate to have wonderful teammates and a manager that fully supported me through these last few months. Thank you.

1d29.6K48957

Bojan Tunguz@tunguz

Yeah, Big Tech doesn’t like it when you take initiative. Not one but. And if you tweet about it you are screwed.

Justin Poehnelt@JPoehnelt

Two months ago I was fired by Google for creating the Google Workspace CLI. It went viral, hit #1 on Hacker News, gained thousands of GitHub stars and many thousands of actual users in just a couple days.

It was an incredible, confusing journey, from directors and leaders asking what they could learn from the tool to getting grilled by legal about why the Google logo and brand colors are on the Google Workspace GitHub code repositories.

I think the cause was that Workspace and certain leaders (and projects) were afraid of being disrupted. But the fear wasn't specific to my CLI, it was a broader fear in what agents meant for Workspace. Either way, the irony of my termination was the announcement at Google Cloud Next two days before I was fired that an official Workspace CLI was coming.

I want this out there because it is easier for me to explain my story and it is an experience I want to fully own. It's also part of my healing.

Nearly 7 years at Google was an incredible opportunity for me and I was fortunate to have wonderful teammates and a manager that fully supported me through these last few months. Thank you.

1d47.4K35753

Tibo@thsottiaux

@steipete Sundar just called

Peter Steinberger 🦞@steipete

Google fired the guy that made the google workspace cli, because he made the google workspace cli.

Lucky me, Google can't fire me. https://gogcli.sh

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kache@yacineMTB

There is a REALLY GOOD REASON there are checks and balances with these things. Users are RETARDED and you need to think VERY CAREFULLY about how to NOT GIVE THEM FOOT GUNS that they WILL USE TO BLOW THEIR FEET OFF AND LEAK THEIR DICK PICS EVERYWHERE if you aren't careful

kache@yacineMTB

Still thinking about this. He got fired for good reason (though getting fired does suck). You need to go through security and legal for these things. You can't just release software with your company's branding under your personal.. super irresponsible

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Austin Wright@awwright

@LitianaPaeniu @tunguz I'm old enough to remember when Google had 20% Time

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elvis@omarsar0

This is just wild! I really like the Google Workspace CLI project.

Sad to see this kind of treatment to folks that want to push interesting ideas out.

There is so much to explore that it’s puzzling to see this.

Justin Poehnelt@JPoehnelt

Two months ago I was fired by Google for creating the Google Workspace CLI. It went viral, hit #1 on Hacker News, gained thousands of GitHub stars and many thousands of actual users in just a couple days.

It was an incredible, confusing journey, from directors and leaders asking what they could learn from the tool to getting grilled by legal about why the Google logo and brand colors are on the Google Workspace GitHub code repositories.

I think the cause was that Workspace and certain leaders (and projects) were afraid of being disrupted. But the fear wasn't specific to my CLI, it was a broader fear in what agents meant for Workspace. Either way, the irony of my termination was the announcement at Google Cloud Next two days before I was fired that an official Workspace CLI was coming.

I want this out there because it is easier for me to explain my story and it is an experience I want to fully own. It's also part of my healing.

Nearly 7 years at Google was an incredible opportunity for me and I was fortunate to have wonderful teammates and a manager that fully supported me through these last few months. Thank you.

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Susan Zhang@suchenzang

@yacineMTB @JPoehnelt a director announced it tho:

Addy Osmani@addyosmani

Introducing the Google Workspace CLI: https://github.com/googleworkspace/cli - built for humans and agents.

Google Drive, Gmail, Calendar, and every Workspace API. 40+ agent skills included.

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elvis@omarsar0

This is just wild! I really like the Google Workspace CLI project.

Sad to see this kind of treatment to folks that want to push interesting ideas out.

There is so much to explore that it’s puzzling to this.

Justin Poehnelt@JPoehnelt

Two months ago I was fired by Google for creating the Google Workspace CLI. It went viral, hit #1 on Hacker News, gained thousands of GitHub stars and many thousands of actual users in just a couple days.

It was an incredible, confusing journey, from directors and leaders asking what they could learn from the tool to getting grilled by legal about why the Google logo and brand colors are on the Google Workspace GitHub code repositories.

I think the cause was that Workspace and certain leaders (and projects) were afraid of being disrupted. But the fear wasn't specific to my CLI, it was a broader fear in what agents meant for Workspace. Either way, the irony of my termination was the announcement at Google Cloud Next two days before I was fired that an official Workspace CLI was coming.

I want this out there because it is easier for me to explain my story and it is an experience I want to fully own. It's also part of my healing.

Nearly 7 years at Google was an incredible opportunity for me and I was fortunate to have wonderful teammates and a manager that fully supported me through these last few months. Thank you.

1d5.6K138

Damir Wallener 🇭🇷🇨🇦…🚀🛰️…⚽️🥁…👨‍🍳@DamirWallener

@LitianaPaeniu @tunguz Give the guy a $2M seed and turn him loose…that would have been a smarter play.

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Andreas Kirsch 🇺🇦@BlackHC

Lol at the background story. Such large corp vibes 😅 but yeah don't use the name or logo ofc

Justin Poehnelt@JPoehnelt

Two months ago I was fired by Google for creating the Google Workspace CLI. It went viral, hit #1 on Hacker News, gained thousands of GitHub stars and many thousands of actual users in just a couple days.

It was an incredible, confusing journey, from directors and leaders asking what they could learn from the tool to getting grilled by legal about why the Google logo and brand colors are on the Google Workspace GitHub code repositories.

I think the cause was that Workspace and certain leaders (and projects) were afraid of being disrupted. But the fear wasn't specific to my CLI, it was a broader fear in what agents meant for Workspace. Either way, the irony of my termination was the announcement at Google Cloud Next two days before I was fired that an official Workspace CLI was coming.

I want this out there because it is easier for me to explain my story and it is an experience I want to fully own. It's also part of my healing.

Nearly 7 years at Google was an incredible opportunity for me and I was fortunate to have wonderful teammates and a manager that fully supported me through these last few months. Thank you.

1d5.8K154

Luis@luisgnet

@levelsio @sundarpichai and fire every single person who contributed to Justin’s firing, it’s the exact culture google should NOT tolerate

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Joe Doliner@jdoliner

@steipete Shipping is a firable offense at google

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kache@yacineMTB

@levelsio @sundarpichai Wrong. Severe lack of skill to not be able to get this through the proper channels that exist for really good reasons

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kache@yacineMTB

@levelsio @sundarpichai Maybe that's harsh, but going around things is VERY BAD

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gabriel@gabriel1

@beffjezos shipping fast is highly triggering

Beff (e/acc)@beffjezos

In my experience at big G, nothing will piss off leaders as much as actually shipping something fast.

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Stephen Brouhard@ssbrouhard

@steipete http://gogcli.sh has better agent ergonomics. Less but better. Every agent I have had analyze them chooses gog so I continue to use it

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kache@yacineMTB

Generally company processes are good and are there to help, and from what I know about Google it is actually a really well designed streamlined process to go through. Don't be a renegade in the wrong way. Like shake things up, make friends, give other people credit. Do it right

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