HN Hall of Fame Weekly email

Software Engineering at Google (2017)

arxiv.org Research & data Technical reports Software engineering Candidate
Screenshot of arxiv.org captured 2026-07-20
Page preview · captured 2026-07-20

Resurfaced independently across 4 calendar years, with breakout response in 2 of them.

submissions
4
submitters
4
observed span
2017–2021
peak thread · 309 comments
685 pts
latest 20+ return · 2019-01-03
685 pts

Submission timeline

2007–2026

One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.

First comments on top threads

HN comment order

Buried in the "2.11 Frequent rewrites" section, but a great hack for "productivity via a sense of ownership": "In addition, rewriting code is a way of transferring knowledge and a sense of ownership to newer team members. This sense of ownership is crucial for productivity: engineers naturally put more effort into developing features and fixing problems in code that they feel is “theirs”."

Radim·685-point thread·

Not one word about what I consider the most toxic aspect of working at Google: blind allocation. Unless one absolutely does not care what one wishes to work on, joining Google is throwing your future into the Hogwarts hat of an ill-defined cabal of billionaires to pick your job at Google. Sometimes that works out, but most of the time you are allocated to whatever mission-critical project is currently leaking buttcheeks. In my brief time there, I was placed on…

varelse·442-point thread·

The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.

Breakout years
2

100+ points or 50+ comments

Total points
1137

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Total comments
465

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Every submission

DateTitle as submittedByPointsComments
2017-02-10Software Engineering at GoogleFirst breakoutasnt442156
2019-01-03Software Engineering at Google (2017)Best thread · Latest 20+ point returnweinzierl685309
2020-11-09Software Engineering at Googlepavanyara40
2021-05-06Software Engineering at Google [pdf]dhairya60