#18! Not bad :)
January 25, 2006
Apparently, I made #18 on Business 2.0’s 101 Dumbest Moments in Business for 2005. Interesting stuff:
18. Perhaps they should change the motto to “Don’t be stupid.”
New Google employee Mark Jen adds a post to his blog in which he says he spent his first day in an HR presentation about “nothing in particular.” Apparently, Jen snoozed through the company’s strict disclosure rules. In a subsequent post, he reveals that the company expects unprecedented revenues and profit growth in 2005, projections that Google has yet to share with Wall Street. Jen soon receives another presentation from HR: a pink slip.
I would say that’s definitely a way to slant the story; what would’ve been closer to the truth is that I was fired because I violated the first two unspoken rules at Google: “You don’t talk about Google”. But hey, that’s just semantics; the article is pretty funny 
January 25, 2006 at 7:33 pm
gratz mark on this dubious honor!
January 25, 2006 at 8:41 pm
I was reading the list, and that one made me think “I should see if that guy still has a blog.” A quick search (via Google) later, and there you are. Good to see that you’re able to look back on all of that in good spirits!
January 26, 2006 at 11:47 am
Mark… do you own google share?
January 26, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Which is the second unspoken rule then?
January 26, 2006 at 3:02 pm
both the first rule and the second rule are “you don’t talk about google.” a joke from fight club
January 26, 2006 at 4:29 pm
Michoz – nope, I don’t own any shares.
Michael – Not sure if you’re kidding, but “the first two rules” thing is a reference to Fight Club
January 27, 2006 at 9:26 am
Never seen that movie although it showed on free TV a few days ago).
I thought I was on to something mysterious and was the first to spot that you actually only posted ONE rule
January 27, 2006 at 11:23 am
[...] plaxoed! » #18! Not bad [Mark Jen’s life @ Plaxo] Quote: “Apparently, I made #18 on Business 2.0’s 101 Dumbest Moments in Business for 2005. Interesting stuff:” (tags: google controversy mark_jen) [...]
January 29, 2006 at 2:45 am
Nice stuff. I just got my Business 2.0 in the mail. Now I have the printed version of that quote, Mark.
-Will
January 31, 2006 at 2:53 pm
I think you’ve been a class act through all of this, Mark and I’m glad to see you’re doing well at Plaxo. It’s a great product, by the way.
February 3, 2006 at 8:29 am
Heh…Glad you liked; my brother is one of the co-authors. [and also the author of ditherati, where you can see silliness from the “digerati,” daily.