We don't have as many managers as we should, but we would rather have too few than too many.

It is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. ... Since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition.

I like going to Burning Man, for example. That's an environment where people can try out different things. I think as technologists we should have some safe places where we can try out some new things and figure out what is the effect on society, what's the effect on people, without having to deploy kind of into the normal world.

Small groups of people can have a really huge impact.

We have always tried to concentrate on the long term, and to place bets on technology we believe will have a significant impact over time. It's hard to imagine now, but when we started Google most people thought search was a solved problem and that there was no money to be made apart from some banner advertising. We felt the exact opposite: that search quality was very poor, and that awesome user experiences would clearly make money.

Over time, it's becoming more and more understood by people that we're acting in their interests. And that's a very, very powerful thing for our brand.

Big companies have always needed and cooperated in areas where it made sense.