three is the loneliest number

The strangest thing happened today. one of the most powerful men in technology is stepping away from his post. Ken Auletta shares some reflections and a little digging he has done on the surprise announcement. 

For some time now it has seemed to watchers that there were to faces of google. Which must have felt more poignant, and piqued in a group dynamic of three – where a dissenter is inevitably going to feel piled up on.

…He often joked that he provided “adult supervision,” and was never shy about interrupting the founders at meetings to crystallize a point. In the eleven interviews I conducted with him for my book on Google, he freely told anecdotes about the founders, sometimes making gentle fun of them, never seeming to look over his shoulder. Yet he always made clear that they were “geniuses” and he, in effect, was their manager. After a bumpy first couple of years after he joined Google as C.E.O. in 2001, they had developed a remarkable relationship. But also a weird one. How many successful organizations have a troika making decisions?

via News Desk: Why Is Eric Schmidt Stepping Down at Google? : The New Yorker.