So long, Sir
I had a very long (and complex) history with Vijay Gill. He was always a force to be recognized, not always reckoned with (to know him is to understand that distinction). Vijay joined AOL nearly right after I left and we had numerous shared people we respected who kept introducing us to each other in the very small networking world of the mid-90s.
When it came time for me to hire an ace technologist, thought leader, and, a leader in general, I reached out to Vijay (as our shared circle said he was open to new prospects at the time). I (feel) I manipulated him to join Google back in the day when our networking program was super secret and had yet to expose any of what was being attempted or thought of - we didn't even hint at what we were doing to help attract our necessary caliber of candidate.
Scale was not enough of an attraction for Vijay - but I purposely exited him through a building where we used to keep our exiting visitor badges on a very large/growing 'ball' of badges. The same day he came to interview (and I mean entire day) - we also had some networking chip manufacturers come through. I skipped my local building and took him to exit out of that building. I didn't have to point to the ball, he noticed right away and gave me a very puzzled look. Then he said something along the lines of 'ok, you got me' and he joined right away.
Could Vijay be manipulated? Likely not, I gave him some additional data, he quickly did the calculus and had enough data to then extrapolate the possibility of what _could be_ versus the other opportunities before him.
We had an amazing set of years where we pushed each other and our team to great heights, amazing scale and growth and what would be foundational career topping achievements year in and out. And some great travel - we went to Bali (for work!) and upon visiting the Sacred Monkey Forest in Ubud - the rules for entry became some rules for our managing a rowdy bunch of top notch engineers:
Don't hide food from the engineers...
Don't panic. ...
Don't run. ...
Don't scream. ...
Don't bring plastic or paper bags. ...
Take care of your belongings. ...
Don't touch, grab or disturb the engineers...
Don't feed the _engineers_ peanuts, cookies, bread, snacks or drinks
Vijay would reference these rules in shorthand in the middle of spirited debate, sometimes only loud enough for me to hear. I would laugh, he would slyly smile - we would shift gears or direction.
Not everything was wine and roses, and Vijay and I lost touch for a few years after he left Google (and subsequently returned for a blip) - however in 2020 we reconnected and would occasionally call each other - where Vijay would wax nostalgic on the past and I would express gratitude but preferred to live in the present. It didn't occur to me it wasn't the past he was nostalgic for but the "simple" nature of what were all mutually working towards that was tangible and real as it was foundational infrastructure to launch major services on. We had a lot of firsts, 'never befores' (and never agains!) and impossibles under our collective belts.
In reading Om Malik's send off of Vijay I understand these conversations differently now through the paragraph on growing complexity and abstraction keeping newer technologists from understanding the fragility and assumptions they are inheriting in their work. I share Vijay's concern for the tech future and I imagine our conversation would turn to being the older, outer layer of curmudgeons and we'd make fun of ourselves for it.
I am going to miss Vijay but will never forget the amazing shared experiences, conversations and growth - personal, professional and at scale. I won't forget the challenges and hardships and conflict either - much of which gave us the most growth opportunity as individuals to boot.
Posted this to Blogger because Vijay loved to say the name in his louder, deeper voice from time to time. Sometimes to poke fun of the little tech that couldn't but other times out of respect for it's inability to die. :-) Going to enjoy the memories Sir, thank you.