What makes Google tick: The “Off” button

Posted by: Douglas MacMillan on May 19

Henry Ford never urged the public to trade in their cars for bicycles. Alexander Graham Bell wouldn’t have us all going back to the telegram.

So how curious, then, was Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s advice to the graduates of Carnegie Mellon on Saturday, when he told them to spend less time using technology?

In a world where everything is remembered and kept forever, you should live for the future and the things you really care about… And what are those things? To figure this out you need to actually turn off your computer. I know this is difficult. You need to turn off your phone. You need to actually look at the people who are near you and around you and decide that it is humans who ultimately are the most important things to us and not the other aspects.

Obviously, Schmidt isn’t trying to sabotage his company’s search revenues (although I’m sure a couple folks at the marketing department in Mountain View weren’t thrilled with the choice of words). What he’s relating, I think, is a valuable lesson he’s picked up from his time at Google: Success comes from trying new things.

Rather than putting all of its energy and resources into searching the Web, Google looked up from the computer screen years ago. The company sets aside 1% of profits to its philanthropic arm, Google.org, which has tackled big problems like improving education in India and promoting cleaner, cheaper energy sources. It dove head-first into mobile phones with the launch of the Android operating system last fall. And the company has paved new territory in the department of human resources, with its super-selective hiring process and notoriously pampered workforce.

All of these initiatives have benefited Google’s bottom line. And, arguably, none of them could have happened if Google engineers kept their heads down, staring at the search box.

Here’s the full video of Schmidt’s commencement speech:

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