In this video I look back on leaving Google and answer the question people keep asking me: do I regret it, and what do I actually miss? When I first switched companies, I wondered right away if I made the right choice—mostly because I was so comfortable at Google. The biggest things I missed weren’t “perks,” it was the engineering infrastructure: Google’s internal code review UI, the insanely powerful code search, and how smooth the whole dev cycle felt when you could instantly see file diffs, references, usages, and even change history tied to what you were reading. I also talk about Google’s internal “Google search” for employees (Moma) and how convenient it was to find basically anything—benefits info, docs, discussions, and answers—without hunting through scattered wikis. But the deeper point is what the switch taught me about myself: I wanted to test whether I’m a good software engineer anywhere, or if I was just “a Google software engineer” who only thrives with Google infrastructure. Over time, as I picked up new tools and a new tech stack, that fear faded. I don’t regret leaving, but it made me appreciate how big tech’s internal tools create real leverage—and it made me wonder why more of these aren’t offered as B2B products.