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different. Even now when I talk about adding new features to Gmail, if it isn t just a small variation or rearranging what s already there, people don t like it. People have a narrow concept of what s possible, and we re limited more by our own ideas about what s possible than what really is possible. So they just get uncomfortable, and they kind of tend to attack it for whatever reason. But for me, I am more interested in things that are new, and so I m always excited just to see what will happen. That was actually one of the biggest reasons I joined Google in the first place. It wasn t so much that I was convinced that it was a good business; I just thought it was interesting and I was excited to see what would happen. Likewise, with Gmail, part of the excitement was just seeing how the world would respond. I kind of like uncertainty to some extent, because it s a little bit of suspense and excitement and adventure, almost, right And you can learn a

lot even if things don t work out. But not everyone likes adventure. A lot of people seem to be against uncertainty, actually. In all areas of life. I m suddenly reminded that, for a while, I asked people, if they were playing Russian roulette with a gun with a billion barrels (or some huge number, so in other words, some low probability that they would actually be killed), how much would they have to be paid to play one round A lot of people were almost offended by the question and they d say, I wouldn t do it at any price. But, of course, we do that every day. They drive to work in cars to earn money and they are taking risks all the time, but they don t like to acknowledge that they are taking risks. They want to pretend that everything is risk-free.

Livingston: Wasn t it controversial when you tried to test out the AdSense idea Buchheit: Yes, absolutely. Everyone hated it. Many people were kind of mad at

me because they didn t really go for the whole concept. It was something that had been talked about, and people agreed that it was not workable, it was not a good idea. So, to some extent, they were agitated that I wasted my time.

Livingston: But you did it in one day Buchheit: Yeah, pretty much. Livingston: And they were still annoyed Buchheit: Different people to different degrees. There were only a few people

who were sort of upset about my distracting from the main task. Other people just didn t like the concept, because it s obviously something that s very controversial and it isn t immediately obvious when you just hear about the idea and you haven t really used it. At first, it kind of seems a little bit wrong, right Just because it s very unfamiliar. So it takes some getting used to. But people got used to it and then they were OK with it.

Livingston: Most startup founders have investors, but you had Larry and Sergey to answer to. What s it like having them as your investors, in a way Buchheit: I think it s probably reasonable. I ve never had other investors so I don t have a lot of perspective, but they are very open to crazy ideas more so than almost anyone I ve ever met. I used to tell people my ideas, and then they d explain to me that I just didn t understand how the world worked and why I was wrong about whatever. One of the exceptional things for me, coming to Google, was that it was the first time that I would tell people my crazy ideas and they d say, Oh, yeah, that s a good idea. I was thinking the same thing. So it was an environment with many people who are open to these kind of unusual ideas, and this is especially true with Larry and Sergey. Livingston: So they aren t risk-averse like so many investors. Buchheit: Obviously they consider risk and so forth, but they are definitely more open to the idea of something unexpected or different. Which I believe is very much their own thinking.