Gmail Wasn't a Side Project (The Real Story Is Better)

Everyone "knows" Gmail started as a 20% side project. It didn't. Its creator, Paul Buchheit, says it was an official job, and the whole brief was "build an email something". The real story is better for anyone with a folder of unfinished side projects. The first version took a single day, because it only searched his own email. His first users were the engineers sitting a few desks away. Then came two and a half years of complaints, doubts and people who wanted it killed, before it launched on April Fools' Day 2004. And the genuine side project was hiding inside it: the first prototype of what became AdSense. Chapters 0:00 Cold open 1:21 The myth 3:08 Built in a day 4:52 The long middle 6:51 What grew on the side 8:38 Side projects for the rest of us 10:39 April Fools' Day 12:15 One thing tonight Sources Harry McCracken, How Gmail Happened: The Inside Story of Its Launch 10 Years Ago, Time (2014): https://time.com/43263 Paul Buchheit interview with Triplebyte: https://dev.to/triplebyte/gmail-creat... Paul Buchheit, Overnight success takes a long time (2009), quoted in Coding Horror: https://blog.codinghorror.com/overnig... History of Gmail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History... Krishna Bharat on Google News, Digital Riptide: https://www.digitalriptide.org/?p=129 Eschleman et al. (2014), creative activity and job performance, APS summary: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/... Alex, Mia and the "someday" folder are a made-up example. This video isn't sponsored by or affiliated with any company mentioned. #Gmail #SideProjects #SoftwareEngineering #BuildInPublic #EngineersMotivation