Google History

by phil on Tuesday Apr 15, 2003 1:37 PM
Google

Google Corporate Information: Google History At the Googleplex, a unique company culture was evolving. To maximize the flexibility of the work space, large rubber exercise balls were repurposed as highly mobile office chairs in an open environment free of cubicle walls. While computers on the desktops were fully powered, the desks themselves were wooden doors held up by pairs of sawhorses.

As much as I'm on a I-despise-google (yet-use-it-all-the-time) high, I find affinity with this comment. I did almost exactly the same thing, using two sawhorses and a door as a sleeping platform in my 2nd Odyssey. I initially bought some wood from Home Depot, only to find that its stench made me sneeze. I delayed my trip a couple of days, hoping the smell would disappear, but I got impatient and the smell never faded. Then I thought, "improvise, improvise" and voila, now I'm like Google? Dah.

It's exciting because it's a hero-legend story, or at least starts that way. You read every part and you're like, damn, damn, damn, each and every point seems extremely romantic and fun. You also start to feel good because of it's style. Given the current drivel of Corporate America, Google sounds like a m'fing rebellion against the crap out there. But really, the real lesson, is you have to find your own way, as Fleetwood Mac would say (dah!), and no matter how many Google's you join or how many garage start-ups you make, if it's not you, your dig, your innovative little crazy diamond to shine on, then you will never taste it as much as the Google guys probably did.

(Verdict, now we're like, lamenting, still Nietzsche didactic like, but whatever, enjoy :-P <- Woody Allen influenced, maybe?)