8 ms·
Thirteen Months of Working, Eating, and Sleeping at the Googleplex
- supercanuck 11y agoHow are these fringe benefits not taxable as pay? Should they be? http://www.irs.gov/publications/p15b/ar02.html#en_US_2014_publink1000193623 http://www.irs.gov/publications/p15b/ar02.html#en_US_2014_pu...
- simonk 11y agoRead further down, exclusions to fringe benefits include Meals, Lodging on your business premises, Athletic facilities, and other things.
- hn9780470248775 11y agoRead even further down: Exempt if furnished for your convenience as a condition of employment. i.e. this seems to imply that optional lodging is taxable.
- ghaff 11y agoTrue (and makes sense) although I doubt a parking space qualifies as a housing benefit.
- ghaff 11y agoBy way of context, understand that cases like these are outliers from the perspective of the existing tax laws. Athletic facilities: Many companies have a locker room, maybe a shower, maybe a treadmill or two. Is the IRS going to force employees to buy a gym membership so they can take a post lunchtime shower prior to a customer meeting? As for meals/on-premise lodging/etc. Historically (and currently still, modulo Google-type outliers) this sort of thing typically applies to people living on a job site as I did when I was running projects on oil rigs and in shipyards. Plenty of other examples as well. Especially in a remote location, these services can be quite expensive to deliver. It would be pretty unreasonable to make employees declare them as taxable benefits.
- comrh 11y agoThat article was overwhelmingly depressing. Living in a van is a better life then remote work?
- jmspring 11y agoNo, but one can't always get the remote work. I've been approached to help with some bay area startups, but the mere thought of having to sit in a car and spend a bunch of hours in the Valley? So not appealing right now. I've done the sleep at work thing randomly over the years, never again.
- aaronbrethorst 11y agoIn Silicon Valley mythology, sleeping at the office is second only to working out of a garage That's a depressing thought.
- qmalxp 11y agoI dunno, I slept in my office in grad school. It wasn't out of needing to feel like a hard worker or showing off or whatever, it was more that sometimes I just felt like working until I was about to fall asleep, and then I was too tired to head home.
- brianobush 11y agoYeah, I agree maybe for one night, but repeatedly?
- jrockway 11y agoSome people are interested in their work, especially at Google. I do things every night until I fall asleep, though not usually work.
- brianobush 11y agoAgreed, I do as well. After a point though, it becomes inefficient to bang at a problem repeatedly.
- Fezzik 11y agoI would love to sleep at work but I am not allowed to (I work at a courthouse). Monday through Friday I work downtown, my gym is downtown, all my going out is downtown, I am and plan to be kid-free forever... if I could save the commuting time, which is minimal, and get an extra hour of sleep or stay out a little longer and socialize, I would be delighted. Heck, I would even do a little extra work if I could just recline on the couch and fall asleep.
- mirimir 11y ago
- 4096 11y agohttps://www.quora.com/Which-Googler-holds-the-record-for-living-at-Google-HQ/answer/Ben-Discoe https://www.quora.com/Which-Googler-holds-the-record-for-liv... Interview with guy because of above answer.
- ljk 11y ago> Discoe points at the screen. “When I read this, I was like, ‘Does he know me?’ There’s only really me who fits this description. I thought someone who works at google should be smart enough to know that these type of personality tests are pretty vague and can be applied to many people?
- culled 11y agoHe was referring to this xkcd - http://m.xkcd.com/977/ http://m.xkcd.com/977/. The description, as stated in the article, was “You like Isaac Asimov, XML, and shoes with toes. You think the Segway got a bad rap. You own 3D goggles, which you use to view rotating models of better 3D goggles. You type in Dvorak.” I don't think that could be considered a vague personality test that can be applied to many people.
- Dorian-Marie 11y agoSo he got food, water, shower and toilets from Google's office. He only used his van as a sleeping place. He should definitely do an AMA: What about Internet access? What about the cold? Sleeping bags? Isolation inside the van? What about the hot? Air conditioning?
- astrange 11y agoRegular California apartments don't have air conditioning anyway.
- pbiggar 11y agoAFAIK it's only in SF they don't. Everywhere else in California is properly hot.
- tjohns 11y agoLiving in Los Angeles as a college student for five years, none of my apartments had air conditioning. Sure, some houses had it... but even in LA it's a bit of a luxury. Same goes for the homes of everyone I knew in Lake Tahoe, where I grew up. The climate's similar to the bay during the summer, but it's still (partially) in California. ;)
- mrbill 11y agoBorn and grown up in Oklahoma, and living in Texas (Austin from '96-04, Houston for the past ten years) living somewhere without AC seems so bizarre. What if you like it cooler than the weather permits? Heck, I have central AC in my house here, and I keep the house generally at 75, but have a window AC in my bedroom that lets me crank it down to 66-68 in there.
- beachstartup 11y agoyes, it sucks without ac. in california, it's the older buildings that aren't fitted for it. most new buildings have it. i live in an old building (built in 50s) and a year ago i finally couldn't stand it any longer and bought a floor standing unit that i vent out the window. it's nice.
- asteli 11y agoMy guess is that this happens more often than one would think. Discoe wasn't even the only campus resident within the Self-Driving Car team, let alone all of Google (there was a safety driver who lived in a van by the self-driving car garage).
- ogreveins 11y agoThe rationale behind it makes perfect sense. Do you really want to give someone $2-3000 per month or $24-36k a year just to have a box around you? Especially if you don't own much stuff? How much do you actually need besides your computer, phone, clothes and toiletries? Gym for bathroom and free public wifi for internet aside from your phone and you're set. The rental and housing market is disgusting. I wouldn't consider it except for my wife.
- zzalpha 11y agoThe rationale behind it makes perfect sense. Do you really want to give someone $2-3000 per month or $24-36k a year just to have a box around you? Really? You honestly can't fathom why some people might desire their own, private space, away from their work environment, where they might, I dunno, live their life outside of their day-to-day drudgery? I'm not even sure how to react to that. It's such an alien way of thinking, I simply can't relate to it... it's baffling. I mean, the minute humans formed fixed communities instead of hunting and gathering, we've been driven by the need to build public and private spaces in which to live. Questioning that need is questioning one of the founding tenants of modern human society...
- civilian 11y agoYeah, I'm with you. I have a guitar! I have books! I have a large bed and a variety of clothes. I need some place to store my skis and my running shoes. I enjoy cooking. I don't see myself as materialistic, just as a passionate hobbyist/human.
- saalweachter 11y agoTools, man. Where do you keep your table saw when you're living in a van?
- Sophistifunk 11y agoThis. The fear of never being able to again live in an apartment is most of what keeps me from buying any tools bigger than the MakerBot.
- uuilly 11y agoI worked w/ Ben through our google acquisition. This is all accurate. He's a fun, talented guy. Funnily enough he was only the 4th or 5th strangest bird of the 50 or so employees at 510 systems. Good times...
- kragen 11y agoWait, what's strange about him?
- bhickey 11y agoBen and I started at Google on the same day. I was pretty psyched to meet him because I'd followed his website (http://vterrain.org/ http://vterrain.org/) for years. He's a fairly loud, outgoing guy. Among a bunch of quirky nerds he sticks out with his 10" ponytail. When he first told me he was living out of the parking lot, I thought he was joking.
- ocdtrekkie 11y agoThis is known as an "unhealthy work/life balance".
- cpncrunch 11y agoI guess it depends on your perspective. Zero commute, low living expenses, zero? crime. You can probably go to your RV to take an afternoon nap.
- deathanatos 11y ago> You can probably go to your RV to take an afternoon nap. You don't need to go that far… Google has nap pods[1]. (Note: He mentions them in the article, "Those Google nap pods are a joke. It’s an awkward bench with a cone over your head."; but this is as a reference to nighttime sleeping, not afternoon napping.) [1]: https://www.google.com/search?q=google+nap+pods https://www.google.com/search?q=google+nap+pods
- mb_72 11y agoAcross former Soviet states there are now-crumbling collective farms with purpose-built apartment buildings nearby, the apartments having been constructed for the farm workers. Every time I hear about one of these 'living at work' stories I can't help but draw the comparison, unfairly or not, to Soviet-era apartments near these farms. Zero commute, low living expenses ... but to me it's not any way I'd want to 'live'.
- mathgladiator 11y agoWhen I was in my mid twenties, I lived on my college campus for a year (not approved, slept in the computer science building). It was awesome. ;)
- timothybone 11y agoI think things like this are great, as social experiments these are important, esp. b/c we are exploring how to reclaim spaces, making it less of a crime to inhabit spaces.
- mark_l_watson 11y agoI thought that the article would be about people who camped out inside the buildings. When I worked at Google I got to work around 6am each day and by after lunch I might get tired so I would at least once a week find somewhere quiet for a nap. Easy to do. I could imagine someone single simply living inside for short periods of time, if necessary. I wanted my wife to be comfortable so I spent a fortune out of pocket on a four room Marriot appartment/suite place. But, it was fairly close to work and my wife loved it.
- Steko 11y agoThis article pairs nicely with How I Gave Up Alternating Current from a few days ago. The only place left to go in the bachelor lifehacking one upsmanship game is to stop changing clothes and showering altogether, live under a bridge, telecommuting and doing all your work with a prepaid Andro-- err Firefox OS phone that you charge with a hand crank. No parrots.
- Rainymood 11y agoDoes anyone have a link so I can read the article in China? Or post a pastebin with the text? It would be greatly appreciated.
- dubyah 11y agohttp://pastebin.com/Qjx9RjQS http://pastebin.com/Qjx9RjQS
- cpncrunch 11y agoPresumably if you got a nice big RV with double-glazed windows, aircon, heating, TV, and there were electricity/water/sewage hookups, it could be quite comfortable. It might be worth google making hookups available for employees who want to live in their RVs on-site.
- quadrature 11y agoSounds like a certain CEO http://www.businessinsider.com/tony-hsiehs-home-in-a-trailer-park-2015-7 http://www.businessinsider.com/tony-hsiehs-home-in-a-trailer...
- cpncrunch 11y agoIt would be nice if someone set up something like that in SV, although I suspect the land would be too expensive.
- ojbyrne 11y agoThere's 3 or 4 trailer parks in Mountain View, one of which is basically next door to Google.
- cpncrunch 11y agoDo many/any google employees live in them? It would seem to be a cost-effective solution to living in SV, and removes (or at least significantly reduces) the commute at the same time.
- srj 11y agoRight out of undergrad school I worked for a large software company (not Google) and I could have pictured myself doing this. Usually around 7-8pm I'd start exploring options for what to do that night and if nobody wanted to go out anywhere I knew I'd only be going home to use the computer. It made more sense to just stay at work. I'd be more likely to work on something I thought was fun though at least.
- animefan 11y agoWhile these people sound cool, I notice that hn treats then like heroes while it treats people who violate zoning laws at scale as villains. To assuming considering doing this I would say please please don't. If a dozen people did it the company would crack down and amend it's policies.
- Turing_Machine 11y agoSome of the old school Stanford AI lab hackers were famous for sleeping in the suspended ceiling. The way I heard the story, they even cut into a ventilation duct to get cool air for their "nest".
- rburhum 11y agoBen is one of those guys that looks at the world differently. Smart as hell, humble and fun to hang out with. Hardcore OSM user!
- Reedx 11y agoInteresting. This is something I've been wondering about. Because I've been noticing a lot of RVs and vans (with windows blacked out) that seem to be permanently parked in areas of Palo Alto. Sometimes on fairly busy roads. So have been curious as to whether any were actually being used that way.
- jarcane 11y agoPart of my ‘problem’ with some elements of programming culture, is I fundamentally I don’t think I have that part of my brain where code is my hammer and every problem looks like a nail, so I struggle to even imagine a self-made project I’d have that kind of dedication to, let alone some random corporate or startup app thing. Like what does Google even do that’s really deserving of that kind of dedication? There are religious orders that are less demanding than many of these stories. I kinda get the practical argument about SV housing costs until I think about it for two seconds and go "What? Fuck, no!" It's a job. Might even be a good job. But if your work-life balance ceases to be so much a balance as 'just work all the time until you're rich' I can't see that as healthy. It's like some people are entirely voluntarily recreating the company town, and employees are lapping it right up.
- tedks 11y agoDid you read the article? I would agree with you in general, but this seems like an off-base comment about someone whose express objective is moving back to the farm to await the collapse of civilization.
- jarcane 11y agoThe impression is, in fairness, less about the main subject, than some of the other stories told in the article. Our future farmer may've been more 'practical suffering' than 'true believer' but some of the other tales, and the more beyond I've heard over the years, very much seem to come from the latter.
- akshat_h 11y agoSo, commenting late so may not get a response. But I am curious about handling stuff like bank accounts, health insurance etc. like that require you to specify an address. How does that work out?
- shanemhansen 11y agoI'd be willing to bet most people use their parents address, or a friend, or a girlfriend/boyfriend. They can probably also use their actual work address for some things or a po box.