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Yeah, I recently watch a German-produced special about Silicon Valley that concluded Google engineers learn how to network by attending Burning Man. [0] It's

Yeah, I recently watch a German-produced special about Silicon Valley that concluded Google engineers learn how to network by attending Burning Man. [0] It's obvious to identify the product of Silicon Valley companies because they generally are marketed globally. But it's really hard to convey what it's like to live and work here. Generally, it's nothing like you might imagine. The architecture is mundane, the weather is great, the traffic stifling. That can describe many places, so then you have to talk about housing costing more than anywhere in the world (at this scale), and $12,000 bottles of Cognac at Costco. In the end, it's the people who live here. Generally well paid, disproportionately wealthy (but not nearly everyone), probably from another country, not here to show off what they have, but rather, what they can achieve. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQy0ZCx3UCY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQy0ZCx3UCY

01100011 8y ago
> The architecture is mundane I take issue with this. For most of my career I worked in a standard office building. False ceiling tiles, cubicles, rectangular concrete 'tilt and pour'. It served the job well. It was relatively quiet, comfortable, intimate and fostered my productivity. Now I work in an architectural masterpiece of modern green engineering. It is loud, impersonal, distracting, and not at all conducive to actually getting work done. It's like the people who designed the building hated engineers and typical engineering personalities and set out to design a building to torture them. Apple has a similar problem. Apple's senior vice-president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji refused to move his team into their new, piece of shit exercise in architectural masturbation.
- AstralStorm 8y ago
  The main thing to blame is open plan... Read: cheaping out on walls. This includes undamped glass walls and doors.
  - Cthulhu_ 8y ago
    And I just can't figure out if it actually IS cheaper - I mean you're dealing with interior architects after all, as well as the glass walls which can't be cheap either. Plus, personnel costs (especially in Silicon Valley) are a multiple of floor space, so I can't understand that argument either. But then, so far, I've never had someone who calls the shots on the open office model go public on why they went for it. I mean the cynic in me thinks it's about cutting costs (but then why do they have developers in SV instead of outsourcing it?) or showing off (open offices look good on pictures / when the manager walks around in it).
    - njepa 8y ago
      I don't think it has much to do with money. These companies either have or are already burning trough a lot of it. It is about careerists avoiding accountability. That is why you hire contractors, have open offices and host in the cloud. As long as no one can blame you for anything, which they will to further their own career, you will make it to the next level.
goldenchrome 8y ago
The vast number of Teslas, Audis, BMWs, and Porsches makes me think that many people aren't just here to show what they can achieve.
- falsedan 8y ago
  Maseratis too, leased from the Ferrari dealership in SF

01100011 8y ago

> The architecture is mundane I take issue with this. For most of my career I worked in a standard office building. False ceiling tiles, cubicles, rectangular concrete 'tilt and pour'. It served the job well. It was relatively quiet, comfortable, intimate and fostered my productivity. Now I work in an architectural masterpiece of modern green engineering. It is loud, impersonal, distracting, and not at all conducive to actually getting work done. It's like the people who designed the building hated engineers and typical engineering personalities and set out to design a building to torture them. Apple has a similar problem. Apple's senior vice-president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji refused to move his team into their new, piece of shit exercise in architectural masturbation.

AstralStorm 8y ago
The main thing to blame is open plan... Read: cheaping out on walls. This includes undamped glass walls and doors.
- Cthulhu_ 8y ago
  And I just can't figure out if it actually IS cheaper - I mean you're dealing with interior architects after all, as well as the glass walls which can't be cheap either. Plus, personnel costs (especially in Silicon Valley) are a multiple of floor space, so I can't understand that argument either. But then, so far, I've never had someone who calls the shots on the open office model go public on why they went for it. I mean the cynic in me thinks it's about cutting costs (but then why do they have developers in SV instead of outsourcing it?) or showing off (open offices look good on pictures / when the manager walks around in it).
  - njepa 8y ago
    I don't think it has much to do with money. These companies either have or are already burning trough a lot of it. It is about careerists avoiding accountability. That is why you hire contractors, have open offices and host in the cloud. As long as no one can blame you for anything, which they will to further their own career, you will make it to the next level.

goldenchrome 8y ago

The vast number of Teslas, Audis, BMWs, and Porsches makes me think that many people aren't just here to show what they can achieve.

falsedan 8y ago
Maseratis too, leased from the Ferrari dealership in SF